When Notre Dame Prep senior Thomas Aiello started to work on his latest painting for his IB art class, he said he wanted to present a new theme in an old way, or context. Aiello won a Gold Key award from the most recent Scholastic Art & Writing competition with this photo-illustration.
So he looked to an ancient style of art and one of the hottest artists on the scene today for inspiration.
Sandy LewAllen, Aiello’s teacher and chair of Notre Dame’s art department, said Aiello studied Kehinde Wiley, a celebrated Brooklyn-based artist who is known for mashing up realistic contemporary figure portraiture with rococo-style background frills taken from an artistic movement popular in the 18th century.
Aiello’s latest piece features a portrait of NDP principal Fr. Joe Hindelang, s.m., holding both a science book and a Bible. Aiello said the image represents the church’s reconciliation of science and religion in modern society.
His postmodern theme of recontextualization went even further when he centered his painting in an elaborate plaster and foam core frame made to look like a Byzantine altarpiece, a form of art first appearing in Italy in the thirteenth century.
Aiello has earned three Scholastic art awards over the past few years, with the most recent a Gold Key award for photography in the organization’s most recent competition. His work joined 16 other pieces of award-winning art by Notre Dame students in an exhibition held at the Detroit Institute of Arts in February.
LewAllen said Aiello plans to study architecture at the University of Michigan in the fall.
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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.