Metamorphosis
CUE Teen Collective
May 19th – June 1st, 2022
With works by: Dechen Ballantine-Kaplan, Henry Baltz, Lauren Clare Doros, Tatiana Estrin, Stella Kogan, Zoe Lenz, Angela Morcos, Micah Parnass, Sarah Lua Rodrigues, Iggy Roque, Tiffany Ruan, Jolie Saint Vil, Tahmia Urmi, Skye Wu
Closing Reception
Wednesday, June 1st, 5:30–7:30 pm
Metamorphosis is the fifth annual exhibition of the CUE Teen Collective. Through a variety of artistic media, students in the program reflect upon the events of the past two years along with the shifts and transformations they have experienced. Metamorphosis is a collective visual commentary on personal, historical, cultural, sociopolitical, and ecological change from the perspective of young artists today.
CUE Teen Collective is a year-long after-school program for high school students who are passionate about visual culture and interested in exploring careers in the fine arts. Through the program, students investigate various aspects of the contemporary art world, develop and refine their artmaking and critical thinking skills, and conceptualize and create artwork for a final group exhibition presented at CUE’s gallery space.
Metamorphosis is organized by CTC Lead Educator Amanda Adams-Louis and Assistant Educator Phyllis Yao. The exhibition presents works by the 2021-2022 cohort of the CUE Teen Collective created during the program.
Student artists whose work is presented in the exhibition include:
Dechen Ballantine-Kaplan is 18 years old and goes to East Side Community School. Her family immigrated to India from Tibet. She was born in India and lived there until she was adopted by an American family when she was seven. Dechen likes paint, pencil, photography, and digital art. She likes to base her art on events in her life, music, and other factors. Dechen is part of NHS, and she is being trained as a leader in the Facing History organization. She is interested in advocating against discrimination of minority groups. Her favorite hobbies include writing, music, watching anime and Korean dramas, and spending time with friends and family. Dechen wants to design album or book covers and travel around the world.
Henry Baltz is an 18-year-old artist from Brooklyn, NY. He likes painting and drawing. He recently graduated from City As School. Henry takes classes at the Art Students League. He has previously had his work exhibited at the Queens Council on the Arts. His art is a representation of him, his identity, and how he sees the world around him. His color scheme is very important to him and his art. Henry also loves museums and art institutions, and visits them frequently. He has had two internships, one at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and one at the Apollo Theater. His work was also recently shown at their “Teen Takeover” event.
Lauren Clare Doros is a 15-year-old student currently living in the Bronx. They are in the 10th grade at Dominican Academy. Lauren mostly paints and draws, but also makes jewelry. They are in various clubs at their school, such as Art Club, Students of Color Alliance (SOCA), Rainbow Connection, and Certamen. In addition to these clubs, they are in Congresswoman Maloney’s Congressional Youth Cabinet. Lauren intends to double major in art and psychology in college, in order to become an art therapist.
Tatiana Estrin is sixteen and growing up in Brooklyn, NYC. She attends Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of the Arts in Manhattan. Tatiana has a long history of attending art classes and exploring her passion for creating art. In recent years, she has discovered a love for painting and hasn’t put down a brush since. Over this past year, she has won one gold medal and two silver medals in the Scholastic art competitions. She has been commissioned for many pieces of art, including the tiny library outside of the popular bookstore Books Are Magic. Tatiana pushes herself to grow as an artist and to explore different mediums and styles. She aspires to go to art school for college to continue studying her passion.
Stella Kogan is currently 15 years old and lives in New York City. She is a rising junior attending Dwight School. At a young age, Stella loved to create art. Whether through painting, drawing, sculpting, or crafting steel, she has been very creative since she was young. Since then, Stella has grown to have a strong passion for painting, ceramics, drawing, digital art, and interior design. She has shown her passion for art through joining art clubs at her school and attending the Michigan Stamps School of Art and Design Pre-College program later this summer. As a CUE Teen Collective member, Stella has created artwork under a theme that is very influential and important to her. She hopes to continue to create and express herself through art, and hopes to create a career out of it in the future.
Zoe Lenz is a 10th grade student at the Dwight School. They are 15 years old and are from Hoboken, New Jersey. They primarily make digital artworks using an iPad, as welll as pieces with pencil on paper. They enjoy using art as a means to express their identity and hope to continue doing so. Other than art, they are also interested in reading and writing.
Angela Morcos, born in June 2006, is an Egyptian-American student from New York. She currently lives in Brooklyn and goes to Dominican Academy in Manhattan as a STEM-motivated student. She has earned several awards, including honor roll and the Presidential Service Award. She enjoys making things, whether through building, crocheting, painting, coding, or other mediums. Even though she keeps a professional work ethic, she is still a kid at heart and loves cartoons and 2D, and CGI films. From 2D films originates her love of character creating, animating, and storytelling by making comics. She hopes that one day she can publish her own comic and inspire others the same way these light-hearted films inspired her.
