Featured Exhibition
The Janet & Walter Sondheim Finalists:
Artscape at the BMA
June 21–August 3, 2008
The winner of the 2008 Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize is Geoff Grace. Organized by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts in conjunction with Artscape, Baltimore’s premier arts festival, The Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize recognizes the achievements of visual artists living or working in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia, and Southeastern Pennsylvania. Baltimore-based artists Laura Drogoul (2006) and Tony Shore (2007) are the previous winners of this coveted $25,000 award.
The award is named after the late Baltimore civic leader, Walter Sondheim, and his late wife, Janet. The Sondheims’ enormous impact on Baltimore includes overseeing desegregation of the city schools in 1954 and championing the redevelopment of the Inner Harbor.
Jurors for the 2008 prize are Laura Hoptman, curator at the New Museum in New York; Mickalene Thomas, a New York-based artist working in the mediums of painting, drawing, and photography; and Darby English, an art historian specializing in postwar and contemporary American art, cultural studies, art theory, and criticism.
Also on view in the exhibition are works by the previous winners of The Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize: Laura Drogoul (2006) and Tony Shore (2007).
The exhibition is curated by Darsie Alexander, BMA Senior Curator of Contemporary Art.
The finalist exhibition is generously supported by The William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, Amy and Chuck Newhall, and an anonymous donor.The Sondheim Prize is made possible in part by grants from The Abell Foundation, Anonymous, The Willam G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, The Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation, and Amy & Chuck Newhall.
2008 Janet & Walter Sondheim Finalists
Alprin’s intricately detailed and delicately layered sculptural works and prints have been seen at the San Francisco MoMa Artist Gallery; the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts in Wilmington; and various Baltimore galleries. Alprin is a New Insight Finalist for the 2008 Art Chicago International Art Fair. A native of Washington, D.C., she is currently living in Baltimore and will receive her MFA in May 2008 from the Mt. Royal School of Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Dickenson’s graceful drawings on handmade paper have been featured in spaces such as Baltimore’s Current Gallery, Maryland Art Place, the Creative Alliance, Gallery Imperato, Load of Fun Studios, and Blue Sky Factory; Washington D.C.’s Transformer Gallery; as well as Think Space in Los Angeles and Youkobo Art Space in Tokyo. A 2002 graduate from the Maryland Institute College of Art, she is also a two-time winner of Maryland State Arts Council’s Individual Artists Awards.
Gavin employs maps as both a medium and a topic. Her works have been exhibited nationally and internationally with solo exhibitions at Atelier International in New York and West Gallery in Denton, TX, and group exhibitions at Maryland Art Place, Artscape, Area 405, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Compass Gallery in Glasgow Scotland. Gavin was a semi-finalist for the both the 2006 and 2007 Sondheim Prizes. A native of Lanarkshire, Scotland, she is assistant professor of art at the University of Maryland, College Park.
An active member of the Baltimore art and music scene, Grace has exhibited at Gallery Four, Maryland Art Place, the 5th Story, School 33 Art Center, The Contemporary Museum, Artscape, The Baltimore Museum of Art, and Area 405. Grace was a semi-finalist for the 2006 Sondheim Prize and a finalist in 2007. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Arts in Teaching from the Maryland Institute College of Art. He currently teaches art and photography at Overlea High School and performs regularly with his band, The Tall Grass.
Hassinger’s sculptures have been featured in solo shows at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Soho 20 Gallery, New York; and School 33 Art Center in Baltimore; and most recently in the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston’s seminal exhibition, Double Consciousness: Black Conceptual Art Since 1970. Other group shows include the Cleveland Institute of Art, and the Center for Architecture, The Studio Museum, and The Sculpture Center in New York. Hassinger was a semi-finalist for the 2006 and 2007 Sondheim Prize. She is currently graduate director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Springfield’s highly detailed drawings of texts and installations based on historical texts have been shown at the Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA; the Creative Alliance and School 33 Art Center, Baltimore; Mireille Mosler, Ltd., New York; Steven Wolf Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA; and Thomas Robertello Gallery, Chicago, IL. She is a 2004 MFA Graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She was a 2007 semi-finalist for the Sondheim Prize and currently lives and works in Washington, D.C.
Tony Shore — 2007 Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize Winner
Tony Shore, a native Baltimorean and graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts and the Maryland Institute College of Art, creates large paintings on dark velvet. He is represented by C. Grimaldis Gallery in Baltimore where he has had several solo exhibitions. He has exhibited at various spaces including the Gomez Gallery in Baltimore, David Beitzel Gallery in New York, Delaware Art Museum, and Contemporary Arts Collective Gallery in Las Vegas. He received the Bethesda Painting Prize in 2006 as well as several Maryland State Arts Council Grants. Shore completed a residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1996, and received his Masters of Fine Arts from Yale University in 1997. He is currently on the faculty of the Foundations Department at the Maryland Institute College of Art and founding Director of Access Art, a youth art center in Baltimore's Morrell Park neighborhood.
Laure Drogoul — 2006 Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize Winner
Laure Drogoul, the 2006 Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize Winner, received her B.F.A. from the Tyler School of Art ( Temple University, PA) in 1978. She holds a M.F.A. from the
Rinehart
School of Sculpture (Maryland Institute College of Art). Her installations and performances have been presented throughout the United States including The Pittsburgh Children’s Museum, The Delaware Art Museum, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Cleveland Performance Art Festival, Goucher College, P.S.122 ( New York City), and Maryland Art Place.
Artscape returns July 18-20 with more than 150 artists, craftspeople, and fashion designers from across the country; visual art exhibits both on and off site; incredible live concerts on four outdoor stages; a full schedule of performing arts including dance, opera, theater, fashion, film, and classical music, hands-on projects, children's entertainers, three street theater locations; and a delicious international menu of food and beverages.
