Glamorous Grace
Whether she’s putting spinach on top of someone’s head for a project or painting vibrant Thiebaud-inspired cupcakes onto cardstock for her dorm-mates, senior Grace Huang has always had a passion for creating memorable art. For Huang, art is synonymous with freedom; the time she spends creating are the moments when she has the ability to do whatever she wants. “Art is a really peaceful space for me… where I can just express [my thoughts] in my own way onto a canvas, onto a sheet of paper in any way or form,” she said.
Huang’s passion for art is nothing new. As a matter of fact, she’s been honing her skills for almost her entire life. “I’ve been doing art for about thirteen or fourteen-ish years, so it’s been a while,” she elaborated. “People are always surprised when I say to them that I’ve been painting for over a decade! They’re like, how old are you?” Prep Caroline Huang, corroborated her sister’s words, exclaiming, “Grace has been drawing and painting since she was little, maybe five or six years old, so it’s been a very long journey for her.”
Chair of the Art Department Tara Lewis described Huang’s artistic prowess as the result of natural aptitude, years of practice and an unrelenting commitment to each and every piece. Lewis gushed about Huang’s dedication to excellence, saying, “She’s one of those people that was definitely born with an exceptional gift, I think, but her work ethic is high. She will go to the hardware store, buy plexiglass, get wood, and build a frame. She’s not in any way lazy. She’s very exciting to be around because she raises the bar. I think she sees herself as a work in progress so she’s constantly improving, and wants to learn new things all the time.”
Indeed, one only has to glance at Huang’s diverse portfolio to see the extent to which she has challenged herself as an artist. Huang is comfortable with a large range of mediums, such as oil painting, drawing and photography, to name a few. Huang’s dormmate and occasional model for some of her work, senior Lauren Maguire, lauded Huang’s use of rich colors and creative paintbrush technique. “I like her brushstroke. I like that Grace doesn’t cut down on the amount of paint she uses… I like that the colors she uses are bold, and I love the way she mixes them together,” Maguire said.
However, Huang’s artwork does more than display her brilliant technique. Huang combines her well-developed abilities with strong concepts to create art that not only appears professional, but also delivers a deeper meaning. “That’s why I love her work,” Lewis explained. “Because it’s definitely unique, and conveys a message. Grace taps into important issues, but doesn’t sacrifice high standards for skill. You want to bring them together, and she does that. Her ideas are really strong. So content, I guess, sets her apart.” Maguire echoed Lewis’ sentiments. She said, “It’s subtle, but when you look at Grace’s artwork, you actually have to look further, instead of just seeing it, and the message being blatant…You actually have to stand there and look for a while, to try to understand what she’s trying to get across. I think that’s awesome.”
Throughout her time at the academy, Huang has been at the forefront of shedding light on pertinent social issues. Lewis remarked on the fact that before the academy even began discussing topics such as sexual assault, Huang had been incorporating allusions to gendered violence in her art. “She made a coat-hanger painting—a coat-hanger pulling up someone’s hair. There were references to domestic violence and gender roles,” Lewis remembered. Senior Eesha Shah, Huang’s friend, dormmate and another one of her models, noticed a similar trend, recalling another one of Huang’s paintings. “She puts a lot of effort into the concepts, like with the series she did in lower year,” Shah said. “She had this idea of beauty standards, but she wanted to portray it in a very unique way, so she painted the portrait of Lauren Maguire.”
The portrait, one of Huang’s most well-known paintings on campus, is an oil and acrylic painting that depicts a close-up of Maguire’s face topped with a wreath of surreal-looking spinach. A print of the stunning painting hangs in the common room of Hoyt Hall, Huang’s dorm. Commenting on this piece, Huang said that her goal was “to get people to look at femininity, feminism and how other people in society perceive women.”
Upper Hannah Pak, recently featured in one of Huang’s shoots, not only commended Huang’s creativity, but also praised Huang’s sociable, genuine personality and her inspiring relationship to her pieces. “She’s an amazing person. She’s an amazing artist, and she just has a way of connecting with people. I was recently in one of her small photo projects and I know that she did so much careful planning around it. She’s really dedicated to what she does,” Pak said. Lewis’ similar concluding remarks about Huang perfectly summarize the qualities that make Huang an exemplary artist: “What I like about Grace is she’s very professional and advanced, and she’s making art for the right reasons. She’s just genuinely passionate.”