2023T1W5 - Opening night of the Next Gen exhibition

Opening night of the ‘Next Gen’ exhibition

Last Friday night was a wonderful whirlwind of young artists, proud parents and teachers mixed with awe-inspiring artworks. It was, of course, the official opening of the local annual Next Gen exhibition. Each year the Art Gallery of Ballarat presents this curated event to showcase art and design projects created by Year 12 students across the Central Highlands and South-western Regions. Damascus College was well represented by past student Samantha Dechene and Finn Mauriks with artwork from their Visual Communication Design, Studio Art photography and general Art folios from last year. A big congratulations to these two creative young people. We look forward to seeing your next artistic pursuits!

The Next Gen exhibition is free and runs until April 16^th 2023.

Pictured below: Samantha Dechene poses with her proud mother, Dayna Mollison next to Samantha multi-perspective artwork ‘ Stigma’ commenting on the detrimental effects of addiction. Dayna can be seen in two of the artworks as one of Samantha’s models.

Samantha used various members of her family to model for her photography shoots. Her Uncle, Brad Mollison, is pictured below next to the artwork he posed for.

Finn Mauriks’ drypoint etching artwork ‘Jandamarrah’, referring to the indigenous resistance to colonial expansion during the 1890s, was acquired by Damascus College last year to be part of the permanent collection.

Samantha Dechene also had her Visual Communication Design artwork, titled ‘Eccentric’, selected as part of the Next Gen exhibition. Her brief was to design a bottle and packaging to sell a purfume reflecting the scent of a french rose called ‘Carmagnole’.