Three area seniors win top honors at NPC art exhibit
Courtesy | Northland Pioneer College
“Cupcakes,” a painting by Katrina Joe, earned Best of Show in the painting category.
SHOW LOW, Ariz.
Three high school seniors from Ganado, Winslow and Chinle earned top honors at Northland Pioneer College’s 40th Annual Juried High School Art Exhibit, with each receiving a Best of Show award and a tuition scholarship for the 2026-27 academic year.
Katrina Joe of Ganado High School, Ayla Curley of Winslow High School and Darla Nez of Chinle High School received the exhibit’s top awards. The entries were juried by Magda Gluszek, a 3D art faculty member and the Talon Gallery director, and Peterson Yazzie, a 2D art faculty member.
Twenty entries were selected for this year’s show. Joe earned Best of Show for her colored pencil and acrylic painting “Cupcakes.”
“The painting of cupcakes delighted the jurors because of the artist’s masterful handling of color and texture,” Yazzie said. “The nearly monochromatic painting demonstrates great skill in rendering believable areas of shadow and form, especially within the frosting.”
Curley received Best of Show honors for the ceramic 3-D piece “Rat.” Gluszek said the sculpture “stood out to us for its very sensitive and creative modeling of an animal.” She added, “The way in which the tail curls around the body and the expressiveness of the ears and mouth demonstrate that the artist knows this animal well and made close observations of its likeness and form.”
Nez took Best of Show for “Colorful Perspective,” a drawing made with acrylic, markers and colored pencils. Jurors described the work as “impressively complex in its mastery of linear one-point perspective, well-developed color scheme, attention to detail and control of multiple drawing media.”
Nez also received a second-place award for the painting “The Speaker of the Navajo Nation.” Additional awards went to students from Piñon, Ganado and Winslow. Aliyah Yazzie, a Piñon High School junior, placed first in painting for “An Envisionment of Myself,” and fellow Piñon junior Demetrius Robinson earned first place in drawing for “Titanus Mosura.”
Ganado senior Lillianna Joi Nez earned second place for the drawing “Sunflower 1.” Piñon sophomore Rynaldo Nelwood placed third for the drawing “A Joy Ride,” and Winslow senior Alexandria Boring received third place for the painting “I Hope You’re Hungry.”
Gluszek congratulated the students whose work was accepted into the show.
“We would like to congratulate all of the high school student artists who had artwork accepted into this show,” Gluszek said. “It is truly a pleasure to see the artwork from students who have entered the show for several years throughout their time in high school.”
The exhibit can be viewed virtually at the NPC Talon Gallery webpage.
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