This exhibition presents the artwork of students who participated in the 2022-2023 session of Art Ready, Smack Mellon’s arts mentorship program for NYC public high school students interested in pursuing a career in visual arts. This year, students worked with professional artists who specialize in architecture, graphic design, painting, textile art, sculpture, public art, bookmaking and printmaking. Included in the show is an impressive range of media such as figurative paintings and drawings, handmade books and zines, mosaics, soft-sculpture, and public art installation, among other mediums.
Art Ready engages young people in a way no other arts education program does—by pairing students directly with successful working artists. Mentors provide professional and creative guidance as the students make decisions about their futures in the arts. They tutor the students in their creative process, introduce them to new ways of working, and encourage critical reflection. Museum admission, mentor time, snacks, and subsidized transportation are all provided to students free of charge.
This year’s student artists came together from 10 different high schools and feature: Noah Abrahams, Peter Baldwin, Violet Bohen, Gabryela Cabab, Veronica Castanos, Alejandra Fernandez, Anniya Francis, Bren Godoy, Monica Hernandez, Rui Huang, Darren Lin, Bijou Lwin, Briana Melguizo-Szarf, Frida Nicosia, Vivian Parker, Sabrina Quint, Roxena Belle Reyes, Enayzah Rowell, Dunya Vasquez, and Chloe Zhou.
This year’s professional Artist Mentors were: Amanda Chung of Lucky Risograph, Florencia Escudero, Madjeen Isaac, Phil Shung, Janet Zweig, and Sage & Coombe Architects: Annabel Coleman and Max St. Pierre.
Image: 2022-23 Art Ready mentor, Amanda Chung giving a demonstration to Art Ready students at her press, Lucky Risograph.
Meet the 2022-23 Mentors:
AMANDA CHUNG, Comic Books & Risograph Printing
DUMBO, Brooklyn
Amanda Chung is an NYC-based graphic designer, illustrator, fabricator, and co-founder of lucky risograph. She has produced work for Nickelodeon/Nick Jr., Pinterest, Target, Applegate, and more. She is currently a visiting professor at Parsons The New School. At lucky risograph, she often runs workshops and works closely with artists and clients to bring their books and prints to life.
Website: amdachu.com/projects
Instagram: @amdachu
FLORENCIA ESCUDERO, Textile & Sculpture
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Florencia Escudero was born in Singapore in 1987 and grew up in Mendoza, Argentina. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Escudero received an MFA in Sculpture from the Yale University School of Art in 2012 and a BFA in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in 2010. Her works have been exhibited at Kristen Lorello, Instituto Cervantes, Friedrich Petzel Gallery, Mrs. Gallery and Rachel Uffner Gallery among other venues. She was a 2016 year-long Artist in Residence at the Loisaida Center, New York, NY, and has also completed residencies at Art Farm, Marquette, NE, and Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle, WA. Works by Escudero have been discussed in Editorial Magazine, Aether Magazine, The Art Newspaper, Hyperallergic, The American Reader, Cultured Magazine and the Brooklyn Rail. She is an editor and founder of Precog Magazine.
Website: florenciaescudero.com
Instagram: @floescu
MADJEEN ISAAC, Painting
DUMBO, Brooklyn
Madjeen Isaac has rooted her practice in reconstructing and assembling mélanges of urban and tropical environments to create utopias and realms of her imagination. Growing up in a predominantly Caribbean neighborhood and being a first generation American influences Isaac’s process of commemorating community, memories, and cultures that have shaped her upbringing. Isaac calls for environmental justice and food equity by centering narratives of Black and Caribbean folks leaning into their ancestral practice of agriculture and tending to the spaces they occupy in order to receive an abundance of joy, liberation and leisure. Isaac received a BFA in Fine Art from The Fashion Institute of Technology (2018) and an MA in Art+Edu & Community Practice at New York University (2021).
Website: madjeenisaac.com
Instagram: @madjxo
PHIL SHUNG, Graphic & Web Design
Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Phillip Shung graduated from Hampton University with a degree in Art in 1996 and since that time, his mantra has been to communicate intelligently to the masses. His career has spanned many roles in the creative design field ranging from Creative Director for Vibe Magazine to Promotion Art Director at Women’s Wear Daily/WWD. Shung has also done significant design work in fashion for brands like Enyce and Avirex as well as websites for NAS and Destiny’s Child. In 2001, Shung founded Sundree Brand Solutions focusing on all aspects of advertising, editorial, print and website design. He is a director of Brooklyn Combine.
Website: bklyncombine.com/
Instagram: @bklyncombine
SAGE & COOMBE ARCHITECTS, Architecture & Design
Tribeca, Manhattan
Website: sageandcoombe.com
Instagram: @sageandcoombe
Annabel Coleman
Annabel joined Sage and Coombe Architects as a Designer in 2022 after completing her Masters in Architecture from UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design. She is currently working in a couple of New York City public projects. Prior to joining Sage and Coombe, Annabel received her BA in Political Science from Williams College.
Max St. Pierre
Originally from Berkeley, California Max spent his postgraduate years working at various advertising agencies in San Francisco before moving to New York to attend Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation. Max’s passion for cities and good civic-minded architecture has defined his work. Before Sage and Coombe Max was working at Curtis + Ginsberg Architects where he was the lead designer on a New York City Housing Authority campus-wide environmental retrofit, a project that will improve the livelihood of 5,000 New York residents. His research on public housing and climate has been exhibited at the Seoul Biennale, the Venice Biennale, and throughout New York. Currently, Max is working on the project design for the Village of Sleepy Hollow Department of Public Works Compound.
JANET ZWEIG, Public Art
Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
Janet Zweig is an artist working primarily in the public realm. Her public works include a gate to fictional locations at the Austin Airport; a performance space in a prairie on a Kansas City downtown green roof; and a sentence-generating sculpture for an engineering school in Orlando, among many other projects. Her sculpture and books have been exhibited widely in such places as the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Exit Art, PS1 Museum, the Walker Art Center, and Cooper Union. Awards include the Rome Prize Fellowship, NEA fellowships, and residencies at PS1 Museum and the MacDowell Colony. She currently has a residency with the New York City Mayor’s Office of Climate and Sustainability. She teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University.
Website: janetzweig.com
Image: Installation view of 2021-22 Art Ready Exhibition, 2022.
