Martha Elena, Blessed Little Goose, 2020, bedsheets, acrylic yarn, beads, 52 x 47 x 7″
Fort Worth gallery Artspace111, which hosts and sponsors its annual Texas Juried Exhibition, has awarded prizes in the competition. Martha Elena’s Blessed Little Goose was awarded the top prize, a $2,000 cash award which comes with a separate solo or group exhibition at Artspace111 by the end of 2021.
“Feeling honored to be chosen as Top prize in this year’s @artspace111 Juried show,” Elena states on Facebook. “I’m also very proud to be showing in a show with my former professor, Paul Valadez, and classmate, Juan Vallejo from the RGV! Thank you to Artspace111 for creating this opportunity for us all!”
Martha Elena, left, and Evie Marie Bishop pose in front of Elena’s work at Artspace 111.
The exhibition, which is available to view by appointment at the gallery, is also available as a virtual viewing experience here. The opening reception on June 27th was eight hours long (from noon to 8pm), to allow for social distancing.
Juried by Kristen Gaylord, Assistant Curator of Photographs at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, the 2020 exhibition featured 67 works that Gaylord accepted into the show out of thousands she reportedly reviewed. Gaylord states about the virtual review process:
“Jurying art virtually is always a slightly odd experience, and it was made even odder this year as I was already cut off from the world in so many more ways than usual. But what I found was solace and encouragement. The thousands of artworks I reviewed were smart, funny, skilled, and vulnerable. They dealt with contemporary issues and forged new aesthetic paths, referenced art history and current events, mastered traditional materials and invented new ones, and often came from deeply personal places.”
Morgan Grasham, Odocoileus carnis, 2018.
The second place winner was Morgan Grasham’s, Odocoileus carnis, with a $1000 award. Honorable mentions, which were awarded $500 prizes, were given to Yuni Lee, for Dulce Periculum, Shang-Yi Hua, for an untitled work, Philana Oliphant, for Swallow’s Bone, and Leticia Bajuyo, for Tighten Your Belt: Ranch.
