Jack Barr
Dana Hills High School

Jack is an artist born in northwestern Arkansas who moved to California at a young age. He has been creating art since childhood, participating in school and independent youth art shows. Jack is a creative and hardworking individual who enjoys expressing his feelings and thoughts through art, which he shares with friends and family. He is also a member of a band called 8th Grade and enjoys playing music with them. While his career plans may not directly involve art, Jack intends to continue creating throughout his life.

Angelina Farias
Century High School

Angelina Farias is a Young Curator who was born and raised in Santa Ana, a city filled with diverse murals that have influenced her artistic motivations. Art has always been ingrained in Angelina’s life through her family and the culture of her city. Her acceptance into OCYC supports her goal of pursuing a career in the arts. She is excited to gain further insight into the curatorial process in museums and build connections with like-minded artists and curators. As an artist herself, Angelina is certain that she can offer an introspective approach to her work with her fellow curators throughout the program. Joining OCYC has inspired and motivated Angelina to pursue a future as a museum curator.

Helen Han
University High School

Helen is a multidisciplinary artist and a Young Curator at OCMA. While Helen loves various forms of artistic expression, such as acting and dance, film remains at the heart of her creative journey. She currently serves as the videographer for Orange County Student Sections and enjoys working on personal passion projects when she can. Helen loves being able to build new worlds and tell stories in a visual manner through cinematography and production design.

In addition to filmmaking, Helen enjoys being able to live multiple lives and experience new things through acting. Dance also serves as a way for her to express emotions and connect her body with her mind. With an interest in both creating and experiencing art, Helen always aims to immerse herself in the world around her and be in the moment.

Whether behind or in front of the camera, Helen is a passionate storyteller, always seeking to make the most of every moment.

Madeline (Maddie) Horwitz
Woodbridge High School

Maddie is a junior at Woodbridge High School and a Young Curator at OCMA. Since childhood, she has always been creating—whether through photography, art classes, or personal projects. In high school, Maddie found a passion for graphic design and branding. She loves visiting museums wherever she is, at home or across the globe. She has encountered artworks that have changed her perspective, especially from the Daniel Arsham exhibition at OCMA in 2023. Visiting museums sparks Maddie’s creativity, and as a Young Curator, Maddie’s goal is to curate an exhibition that inspires others just as much. Maddie also draws inspiration from music and TV shows for her own art inside and outside of school.

Jaden (Jade) Huang
Laguna Beach High School

Jaden Huang’s unconventional Pre-K education started in Southern California’s art museums, where she spent hours trailing docents and picking up words such as chiaroscuro and memento mori before she could pick up and read a proper sentence from Dr. Suess.

Jaden has pursued art since an early age, and her favorite medium today remains watercolor because of its unpredictable fluidity. On the topic of unpredictability, her interests and world views have been greatly shaped by her travels and untraditional high school career. In her freshman year at boarding school, Jaden became a varsity coxswain, finding that riding the water of white-capping currents was just as enjoyable as dipping her brush into water held in a paint cup. In her sophomore year, she returned to her birthplace of Taiwan, where she studied at National Taiwan University while balancing online high school. With improved Mandarin fluency and an emotional departure from her suburban childhood home, Jaden returned to California, where she channels all her past experiences into her current passions and commitments.

Currently, she is the senior student board member of Laguna Beach Unified School District. Jaden has also been a Junior Ambassador at the Bowers Museum since she was in middle school. This past summer, her focus has been to explore the interdisciplinary fields of sociology by pursuing research opportunities. A recently completed paper of hers features a study on the marginalized identities of Asian American female youths through qualitative and personal interviews with high school and university students.

She hopes to translate her love for community-building into her work at OCMA, where visitors can come together to engage in dialogue with one another and art.

Pablo Matías Hernandez Martinez
Woodbridge High School

Matías is a passionate multidisciplinary artist, a published short story author, and a senior at Woodbridge High School. Born in Mexico, he immigrated to the United States in 2019.

Matías is involved in his school’s Art Council, serving as a graphic designer and lead mural painter. For the past three years, he has also attended selective pre-college portfolio development courses at CalArts, where he learned from university professors and industry professionals.

His art has been exhibited all over Orange County, including at the Laguna Festival of the Arts, South Coast Plaza, and Irvine City Hall. His work also will be displayed at Verde, a new restaurant opening in Costa Mesa in fall 2024. In addition to his visual art, Matías won the International Imagine Little Tokyo Short Story Contest. His winning story can be read in English, Spanish, and Japanese.

He’s infinitely excited to be part of OCYC and learn more about contemporary art and the process of curating an exhibition.

Valeska Morales
Century High School

Valeska is a junior at Century High School who was born and raised in Santa Ana. She is one of only two students from Santa Ana Unified School District that was selected to help curate a new exhibition that will debut at OCMA in June 2025. Valeska is passionate about film media, and she currently draws inspiration from director Gregg Araki’s films.

Edyn (Edy) Rodi
Mater Dei High School

Edy is a senior at Mater Dei High School. Growing up in California, Edy has always been obsessed with art. She has explored a variety of different mediums and art forms, from traditional and digital art to graphic design, photography, and animation. In the future, she hopes to study and work in digital media or film and animation.

At school, Edy is heavily involved in the arts. Lately, she has worked alongside her peers as Vice President of the National Art Honors Society. Through planning meetings and events, she hopes to bring further recognition to the arts on campus and support art students through fundraising scholarships. When she is not hard at work for her classes, she can be found in the school theatre designing props for shows. She can also be found in her art classroom, working on her music-themed AP Art portfolio.

