Pepon Osorio’s Trials and Turbulence installation at ICA, detail (see posts here and here). The installation took over the entire first floor of the ICA.
The letters went out Friday and the Pew Fellows in the Arts can now be announced, and we’re shouting hooray. We’re especially happy to see Pepon Osorio who’s sooooo deserving of this award for his wonderful sculptural installations and his commitment to his community. We love him here at artblog. This was the first year that he was eligible as a Philadelphian to apply. We also send special kudos to Nadia Hironaka, whose work we admire and have been covering for years. We also admire Scott Rigby and crew’s work at Basekamp, but we didn’t realize Scott himself was a sculptor and installation artist.
This is the 15th year Pew Trusts have given the coveted $50,000 grants to a dozen deserving local artists in various disciplines (if you want more info, go to their website). Melissa Franklin, who administers the program, told us that as of this year, 201 artists have received the prize — that makes a total philanthropic dish-out of close to $10 million. We’re talking real money. This is not only the most generous grant in the region, it’s one of the few that is awarded to individuals and not for a targeted institution and an individual to do an educational or community program.
Nadia Hironaka, installation shot of Late Show (see posts here and here)
The world is of course not perfect and we know there’s heartbreak out there for deserving artists who did not receive the award this time. We at artblog say apply again. There were around 300 artist applicants this year (down considerably from the early days of the awards when hundreds more applied but on par with application numbers from the last several times). And since the jury changes each year your chance each time is an equal crap shoot.
Here’s the list:
POETRY
Nava Et Shalom
Jena Osman
Bob Perelman
Lamont Steptoe
Elaine Terranova
Scott Rigby, in a photo from the basekamp website. We haven’t written about Scott on artblog, but here’s a link to basekamp.
PERFORMANCE ART
Tobin Rothlein
David Brick, Andrew Simonet and Amy Smith (This is the Headlong Dance company, and Andrew Simonet is Libby’s neighbor, so a big shout out to Andrew).
Robert Smythe
Geoffrey Sobelle
SCULPTURE AND INSTALLATION
Nadia Hironaka
Pepon Osorio
Scott Rigby
Jurors for the sculpture and installation category were: Eunjie Joo, gallery director and curator, REDCAT, Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theatre, Los Angeles; Charlotta Kotik, curator and chair, Department of Contemporary Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; and Allan McCollum, artist, New York. .
The interdisciplinary panel that made the final decisions included:
Paul Ha (chair), director, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, MO;
Polly Apfelbaum, artist, Princeton, NJ and New York;
John Kelly, experimental theater artist, New York;
Kenneth Goldsmith, conceptual poet and DJ, New York;
Eungie Joo, director and curator, Gallery at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT), Los Angeles;
Vijay Seshadri, director, graduate program in creative nonfiction, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York; and
Peter Taub, director of performing arts, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
