Who will win the 2023 Trawick Prize?

Who's gonna  21st exhibition of The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards?

Nearly 300 artists from Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., were juried by Brandon Morse, Jon-Phillip Sheridan, and Naoco Wowsugi. Eight artists were selected to exhibit at Gallery B from Sept. 7 – October 1, 2023. The Best in Show winner will receive the $10,000 grand prize.

The opening reception will be held Friday, Sept. 8 from 6-8pm, and Gallery B is located in the former spaces of the iconic Fraser Gallery at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda. 

The finalists are: Rush Baker IV, Riverdale Park, MD; Rex Delafkaran, Washington, D.C.; Stephanie Garon, Baltimore, MD; Kei Ito, Baltimore MD; Megan Koeppel, Hyattsville, MD; Giulia Livi, Baltimore, MD; Charles Mason III, Baltimore, MD; and Fanxi Sun, Richmond, VA.

Based on my immensely wise examination of (a) the jurors and then (b) the artists, I will predict that  Rex Delafkaran, of Washington, D.C. will win the top prize.  

This is a bit of a long-ball, but there's a strange synchronicity and alignment to nearly all the other artists' work - they all "fit" into each other's artistic mold - that Delafkaran's work seems to be the only, somewhat "different" style.

By the way... most of these are the BEST.EVER.ARTIST.NAMES! There's such an uniqueness to most of them -- other than Baker and Mason... cough... cough... who have your standard names...