The Sam Francis Gallery at

Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences Presents

Glance Back, Forge Forward: A Selection of Crossroads Purchase Awards

Exhibition: Sept. 8-Oct. 16, 2021

Featuring new works by alumni award recipients:

Natalie Arnoldi ’08, Connor Gewirtz ’17, Max Hertz ’15, Lizzy Tommey ’18

Past awardees: Eric Akashi ‘06, Briana Alden ’11, Natalie Arnoldi ‘08, Emmanuel Briceño ’03, Connor Gewirtz ‘17, Anya Grewal ’16, Sydney Helmer ‘20, Max Hertz ’15, Seth Iezman ‘04, Caroline Kanner ’13, Gabriella Lucio ‘21, Madeleine Merchant ’12, Emma Mondry ‘14, Claire Morton ’10, Charlotte Perebinossoff ‘02, Cami Starkman ’05, Lizzy Tommey ‘18, Derrick Tong ’19, and Isaiah Yehros ‘09

Glance Back, Forge Forward is part of the Sam Francis Gallery Alumni Biennial series. Each academic year, beginning in 2002, one student has been chosen as the recipient for the Purchase Award with artwork selected from the Crossroads Advanced Studies (CAS) Visual Arts exhibition. Glance Back, Forge Forward is a selection of works by our alumni over the years. The exhibition also features new works by alumni who have received the award: Natalie Arnoldi, Connor Gewirtz, Max Hertz and Lizzy Tommey.

Natalie Arnoldi’s work explores the fine line between abstract and figurative painting and the psychological effects of ambiguous representation. Arnoldi makes large-scale oil paintings depicting a myriad of subjects, often with an environmental narrative. Currently pursuing a doctoral degree in marine ecology at Stanford University and holding bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the same institution, Arnoldi has pursued careers in both art and science since 2009. She has found synergy in painting and science—two endeavors that might appear at odds. Instead, each has given her a unique and enriched perspective into the other.

Connor Gewirtz is a painter and printmaker. His current series started as narratively abstract works. Along the process, Gewirtz learned more about his family tree, which steered his works into a mishmash of personal history. Much of his work today is a reflection on this family tree and rethinks the traditional definition of family.

Max Hertz’s work focuses on a collective contented memory or the past through an examination of the forms and languages related to childhood and notions of home. Educational toys, construction and their shared practice of assembly serve as backdrops for this exploration. The sculptural objects and Hertz’s continued practice of making looks to mimic the repetition toward change of and observed in both architecture and the act of play.

Lizzy Tommey’s current series, Earthen Self Portraits, takes on the perspective of the earth,

essentially imaging itself through the form of a clay pinhole camera. Bringing together photographic and ceramic practices, Tommey explores the sharedness between clay and the phenomenon of a pinhole as natural occurrences.