Creativity Showcased at Katonah Art Museum

Student artwork was the focus of the Young Artists 2025 exhibition at Katonah Art Museum on March 1, 2025.

Nine Somers students were selected to have their artwork displayed during the exhibition. Those students were Atheana Canete (My Nativity), Emily Uffer (Funky Duck), Amanda Dustin (Little Red Riding Hood), Gabriella Urguiza (A5), Jenna McMahon (The children of Lir), Amanda Guardino (Under the Sink), Jaelyn Juarbe (Colored Glass Still Life), Olivia Soto (Margarine), and Estefany Ramos-Aragon (Untitled). Artworks ranged from pen and ink on paper, to acrylic on canvas, to modeling clay on Styrofoam.

“The Young Artists exhibition is a great experience for these students,” said teacher Christine Brooks. “Not only do they get to show off their beautiful artwork, but it is also an opportunity for them to get out of their comfort zone, speak to other artists and people in the community, and be involved in the creation of the exhibition space.”

400 artworks by students at 45 high schools from Fairfield, Putnam, Rockland, and Westchester counties were showcased in the exhibition. According to the Katonah Art Museum, the Young Artists exhibition “showcases the interests, concerns, and passions of today’s youth and highlights an impressive range of skills, creativity, and ingenuity.”

One artist featured in the exhibition was Gabriella Urguiza, a senior at Somers High School. In addition to her artwork “A5” being a part of the showcase, she also worked as a curator for the space and participated in a workshop where students designed different options for the exhibition’s poster.

“My favorite part was choosing the art to put on my assigned wall,” said Urguiza. “It was cool to get a taste of curation for an exhibition, which is like its own piece of artwork when it’s completed.”

Urguiza enjoyed arranging one wall of the exhibition in a way that made sense for the space and was both visually and conceptually appealing. She worked with artworks from many different schools and artists and took each piece into consideration as she decided where it should go on the wall. She wanted to ensure that each artwork had the space it needed to be appreciated by visitors. The curation of her wall in the museum took approximately four hours to complete.

Her study as an International Baccalaureate student allowed her the freedom to explore her work through her chosen theme of “Consumption and Satiation.” She was inspired by the Rococo/Baroque era and focused aspects of her artwork on the idea of perfection and what is considered conventionally beautiful. Her work “A5” is a large pen and ink drawing of the highest grade/quality of meat. The paper was cut to resemble the shape of a slab of meat, while the drawings creating the red parts of the meat are of cows and flowers.

“I focused a lot on aspects of ‘perfection’ or what is conventionally beautiful, hence the name for my piece,” said Urguiza. “I referenced very ‘beautiful’ cuts of meat along with what you'd be consuming, which is the cows.”

Urguiza is the president of the National Art Honor Society at Somers High School and plans to continue her study of art in college while pursuing art history and museum research with a focus on Latin America. She aspires to one day work for a large museum like the Metropolitan Museum of Art.