During SCHMUCK 2016 : AJF 2016 awards – 24 Fevr.-1er Mars 2016
AJF ANNOUNCES FINALISTS FOR 2016 ARTIST AWARD
Five Finalists Shortlisted for International Prize
Mill Valley, California, USA–Art Jewelry Forum (AJF) is pleased to announce the five finalists for its 2016 Artist Award. The finalists will exhibit their work with Sofia Björkman, from Platina, during the international art jewelry fair Schmuck, in Munich, Germany, from February 24 through March 1, 2016.
The Five finalists for AJF’s 2016 Artist Award are:
Lynn Batchelder – Carina Shoshtary — Seth Papac — Aric Verrastro — and Timothy Veske-McMahon.
Finalists were chosen from the largest group of Artist Award applicants to date–151 artists representing 35 countries–and judged on originality, depth of concept, continuity of design, and quality of craftsmanship. This year’s jurors were Philip Clarke of New Zealand, inaugural director of Objectspace; 2014 Artist Award winner Seulgi Kwon, from South Korea; and AJF board member and collector Susan Kempin, who is from the United States.
The unrestricted cash prize of $7500, generously funded by Susan Beech and Karen and Michael Rotenberg, will be awarded to one of the five finalists. AJF would like to thank Sofia Björkman and PLATINA for providing a showcase for the winner and finalist during Schmuck and donating the gallery’s profits to AJF. The winner will be announced in February 2016.
Finalists were chosen from the largest group of Artist Award applicants to date–151 artists representing 35 countries–and judged on originality, depth of concept, continuity of design, and quality of craftsmanship. This year’s jurors were Philip Clarke of New Zealand, inaugural director of Objectspace; 2014 Artist Award winner Seulgi Kwon, from South Korea; and AJF board member and collector Susan Kempin, who is from the United States.
The unrestricted cash prize of $7500, generously funded by Susan Beech and Karen and Michael Rotenberg, will be awarded to one of the five finalists. AJF would like to thank Sofia Björkman and PLATINA for providing a showcase for the winner and finalist during Schmuck and donating the gallery’s profits to AJF. The winner will be announced in February 2016.
Lynn Batchelder Tunnel, 2015, brooch, steel, silver, 127 x 51 x 38 mm, photo: artistMFA, Metal, State University of New York at New Paltz, New York, USA, 2013
« My studio practice relies on a drawing process where forms and ideas develop intuitively through the initial exploration of a line on paper. In these works industrial steel becomes transparent and delicate as cuts made with the jeweler’s saw reflect the quality of a line drawn by hand … I am constantly trying to capture small moments of contrast where control and imperfection collide. »
Lynn Batchelder, Tunnel (on the body), 2015, brooch
Carina Shoshtary- Confused Branches, 2015, necklace, 9 x 33 x 25 cm, photo: artist
MA, Academy of Fine Arts Munich, Germany, 2012
»My work starts with an intuitive experimental play with found materials, which usually come from my immediate surroundings. In the process of experimenting, the materials are being thoroughly transformed; the original source cannot be identified anymore … My jewelry pieces may appear like artifacts of a past civilization, fossils from another planet, or the ornaments of fabled beings. »
MA, Academy of Fine Arts Munich, Germany, 2012
»My work starts with an intuitive experimental play with found materials, which usually come from my immediate surroundings. In the process of experimenting, the materials are being thoroughly transformed; the original source cannot be identified anymore … My jewelry pieces may appear like artifacts of a past civilization, fossils from another planet, or the ornaments of fabled beings. »
Carina Shoshtary, « Confused Branches 3″ (detail), 2015, necklace
Seth Papac - Cali Condensation, 2015, necklace, raised and anodized aluminum, brass, rayon, velour, 1016x508x102 mm, photo: artist
MFA, Metals/Jewelry, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, USA, 2009
« Life in Southern California, with its unreal sunsets, light-bleached buildings, and vestiges of 70s style, brought my memory to a saturation point, forming crystals of experience … These merged into objects with varying physical relationships to the body–at the scale of architecture, at the scale of jewelry, and in between. Utilizing the vocabulary of jewelry and architecture, space and place are explored–from the past to the present, from the personal to the cliché, from the obvious to the mysterious. »
MFA, Metals/Jewelry, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, USA, 2009
« Life in Southern California, with its unreal sunsets, light-bleached buildings, and vestiges of 70s style, brought my memory to a saturation point, forming crystals of experience … These merged into objects with varying physical relationships to the body–at the scale of architecture, at the scale of jewelry, and in between. