Today’s kids photograph themselves at an unprecedented rate, notes Middlebury artist Kate Gridley. But it’s rare to see those same faces immortalized in oil portraits. In ‘Passing Through: Portraits of Emerging Adults,’ Gridley presents a series of larger-than-life paintings of 17- to 25-year-olds. Over five years, she painted 17 youngsters and recorded bits of their conversations, which gallerygoers can listen to on their mobile devices. Gridley encourages middle and high school students to visit the show and participate in a special curriculum designed to help them “look longer, think more deeply and respond.” They can also choose to have their photo taken and added to the exhibit. “People come away with these 17 voices and images, and it almost becomes a portrait of a generation,” Gridley says.
‘Passing Through: Portraits of Emerging Adults’: Through April 12 at Amy E. Tarrant Gallery in Burlington. Gridley will be at the gallery every Thursday morning to lead school groups. To schedule a visit, contact Nancy Abbott-Hourigan at nabbott@flynncenter.org or 652-4505.
This article was originally published in Seven Days’ monthly parenting magazine, Kids VT.
This article appears in Kids VT, February 2014.
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