The Huntington Arts Council's annual student exhibition Nightmare on Main Street opens Tuesday, October 27, filling the Main Street Gallery in Huntington village with invented monsters, guardian spirits and creatures that carry a moral. The juried show runs through November 15, with 43 works hanging in the gallery and another 109 published in a companion online gallery.

The assignment: invent a creature with a lesson

This year's artist prompt sent students into folklore. The council pointed to Filipino mythology as a model: the Tiyanak, a shape-shifting creature that mimics a crying baby to lure the compassionate into the jungle, and the Diwata, guardian spirits of forests and mountains who reward or punish people according to how they treat nature. Students were asked to create a mythical creature of their own, give it an environment, and build in a backstory that imparts a lesson the way those tales do.

The results come from schools across Long Island. The gallery booklet lists work from Huntington High School, Northport, Syosset, Walt Whitman, Half Hollow Hills, Deer Park, North Babylon, Island Trees, William Floyd, the Valley Stream high schools, Bethpage's John F. Kennedy High School and East Rockaway, among others, along with middle schoolers from South Woods, Stimson and Plainview-Old Bethpage.

The juror

The show was juried by Gina Ienopoli, a Long Island-born artist who studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology and works across graphic design, mural painting and photography. Her portrait The Idealist was shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Awards and shown at Somerset House in London, and her photography has been recognized by the Adobe Design Achievement Awards and the Patchogue Arts Council. She now works in New York City, where she also runs a small punk merchandise line.

Seeing the show

The Main Street Gallery is at 213 Main Street in Huntington, the arts council's home a short walk from the village's restaurants and the Paramount. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with weekend hours varying; the council suggests calling 631-271-8423 to confirm before a weekend visit. Admission is free.

Both artist booklets, with every student's statement about the creature they built and why, are posted on the council's website at huntingtonarts.org, where the online gallery can be browsed in full. The council's exhibition programs are supported by the New York State Council on the Arts.

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