DHSZ Art Exhibition 2024
Last Friday, our Founder’s Day coincided with the grand opening of our annual art exhibition! DHSZ Art Exhibition 2024 once again presented an abundance of exquisite artwork, vividly illustrating the talent and dedication of our students. We had the pleasure of inviting Ms Lee Whitehouse, our Head of the Art, to guide us through the details of the exhibition, delving into its purpose, significance, highlights, preparation, and more.
The Art Department at DHSZ organises an exhibition of student artwork each year as a way of showcasing the achievements of students graduating from the IGCSE and A Level Fine Art and Graphic Communication courses. The exhibition is open from 19th April to 28th April. For many students, this will be the first time that they see their artwork displayed in a public-facing exhibition. These young artists and designers looked forward to seeing their work and introducing it to family and friends. Furthermore, the exhibition provides something to aspire to for our Year 10 art students, setting the standards for the future!
This year we had 41 Year 11 IGCSE students and 32 year 13 A-Level students sitting either Fine Art or Graphic Communication examinations. The exhibition is predominantly a celebration of our Class of 2024. However, there are also examples of outstanding works by Year 11 and 12 students in the exhibition. In addition to the exhibition, we produced a catalogue containing at least 1 piece of work by Year 11 students and each Year 13 student. The catalogue is a lovely keepsake for all the students and reminds them of the hard work they put into their Art courses. At the opening of the exhibition, we were privileged to welcome Mr Yang from the Ming Art Museum in Suzhou who made a short speech to open the exhibition and congratulated the parents on how talented their children are.
DHSZ IGCSE and A-Level Art students produced a wide range of artworks using different techniques and themes. This year's exhibition was no exception, with Fine Art students making use of acrylic, oil and watercolour, paint, collage, clay, found materials, pencil and prints. Themes were highly personal and documented students own interpretations of themes such as escape. Graphic Communication students were equally creative, making use of Adobe Creative Cloud software to produce extremely professional and individual graphic design works.
Students in Year 11 and 13 have been working on a body of work for around 6 months. This involves exploring their themes in depth, drawing, researching and responding to artists and designers, planning and developing ideas and experimenting with a wide range of techniques. The process required the students to engage in a variety of wider skills such as independent and critical thinking, time-management, risk taking, evaluation and creativity. Throughout this process their teachers supported and provided personalised feedback and guidance to give students the best chance of success in the final examination. The exhibition itself focuses on the coursework produced by each student. The students and teachers liaised with the art technician, Miss Ding, on the choice of artwork and the way that it was displayed. Miss Ding was the key contact between students, teachers and the operations team when it came to the successful hanging of the exhibition. She is also worked with our Graphics teacher, Mr Ford, on the design of the catalogue.
The exhibition is the highlight of any Year 11 or 13 art student’s course as it is a chance to showcase their hard work. As teachers, we look forward to celebrating student achievement in this way and enjoy the excitement it brings to the end of the IGCSE and A-Level art courses.
The exhibition has a huge impact on the students and also acts a way of showcasing the excellent arts education provided by DHSZ. We hope that seeing this provision will encourage new aspiring young artists to join the school. The art department hopes to invite visiting artists from China and abroad to work with and inspire our students. We are also aiming to work with local galleries and exhibition spaces to display our student work outside of the school setting.