Ganado High School senior Katrina Joe, Winslow High School senior Ayla Curley, and Chinle High School senior Darla Nez are the top awardees of Northland Pioneer College’s (NPC) 40th Annual Juried High School Art Exhibit. The trio captured Best of Show awards and art tuition scholarships to NPC for the 2026-27 academic year.
NPC 3D Art Faculty and Talon Gallery Director, Magda Gluszek, and NPC 2D Art Faculty, Peterson Yazzie, juried this year’s entries.
Commenting on Ganado High School senior Katrina Joe’s Best of Show-winning colored pencil and acrylic painting titled Cupcakes, Yazzie explained, “The painting of cupcakes delighted the jurors because of the artist’s masterful handling of color and texture.” He continued, “The nearly monochromatic painting demonstrates great skill in rendering believable areas of shadow and form, especially within the frosting.”
Ayla Curley of Winslow High School received Best of Show honors for the ceramic 3-D piece Rat. Gluszek explained the sculpture “stood out to us for its very sensitive and creative modeling of an animal.” She continued, “The way in which the tail curls around the body and the expressiveness of the ears and mouth demonstrate that the artist knows this animal well and made close observations of its likeness and form.”
Darla Nez from Chinle High School took Best of Show accolades for a drawing made with acrylic, markers, and colored pencils. The jurors said, “Darla Nez’s surrealistic rendering titled Colorful Perspective is impressively complex in its mastery of linear one-point perspective, well-developed color scheme, attention to detail and control of multiple drawing media. The landscape is imaginative and the dramatic scale change between that panorama and the portrait of the figure makes one feel as if they are seeing into the mind of the artist.” Nez also took home a second-place award for the painting The Speaker of the Navajo Nation.
In addition to the top three Best of Show awards, Pinon High School junior Aliyah Yazzie placed first in the painting category with the piece An Envisionment of Myself. Fellow Pinon High School junior Demetrius Robinson took home a first-place award for the drawing Titanus Mosura. Ganado High School Senior Lillianna Joi Nez earned a second-place award for the drawing Sunflower 1. Pinon sophomore Rynaldo Nelwood placed third for the drawing A Joy Ride, and rounding out the top awardees, Winslow High School senior Alexandria Boring took home a third-place award for the painting I Hope You’re Hungry.
Twenty entries were selected for this year’s show. Gluszek said, “We would like to congratulate all of the high school student artists who had artwork accepted into this show. It is truly a pleasure to see the artwork from students who have entered the show for several years throughout their time in high school. We love to see how your art continues to grow and evolve. Thank you also to the amazing instructors who encourage and assist their students with their artmaking and creativity.”
The full exhibit can be enjoyed virtually at the NPC Talon Gallery webpage www.npc.edu/hs-show-2026. For more information on this and upcoming NPC art exhibitions, please contact Magda Gluszek at (928) 532-6176 or email magda.gluszek@npc.edu.
