Award-Winning Young Artists Get Sotheby’s Exhibit

The high-school aged artists from the YoungArts Foundation hit the big time.

April 23, 2016, 3:30pm

Elizabeth Kniffin, Abnormality

For most of us non-artists, our creative output peaks somewhere around freshman year of high school— we all have to take art classes, we all have to make something. But most of us just weren’t good. Not so the prize winners from the National YoungArts Foundation, who last weekend had their works exhibited at Sotheby’s New York. "This exhibition featuring National YoungArts Foundation Winners uniquely captures their voice and creative expression in response to contemporary culture,” said Sotheby’s curator Nicholas Cinque. "From painting and drawing to sculpture and photography, the open approach to form and subject matter allow these visual artists to find place and meaning in the world they inhabit—key elements that we are proud to foster with YoungArts."

The kids made some stunning works. One such young artist is Nicholas D’Ornellas, whose color pencil, ink, and printed linoleim piece From All the Medicine stands out even among these great projects. "My experience at YoungArts is mostly special because I am able to be in an environment where all of the barriers are broken,” he says. " I no longer feel like I'm in a place where my ethnicity, income, or my personal struggles matter. Being a YoungArts Winner automatically makes me feel accepted. It's refreshing to claim "different" or be around "different" - that's been the most beautiful part of being here."