The NAC Announces Individual Artist Award Winners
MAINSITE Contemporary Art: Home of the Norman Arts Council. After reviewing more than 30 submissions, The Norman Arts Council proudly congratulates five local artists for winning the NAC’s “Individual Artist Awards”. Tara Najd Ahmadi, Tünde Darvay, Heather Clark Hilliard, JUURI and Michael Lombardo will receive a $600 honorarium and a featured exhibit at MAINSITE Contemporary Art opening on a 2nd Friday Circuit of Art. Exhibits begin this October. One high school student will also be selected for the award. Students have the opportunity to submit their work until December 16, 2011.
“We were thrilled how many great submissions we received. It made narrowing down to five winners very tough for Sarah, our juror,” Norman Arts Council Associate Director Josh Lunsford said. “These five artists are extremely unique and talented, and I cannot wait for the public to see their work.”
Sarah Jesse, the new Director of Community and School Programs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, judged the submissions and selected five artists. She continues to work with each artist, giving each a chance to gain curatorial insight into their work.
Inspired by the memories and images immigrants carry with them from place to place, Tara Najd Ahmadi forms historic maps on silk screen prints on paper depicting the two places she has lived in her life: Tehran and Norman, Oklahoma. Ahmadi will feature images juxtaposing Tehran and Norman in her exhibit, opening this upcoming 2nd Friday, October 14, 2011.
Opening in December, Tünde Darvay explores the cultural significance of touch in contemporary U.S. society through her mixed media art. Painting on irregularly shaped pieces of wood Darvay prepares herself, she combines color and composition to debunk the sterility characterizing the cultural practice of regulating physical contact. There won’t be a “please do not touch” sign in sight during this exhibit.
Reveling in the art and science of natural materials, artist Heather Clark Hilliard creates intricately woven, stitched and quilted forms and patterns with all natural materials such as wool, silk, cotton, hemp, paper, wood, stone and even eggs. Through these materials Hilliard explores our modern world and the dance between natural and synthetic, fast and convenient, and slow and meaningful in her exhibit, opening in February.
Born in Tokyo, Japanese+American artist JUURI will bring a Japanese festival to Norman through her mixed media artwork depicting the delicate beauty of Japanese women. She plans to include authentic Japanese foods and feature traditional Japanese dances and songs performed by Japanese students during the opening. JUURI will bring this exciting and culturally enriching experience to Norman through her exhibit opening in April.
To close the Individual Artist feature in June, Michael Lombardo asks the viewer to question the making of art and what links the artist with inspiration in its final stage through a series of drawings and images representing his personal understanding of his models. His visual art explores different areas of focus and priority as he recognizes the multiple experiences the model holds during the entire process of the work.
Application forms can be downloaded below. Completed applications may be mailed or delivered to the MAINSITE Contemporary Art: Home of the Norman Arts Council, 122 East Main Street, Norman, OK 73069.
The Individual Artist Award is provided in part by the Norman Transient Guest Room Tax.
Questions regarding the NAC Individual Artist Award may be directed to Erinn Gavaghan, NAC Executive Director, 405-360-1162 or erinn@normanarts.org.
Application & Guidelines
Check back here next year for the 2012-2013 Individual Artist Award application and guidelines.
The application for 2011-2012 are available for download here. The guidelines are available here.
Curator
Sarah Jesse received her M.A. in Art History from the University of Illinois at Chicago and her B.A. in Art History from Oberlin College. Currently, she is the Bernsen Director of Education and Public Programs at the Philbrook Museum of Art and the Vice Chair of Programs for the American Association of Museum’s Education Committee. Prior, she was the Assistant Director of Public Programs at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago where she developed educational programming and curated the Artists and their Kids exhibition series. She writes art criticism for Reviewand Museum magazines and serves on the Advisory Board of Fab Lab Tulsa.
