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Click here to view this publication online. 2012 Figurative Art Expo Finalists and Awards This year's Figurative Art Expo jurors: Kenneth Browne, Te
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This year's Figurative Art Expo jurors: Kenneth Browne, Terra Chapman and Patricia Schappler, faced some difficult choices when selecting the award winners and finalists from over 110 pieces of outstanding artworks submitted from around the world. Forty pieces from 25 artists were ultimately selected as exhibit finalists, with the five artists below receiving awards.
Please take a moment and visit the gallery and view this year's exhibit finalists and award winners. |
Exhibit Finalists
George Ayers, Marie Bergstedt, Carla Carlson, AM Clark, Nate Gaefcke, Jayne Gaskins,
Jose M. Gomez-Ros, Don Haggerty, Dan Harris, Jamie Henderson, Drew Hoffman,
Terence Kneale, Lyubov Momot, Shahir Mowlaei, Wendy Moyer, Kaz Ooka,
Lynne Margulies Osgood, Laura Pritchard, Caleb Reed, Jeanne Sisson, Joanna Smielowska,
Joan Sowada, Martha Wade, Marsha Wells, Katie Williams |
Best In Show: Dan Harris, Cigar
There’s something fundamentally contemporary and ancient in Dan Harris’s acrylic painting, titled Cigar, that continuously engages the eye. Founded in the rich traditions of figurative art, it steps forward into this strange, Tooker-ish atmosphere of clarity, balance, and unsettled tension. Harris has a wonderful eye, contrasting surfaces, gathering controlled energy, and rendering with such delicate linearity and luminosity, that the image becomes embossed in memory. Mid thought, mid action; the male figure leans forward slightly into our world, counterbalancing the visual weights of the hanging abstraction, his head and the cigar ash mimicked by the organic forms of the blue and maroon orbs.
There’s a meeting and separating of worlds in this one image that creates poetry. I find myself drawn back to it through Harris’s flawless timing. He’s created a world of mood; precarious, shifting and alive!
— Juror: Patricia Schappler |
2nd Place Award:
George Ayers, Michele
When I first saw George Ayer’s piece Michele,
I was taken by how he painted the fabric in particular the lace. The lace almost appears to glow while being see through on this working class female who seems to come directly from the age of Rembrandt. The leather chair put a twist into this painting and creates a dialogue between the contemporary and the Dutch style paintings. Like many of the Dutch portrait painters solo figures would often be set on dark almost black backgrounds where the figure pops forward.
George’s mastery of light is one of the most striking features of this work. As the light moves from light to dark, you are fully aware of George's attention to every fine detail of Michele’s garment and her stone cold expression. While, behind her hard exterior you are confronted by a person who is breaking inside. This comes from her closed off body language and some of the tight features in her face. This piece has a sad feeling but is masterfully painted.
— Juror: Kenneth Browne |
3rd Place Award:
Nate Gaefcke, Tracy
In "Tracy" the figure is presented to the viewer in a compelling and firm pose. One of the most interesting qualities of this piece is the grand use of contrasts. Her figure is largely posed towards the left as if she is leaving the room though she is stopped, possibly in mid action, while her eyes glance back to the right at someone or something hidden unto the viewer. The overall feeling of the work given by the use of the mezzotint is a perfect contrast to figure, it balances beautifully the hardness of the pose with the gentle softness of the medium. The mezzotint creates an almost satin-like sensation in the image and makes one desire to reach out and try to touch it.
Nate Gaefcke has approached this piece with wonderful technical skill and created such atmosphere in the way in which he handled the tones, specifically in the shadow values, that it truly reveals itself to us as a lovely piece of work.
— Juror: Terra Chapman |
Founder's Choice Award:
Jamie Henderson, Gaucho
Henderson presents Gaucho looking into the sky with anticipation. Not a traditional pose for sculpture, but in football/soccer this moment defines the quiet before the storm and Henderson captures it well.
— Founder, Charly Swing |
Director's Choice Award:
Joanna Smielowska, Learning to Fly
This piece reminds me of the loss of our childhood imagination and determination.
At first glance my adult mind sees the child succumbing to the forces of gravity after jumping from the stool. However on second glance, I see the child staying aloft-flying with the help of the angel-tree and feathers.
If we put aside our comfortable and rational beliefs, embrace our childlike wonder, maybe we too can learn to fly.
— Gallery Director, Julie Weismann |
Day of the Dead:
Voices of Our Ancestors
Call to Artists
Qualified Artwork:
Artists are invited to submit artwork that is traditional—decorated sugar skulls, skeletons at work, Catrinas, memorial altars—as well as artwork that is non-traditional, yet still represents the rituals and tributes that honor the deceased and our ancestors. All mediums and styles are welcome.
Entry Deadline: October 15, 2012; 8:00 pm PDT
Pre-Exhibit Show: begins online Sept 15th
Grand Opening: November 15, 2012
Call to Artist-Prospectus |
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