Trawick Prize Winners!

The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards, a juried art competition produced by the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, announced the 2021 prize winners during tonight’s awards reception. Video artist Cecilia Kim of Richmond, VA was awarded the prestigious “Best in Show” title and received the $10,000 top prize. Abigail Lucien from Baltimore, MD was named second place and given $2,000; Sobia Ahmad from Silver Spring, MD was bestowed third place and received $1,000; and Monsieur Zohore from Potomac, MD was awarded the Young Artist Award and received $1,000.

Cecilia Kim, a Korean video artist, has traveled extensively and called several different countries home, including Australia, England, Singapore and the United States. Kim’s work has been shown both nationally and internationally in solo and group shows including The Immigrant Artist Biennale (virtual), 0 GALLERY (Seoul, Korea), Openarts Space MERGE (Busan, Korea), W36 Art Space (Nanjing, China), Target Gallery (Alexandria, VA) and Hume Gallery (Chicago, IL). Her short films have been selected at film festivals and screenings including the NoFlash Video Show, The Anderson Gallery, Around International Film Festival Amsterdam and Student Experimental Film Festival Binghamton. She was awarded a scholarship at Oxbow School of Art and Artists’ Residency and was a resident artist at the Busan International OpenArts Residence. Kim is a Master of Fine Arts candidate at Virginia Commonwealth University. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she was a UWC-Davis scholar.  

2021 Trawick Prize Finalists

Sobia Ahmad, Silver Spring, MD

Stephanie Garmey, Baltimore, MD

Cecilia Kim, Richmond, VA

Abigail Lucien, Baltimore, MD
Mojdeh Rezaeipour, Washington, D.C.

John Ruppert, Towson, MD

Ernest Shaw, Baltimore, MD

Monsieur Zohore, Potomac, MD

 

The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards, established by Carol Trawick in 2003, is one of the first regional competitions and largest prizes to annually honor visual artists. A longtime community activist in downtown Bethesda, Ms. Trawick has served as the Chair of the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, Bethesda Urban Partnership, Strathmore and the Maryland State Arts Council. The Jim and Carol Trawick Foundation was established in 2007 after the Trawicks sold their successful information technology company. A former teacher and entrepreneur, Ms. Trawick remains engaged in a range of philanthropic causes through the Foundation, which was established to assist health and human services and arts non-profits in Montgomery County

 

The work of the finalists will be on exhibit at Gallery B, 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E, until October 3. Gallery hours for the duration of the exhibit will be Thursday-Saturday, 12 – 5pm and Sunday, 11am – 4pm.

 

Entries were juried by Mark Cooley, Director of New Media Arts & Associate Professor, George Mason University; Oletha DeVane, Director, Tuttle Gallery at McDonogh School and 2019 Trawick Prize Winner; and Betsy Johnson, Assistant Curator, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Scam Alert!

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Outdoor Art Show this weekend!

The Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival will take place on September 10 – 12, 2021 showcasing more than 200 artists annually working in the fields of fine art and craft.

 The Festival has become one of the region’s most anticipated events, attracting approximately 30,000 people to the unique, outdoor environment of Reston Town Center located in Reston, VA. 

Comprised of one-on-one experiences, performances, and special events that engage visitors with compelling artistic voices, the event leaves an exciting, thoughtful mark in the region.

Check out the artists here and details on where and times here. Plenty of free parking and loads of food choices!

Come say hi! I'll be in booth 409!

Elizabeth Neel

 Elizabeth Neel was eight years old when she got her first set of oil paints, a Winsor & Newton paintbox, as a gift from her grandmother, the late, great portraitist Alice Neel.

Neel’s earliest painting experiences were with Alice, working side by side. But there was never any pressure to follow in her footsteps.

“I liked to draw a lot and she wanted to encourage that, because she thought I was good and she had a connection with me. We had a lot of fun together,” Neel told Artnet News. “She was a great grandmother, even though she never allowed anyone to call her that. She was always Alice to us.”

Read the artnet article here. 

$500,000 for a painting by Hunter Biden

 Who parts with that much cash for the work of a new, not exactly critically acclaimed, painter? We may never know. Hunter’s new career raises obvious ethical issues for his father and, in an attempt to avoid accusations of influence peddling, the Biden administration has asked the gallerist to keep all information about the buyers and prices of Hunter’s work confidential. The gallery has also agreed to reject offers that seem suspiciously generous.

Even without those safeguards in place, I highly doubt Biden’s policies would be affected by sales of his son’s terrible paintings. (The New York Times generously described them as “leaning towards the surreal”, which is a polite way of saying: “Looks a bit like a Covid-stricken Mr Blobby vomited on a canvas.”)

Read the article by Arwa Mahdawi here.

Wanna go to an art fair?

I'm joneysing to do an art fair! Indoor or Outdoors! So gonna do both next month!

My work will be showcased at the Art on Paper fair in New York City - together with the spectacularly talented Judith Peck, Sheila Giolitti, and Matthew Langley! If you wanna score some VIP passes to the fair, drop me an email. September 9-12 - details here.

I'm also gonna do the 2021 Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival - September 10–12. Now in its 30th year, the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival highlights more than 200 artists who are "creating unique, handmade works in the fields of fine art and fine craft. In the competitive artist application process, each submission is reviewed by a juror panel, made up of visual arts leaders, artists, and practitioners, who select top ranked artists across ten categories to present their work at the Festival.

Drawing upon a robust exhibitor and collector base coupled with Tephra ICA’s contemporary art foundation, the Festival has become one of the region’s most anticipated events taking place in the outdoor environment of Reston Town Center. Save the date and join us this year for one-on-one experiences, performances, and exciting special events.

Hours

September 10–12, 2021

10am–5pm, rain or shine

Reston Town Center in Reston, VA.

Safety precautions will be implemented this year including but not limited to, hand sanitation stations, vaccination requirements for Festival volunteers, and encouragement of social distancing and face mask-wearing in artist booths. 

Check out the 2021 roster of Festival artists here.

Always

Always do whatever's next.

George Carlin