Year of graduation
2021
School
Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, 2020
What you hoped to gain from the experience
I applied to Universitat de Barcelona searching for a perspective physically outside of my art practice and rhythm in NYC. Here, I hoped to bring together patterns that had developed in my work and to expand on them through a culture I grew up with. This way, I could perhaps make connections with elements that inspire many of my artistic choices. I hoped that the changes that would arise from a new environment would also help me relate nuances in my work to this context for chances of connection with a community I wanted to collaborate with.
What you gained from the experience professionally and personally
My experience in exchange was positively one of rediscovery. I have always been interested in the idea that our experience as humans and everything that composes us is layered and that temporality can become subjective when we are able to become present in this simultaneity. These past 5 months taught me that it is ok to be open to that multiplicity. It was the sharing of this experience with the people I had the honor to meet that enabled me to be ready for this through a wisdom and freedom I will forever be thankful for. One of the most impactful opportunities that the James Craig Irene Scala Designing with Type Award gave me was to travel and visit my family living in Spain as well as lifetime friends I had not been able to meet with again in years in completely different contexts. These moments formed links and stepping stones that now are and will continue to be present in my professional and individual development.
Barcelona’s preservation of its historical and architectural identity within a nonconforming ambition for the contemporary made an immense influence on my work. I was immersed in a context that aligned with a need to stay rooted in my progress in New York while taking it to completely new spaces of exploration. To have had the trust in me from the school to carry with me the work values I have learned in Cooper Union was perhaps one of the greatest influences on my pushing of my professional approaches to depths I now feel more prepared to engage with.
Future Plans
I am currently working on an exhibition at the Cooper Union that will present this progress and hopefully encourage more students to be a part of the exchange program. After graduating in 2021 I will continue to look for opportunities that bring people together internationally through art. These spaces can be opportunities to nurture a sense of community in our time when “home” has become a nomadic word.
Biography
Ornella lives and works in New York City. She is currently pursuing her BFA at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and attended Universitat de Barcelona in 2019-2020. She has a primary focus on painting and drawing.
https://www.instagram.com/ornella.polo/
- Study Abroad