Micah Parnass is a 16-year-old Brooklyn native. He is a junior at Edward R. Murrow High School, where he is in the art program with a focus on drawing and painting. Micah’s contribution to the CUE Teen Collective final exhibition is a photography and video project concerning the construction of a utopian encampment in an urban woodland. His previous internships include the Whitney Youth Insights arts program and Brooklyn Cultural Adventures Program. He intends to continue pursuing creative interests, including art, urban photography, and creative writing at a college level.
Sarah Lua Rodrigues was born and raised in Brazil, and moved to New York City at the age of 15. She is a high school student who has experienced many areas of the arts. Through realism, illustration, and mediums such as oil and acrylic paints and color pencils, she is focused on creating pieces that express her feelings, observations, and obsessions.
Iggy Roque was born in downtown Manhattan in 2005. From an early age, she showed interest in art. Throughout her life, her experiences with gender, relationships, and social issues further shaped her pieces. Iggy currently attends East Side Community High School, where she is heavily involved in academics and extracurriculars. Iggy has recently taken an interest in 3D art, and has been working in jewelry, embroidery, and sculpture. She hopes to expand her horizons even further. Iggy also works with photography, and she was featured in two of East Side Community High School’s photo magazines. She hopes to have more opportunities to show her work in the near future.
Tiffany Ruan is an Asian American artist based in New York. In her sophomore year of high school, at 15 years old, she works mostly on theater sets and costumes for school and creates watercolor paintings on the side. She has gained graphic design and social media experience as former Director of Design of Aid2Day, a childhood cancer education organization, and she continues to manage social media for student-led programs. She is currently in the law program in her school, and she has a strong interest in history, performing arts, and music.
Jolie Saint Vil is a 16-year-old artist from Brooklyn, New York. She is in her junior year in LaGuardia High School. Jolie specializes in self portraits and portraits of friends and family. She loves to paint and meet new people, which helps to inspire art that she loves to make. Her dream is to one day own her own gallery, and to fill it with art from artists whose voices are not often heard. She is proud to have been a part of the CUE Teen Collective, and through the program, she has met people who will help her throughout her life as an artist.
Tahmia Urmi, born in New York, is a junior at High School for Environmental Studies. She is a self taught artist who bases her art on mixed media and abstraction using acrylic and watercolor. Her artwork primarily focuses on landscape and line art with warm tones. She is a member of the CUE Teen Collective, and was proud to work on the Metamorphosis exhibition and on the series displayed in the show.
Skye Wu was born in New York City, and is a rising junior attending Fieldston High School. Raised with a strong emphasis on the culture of art, she has cultivated a deep interest in various mediums such as painting, drawing, photography, glass, and ceramics. She has shown her passion for art through classes at the School of Visual Arts and UrbanGlass, and at a National Geographic photography workshop in Yellowstone, Montana. Skye further developed her interest in art at Fieldston by majoring in 2D visual arts, minoring in life drawing, and starting the first fine arts club at her school. She is the only student in her grade to be accepted into an arts semester school, the Oxbow School, in Napa, California, which she will be attending in the Spring of 2023. As a CUE Teen Collective member, Skye found a community of people who inspire her. She hopes to continue making art as a lifelong passion, but is also open to other opportunities that are presented to her in the future.
About CUE Teen Collective
CUE Teen Collective (CTC) is a free, year-long after-school program for high school students who are passionate about visual culture and interested in exploring careers in the fine arts. Through the program, students investigate various aspects of the contemporary art world, develop and refine their artmaking and critical thinking skills, and conceptualize and create artwork for a final group exhibition presented at CUE’s gallery space. CTC offers behind-the-scenes access to the New York art world, demystifying career paths in the arts while inspiring students to develop their own personal artistic voices. The program consists of talks with artists and curators, trips to gallery and museum shows, visits to art fairs, hands-on studio sessions, and more. Participants have the opportunity to learn from working arts professionals and build sustainable and rewarding careers of their own in the arts.
Participants form a community with their peers over the course of the academic year, sharing their work with each other and exchanging meaningful feedback on artistic concepts, techniques, and processes as they work together to develop and refine their artistic practices. At the culmination of the program, students present original artwork as part of a group show, for which they collectively decide upon the theme and content. Students also learn how to communicate their work through the development of visual and written materials for the final exhibition, including curatorial statements, artist statements, and artist biographies. Through this process, students learn how to envision, produce, install, and communicate an art exhibition in the same manner as working artists, organizations, and galleries all over the world.
For more information about the CUE Teen Collective see here and learn how to apply.
Artwork Images
Installation Images
