Ceramics teacher YoonJee Kwak of the Visual Arts Department has exhibited her work all over the United States and in various places in the world. Now she will be doing so in the Sue and Eugene Mercy Jr. Gallery, just steps away from the classroom in which she teaches and the studio in which she does most of her work. 

Her exhibition, “Times of Contemplation,” will open on September 26 and run through November 1. The show runs in conjunction with the Community Art Show and the Emerging Artists and Writers Show in the Barnes and Wilde galleries. 

“I feel very privileged, very honored, to be able to show my work,” YoonJee said as she sat in her classroom during the first week of school.  

She calls her studio in the Richmond Art Center “my happy place” and her work there “very meditative.” 

In her artist statement, YoonJee speaks to her preference for hand-building ceramic techniques. “The inherent beauty of coil-building lies in its ability to reveal progressive growth throughout the artistic journey, akin to nurturing a plant from seedling to blossom. Just as a plant requires water, sunshine, and time to flourish, my works demand patience and time. By incorporating memories of patience and time into the very fabric of my pieces, I create a meaningful record of my artistic practice.” 

YoonJee just began her third school year at Loomis. All the pieces she will exhibit were completed during her time on the Island, which is special for her. She said her work considers her interactions with students, the atmosphere in which she works and teaches, and the community of people at Loomis Chaffee. “I am capturing my memory into the coils,” she said. 

Each year those memories build. 

“I feel I learn from my students all the time, get new ideas,” YoonJee said. “New students allow for new dialog, a new environment.” 

YoonJee has a bachelor’s degree in fine arts (ceramics and glass) from Hong-ik University in Seoul, South Korea. She has a master’s degree in fine arts (ceramics) from Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y. 

Examples of YoonJee’s work can be found on her website: http://www.yoonjeekwak.com. A video from the opening of her exhibit can be found here.

She is the first of four artists on the Mercy Gallery’s 2024–25 exhibition schedule. The others: 

Destiny Palmer 

Artistic medium: painting, mixed media 

Website: https://www.destinypalmerstudio.com/  

Exhibition dates: November 14, 2024, through January 24, 2025 

From artist statement: “Both studio work and public art provide the opportunity to reclaim space and encourage and nurture conversations in communities. While my murals hold the essence of my previous painting styles, they also center color. A piece that has become the keystone for my work, is a mural within the F U Shine series. This mural is located at the very place a woman was once enslaved by colonist Samuel Maverick. Her record of existence in America is bound by a journal entry of John Jossyeln, during a visit to Samuel Maverick on what was considered Noddle's Island, present day East Boston and Boston Logan Airport. Outside of the Historical Society, there are few acknowledgements of this black woman, this mural is an attempt to reclaim space and time for her.”  

The show will coincide with the AP Still Life show and fall works exhibition as well as works entered into Scholastics competitions. 

Khae Haskell 

Artistic medium: mixed media, light, drawing 

Website:  https://khaskell.com/  

Exhibition dates: February 6 through April 11, 2025 

From the artist statement: “My making begins with a natural treasure hunt of the world around me.  I often become a watcher, an observer, sometimes feeling like a voyeuristic outsider searching for the inspiration that presents itself throughout my path of travel.  My inspiration often navigates throughout the unwanted elements of nature while making brief visits within the desired ones. I am in awe of the things you don’t want to see as well as the items that are considered attractive.”  

The show will coincide with an exhibition of featured student works from all classes with an emphasis on photography and digital media. 

Jeremy Dennis 

Medium: photography 

Website: https://www.jeremynative.com/  

Dates: April 24 through June 8, 2025 

From artist statement: “My photography explores indigenous identity, cultural assimilation, and the ancestral traditional practices of my tribe, the Shinnecock Indian Nation. Though science has solved many questions about natural phenomena, questions of identity are more abstract, the answers more nuanced. My work is a means of examining my identity and the identity of my community, specifically the unique experience of living on a sovereign Indian reservation and the problems we face.” 

The show will take place in conjunction with an exhibition of work by students in advanced level courses and College-Level Studio Art. 

Three professional artists will be doing residencies during the school year, working on their art in a studio in the Richmond Art Center and interacting with students as part of the Adolf and Virginia Dehn Visiting Artist Program. 

Brooke Toczylowski 

Medium: Printmaking, painting, and sewing 

Website: www.brooketoczylowski.com 

Dates: October 28-November 1 

From artist statement: “Brooke Toczylowski is an interdisciplinary, research-based artist engaged in studio and public practices that build an understanding of our social, ecological, and historical relationship to land. From the perspective of a white bodied settler living on Sicaog and Wangunk land in present day central Connecticut, Toczylowski ‘thinks-with’ other bodies — both human and more-than-human — to explore the space between borders and belonging.” 

Traci Molloy 

Medium: Drawing, printmaking, photography, painting, and digital art processes 

Website:  www.cultivating-empathy.com and www.tracimolloy.com  

Dates: November 11–15 

From artists statement:  “For over 20 years, I’ve facilitated large-scale collaborative public art projects nationwide with trauma survivors. I’ve partnered with adolescents and young adults from extreme circumstances, be they disenfranchised youth from Appalachia or the Bronx, to children that lost a parent on 9/11/01, sexual violence survivors, adolescents impacted by opiates and addiction, or youth displaced from their home countries due to genocide or war.” 

Sydney Samele 

Medium: Printmaking 

Instagram: @riverwindart 

Dates: February 17–21, 2025 

From artist statement: “My art explores transformation through water. Inspired by ukiyo-e printmaking from Edo Japan, I create work that re-envisions stories from mythology. I delve into origin myths from Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and parts of Asia. So often these stories are accompanied by great floods. I was born in Shanghai, China, and adopted by an American family. At times I feel disconnected from my country of birth. Perhaps my fascination with myth stems from a desire to fill in my own history.”