2nd Annual Young Alum Art Exhibit

Winsor alums Katya Agrawal ’23, Petra Sarkisian ’23, and Audrey Cheng ’23 returned to campus for a young alumnae art exhibition and reception celebrating their artistic journeys and evolution. Dedicated artists during their time at Winsor, Katya, Petra, and Audrey have continued to pursue and create inspiring art in college. The exhibit was a combination of their work at Winsor—such as pieces from their AP Art Portfolios—and new pieces from their burgeoning artistic interests. 

Now a psychology major with a minor in art, film, and visual studies at Harvard College, Audrey—whose favorite fruit is pomegranates—spent her Winsor years focused on oil painting. “I built my AP Art Portfolio around scaling up the details of food that I enjoy,” explained Audrey, which included a series of pomegranates. An eight-foot-by-four-foot canvas of a fleshy pomegranate interior that Audrey painted during her freshman year was one of many pieces on display. This year, her work has pivoted to a traditional Japanese art form called gyotaku. Food is still an inspiration. Audrey prints fish that she has caught or eaten on rice paper, then hand colors over the print “to bring the fish back to life.”

Petra—who is double majoring in studio art and English at Colby College—recently spent time abroad in Prague and plans to incorporate inspiration from that transformative experience into her art. For now, her art is centered around “communicating what’s important and how I see myself.” She dedicated her freshman year at Colby to shoring up her foundations—relearning the science behind color theory, for example. But Winsor is still at the heart of her work. Petra’s AP Art Portfolio centered around art supplies, and she has since expanded her circle of inspiration to “objects I carry with me,” as well as “the woman, artist, and writer that…[Winsor] …fostered.” 

The daughter of a psychoanalyst, Katya was raised to be curious about the subconscious and emotional relationships. “Space, in my work, is alive and mediates the hidden self,” she explains, “I depict space and, at the same time, fill it.” Katya double majors in art and English at Yale University. Collecting inspiration from uninhabited stairwells and forgotten bedrooms, memory and photos are central to the beginning of her process. Katya’s works interrelate painting, printmaking, photography, and hanging forms. “I find quiet pleasure in distorting materials on an unstretched canvas as I obscure the legibility of the original picture,” she says. 

All alums from the Class of 2023, art was a transformative part of their Winsor careers. Audrey reflected, “I would like to sincerely thank the Winsor Art Department and [Head of Visual Arts] Sara Macaulay for sparking my love of painting and inviting me to share my work at the place I called home for seven years.”

The entire Winsor community was invited to the reception and attendees enjoyed light bites while they strolled through the showcase.