Chloe Chen is PAA’s 2025 Student Award Recipient

Our 2025 Student Award recipient is Chloe Chen of Fairport, who will graduate from Penfield High School this month.

The award will be presented at a reception, 7 p.m. June 3 at the Penfield Art Association Spring Show & Sale. A display of Chloe’s work is included in the show  at the Penfield Community Center June 2-7. For details, click here.

Chloe’parents, Annie Zhang and Tony Chen, immigrated from China, where Chloe went to school into third grade and still returns from time to time to visit relatives.

At PHS, Chloe did varsity swimming for four years, was the founder of the school’s art club, vice president of National Honor Society and served as a social media officer for the Mental Health Awareness Club. She also works as a swim instructor at the YMCA.

Chloe will be attending Northeastern University in Boston this fall, majoring in neuroscience and philosophy.

PAA has presented a cash award to a PHS senior each year since 1976. The recipient is selected by the art faculty at Penfield High School.

Chloe Chen: Artist Statement

Art has always entranced me. Its ability to be expressed in any way you want. It’s been an activity of comfort, whether to de-stress after long days, or just to experiment with gouache colors. Art has been a hobby I can go back to and feel calmer and happier. The freedom is often exhilarating in a sense, and ever since I was 4 and could hold a pencil, I’ve been creating.

I mostly started off by drawing little cartoon characters from my favorite shows and books on the sides of my notebooks. My art abilities have grown a lot since then, and I’ve gotten to love a variety of styles. Landscape painting (Bob Ross and Nyle Gordon are my icons) to pastel portraiture are some of my favorites. Often, I will gift the art that I make to my friends and family, and seeing the smiles light up on their faces is undeniably worth it.

My portfolio includes a lot of experimentation. I’ve been playing around with numerous materials to find my personal style. In a lot of my pieces, I try to use bold colors and shapes to express the emotions I have felt in my memories of the people, places and events. I think my artistic journey has demonstrated my love for challenging myself, which is really special.

The inspiration behind most of my work comes from my family, friends and Chinese culture. The wide variety of media I’ve used illustrates my appreciation for my dynamic and unique family and cultural history. My Xiamenese background (from Xiamen, China) is very different from those of my friends and peers, as I grew up surrounded by the language and traditions. I used to feel uncomfortable sharing this huge part of my life with others for fear of being seen as weird. But, as I’ve grown, I’ve learned to accept and further appreciate my culture, which has, in turn, made me a lot more self-confident.

Though I don’t know what the future holds, I know that I will take what I’ve learned from all of my art mentors, peers and artistic influences onward in my life. I plan on going to college for Neuroscience or something STEM related and take art classes on the side. Whether that be in a club or just for fun, I know that I will be making art for the rest of my life.

Ceramic sculpture, far left, and silver ring are works by Penfield High School senior Chloe Chen.

“I think my artistic journey has demonstrated my love for challenging myself, which is really special.”