Outside of school, she likes to engage in lots of hobbies like drawing, animating, taking photos, playing video games, hanging out with friends, and listening to music. She also enjoys going out and exploring new places, whether it be new shops, museums, malls, or concerts. She is excited to be a part of OCYC, and hopes to learn more about art, meet new friends with similar interests, and gain experience in design.

Ethan Ryan
Corona del Mar High School

Ethan is a senior at Corona del Mar High School and a Young Curator at OCMA. His vision as a curator is to help visitors see the OCYC exhibition in a meaningful way, where they can truly connect with art.

In the future, Ethan wants to study graphic design in college and pursue a career in music or animation. Either way, he is committed to his art and using art to inspire others.

Besides his figure drawing practice, Ethan runs a YouTube channel where he creates music and short films, generating over 200,000 views a month. When he’s not busy with art and completing AP homework, Ethan enjoys running, watching Jujutsu Kaisen, and listening to Korean R&B.

Juhae Ryu
Troy High School

Juhae is a senior at Troy High School and a first-generation Korean American. Her family immigrated from South Korea when she was one. Juhae has always been passionate about curating and designing spaces, whether through school projects or playing café design games. These early interests sparked her desire to pursue a career in museum curation or the business side of the arts industry. Currently, she is working on her AP Art portfolio, which allows her to express different aspects of her life and emotions.

One of her most fulfilling experiences was interning at the Boys and Girls Club of Fullerton. Juhae loves working with kids, and this opportunity allowed her to support and mentor them, while also learning valuable leadership and communication skills. Now, as a part of OCYC, her goals are to gain hands-on museum experience, network with professionals in the art world, and expand her understanding of how creative spaces can be managed and curated to inspire others.

In her free time, she enjoys baking, swimming, going on nature hikes, and exploring new places. Art continues to be a big part of her life though drawing, painting, and decorating her whiteboard calendar. Music is another big influence for Juhae. Some of her favorite artists include Ethel Cain, The Sundays, and The Marías. Her top three albums are True Romance by Charli XCX, LP1 by FKA Twigs, and Cupid Deluxe by Blood Orange.

Kenzo Scott
Huntington Beach High School

Kenzo is a Young Curator from Huntington Beach. With a background in art history and experience in the workforce, he aims to expand his artistic horizons by exploring the relationship between mathematics and art. He believes that precision plays an essential, often overlooked role in curating exhibitions. As an aspiring engineer, Kenzo hopes to gain valuable skills and knowledge through OCYC that will help him in the future.

Rachel Sung
Orange County School of the Arts

Rachel is a junior at the Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA) in the Integrated Arts conservatory and a Young Curator at OCMA. She is passionate about visual arts and art history, and she hopes to pursue a career in the arts and museum field. She is a co-editor-in-chief for her conservatory’s creative writing and visual arts magazine, Bonfire, and the director and curator for the Integrated Arts Visual Showcase. She is also the founder and president of the OCSA’s Art History Club and is a long-term intern at the Fullerton Museum Center.

Rachel loves to learn about different cultures through their art and art history, believing that art tells powerful stories of diverse human experiences that connect us as people. She has recently developed an interest in the restitution of African artifacts taken during the colonial era and is currently planning a research project on the topic.

Edgar Omar Trujillo
El Modena High School

Edgar (Omar) is currently a senior at El Modena High School. A child of two first-generation Mexican immigrant parents, Edgar is the middle sibling of the Trujillo household. Communication has always been a struggle due to language differences, but art has allowed Omar to be present and absorb the world around him.

Omar embraces a broad definition of art, recalling that Saturday-morning cartoons and telenovelas helped him to connect with and understand others from a young age. He is interested in how different art mediums can unite people and spends his free time working on various creative projects using a laptop—writing scripts for text-based games, editing videos, and doodling digital art.

Haven taken various AP classes like United States History, World History, and Psychology, Omar hopes to learn more about the nuances and complexities of humanity. Through OCYC, he hopes to learn more about people and the world by examining art through an empathetic lens.

Penelope Vielma
Pacifica High School

Penelope is a Young Curator and a senior at Pacifica High School. She is passionate about all forms of art—writing, painting, music, and film—but her love for drawing trumps all. She focuses primarily on mixed-media realism with a specialization in portraits. Penelope is currently enrolled in AP 2-D Studio Art, and her portfolio explores the pleasures and pains of growing up.

Outside of art, Penelope is a dedicated academic. As the president of her school’s Spanish Honors Society, she integrates Spanish heritage, Latino culture, and the Pacifica community in a series of club-sanctioned events and fundraisers. Additionally, she is a member of the National Honors Society, the California Scholarship Federation, and is the publicist and a founding member of the Female Athlete Mental Health Association.

Through OCYC, Penelope aspires to forge meaningful connections with those around her. She hopes to put forth a cohesive and relatable narrative for those who view the final OCYC exhibition.

Laura Wagner
Corona del Mar High School

Laura is a senior at Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach. She is an inquisitive individual who is interested in learning about the world, its people, and how she can positively contribute to her community. Laura has been involved in choir for six years, currently serving as a section leader and president of CdM Vocal Music’s Concert Development group. She is also the co-founder of a mental health awareness campaign and a summer camp counselor.

Laura’s interests extend to global politics, cultures, and economics, and she enjoys reading, visiting museums, and learning French. She was born and raised in Newport Beach but has visited many places. As of October 2024, she has visited 12 different countries. Her Vietnamese and European heritage has shaped her personality and tastes in food, music, and culture. Her eclectic music taste includes alt rock all the way to bedroom indie, but she will listen to practically anything.

Her interest in art curation stems from a childhood spent surrounded by art at home and in museums. She nurtured that interest in her AP Research class, where she wrote a full-length research paper on contemporary art curation and its patterns. She looks forward to learning more about the behind-the-scenes process of running a museum and developing her knowledge of curation through OCYC.