YoungArts' 2nd Invitational Opens Today at The Flomenhaft Gallery

The Flomenhaft Gallery in Chelsea is proud to host the National YoungArts Foundation Visual Artists Second Invitational, running July 9 - August 15, 2015. Opening Reception: Tonight, July 9, 6 - 8 pm.

Each year, YoungArts receives more than 11,000 applications from the nation's most talented young artists (15-18 years old or grades 10-12) from around the country. From this pool, approximately 800 Winners are selected through a blind adjudication process and are recognized for their outstanding work and accomplishments in the literary, visual, design, and performing arts fields. Here at Flomenhaft, we were able to give some of these visual artists the opportunity to exhibit their work in a professional gallery for the very first time.

Artists included in our show are: Sequoia Canada (2015, Photography), Catrina Crawford (2015, Visual Arts), Cole Dininno (2015, Visual Arts), Illya Mousavijad (2015, Visual Arts), Olivia Mulder (2015, Visual Arts), Conner Olson (2015, Visual Arts), Lauren Posner (2015, Visual Arts), Mika Rosenberg (2014, Visual Arts), Morgan Strahorn (2015, Visual Arts), and Willie Williams Jr. (2014, Visual Arts). The works chosen are very diverse and the only criterion is their excellence. The artists are from Towson, Maryland; Bellaire, Texas; Wellington, Florida; Coral Gables, Florida; Birmingham, Alabama; Dayton, Ohio; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Sarah Arison, YoungArts Trustee, and YoungArts Alumnus Kenyon Adams, multi-talented actor, musician, an visual artist, will introduce the artists at the opening reception.

The National YoungArts Foundation was established in 1981 by Lin and Ted Arison to identify and support the next generation of artists in the visual, literary, design, and performing arts; assist them at critical junctures in their educational and professional development; and raise appreciation for the arts in American society.

To date, YoungArts has honored more than 20,000 young artists with over $12 million in monetary awards; facilitated in excess of $60 million in college scholarship opportunities in the past two years; and enabled its participants to work with master teachers who are among the most distinguished artists in the world. Such artists include Marina Abramovic, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Placido Domingo, Zaha Hadid, Jeff Koons, Robert Redford, Kathleen Turner, and Bruce Weber.

Among YoungArts alumni who have gone on to become leading professionals in their fields are actors Viola Davis, Anna Gunn, Adrian Grenier, Andrew Rannells, Kerry Washington and Vanessa Williams; Tona Award-winner Billy Porter; recording artists Josh Groban, Nicki Minaj and Chris Young; Metropolitan Opera star Eric Owens; musicians Terence Blanchard, Gerald Clayton and Jennifer Koh; renowned choreographer and Artistic Director/Co-Founder of Complexions Contemporary Ballet Desmond Richardson; visual artists Doug Aitken and Daniel Arsham; New York Times bestselling author Sam Lipsyte; writer and producer Jenji Kohan; and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Doug Blush.

For more information, click here or call (212) 268-4952. The gallery is located at 547 West 27th Street, Suite 200, Chelsea, NYC.

Pictured: Cole Dininno, "This Stuff Needs To Go"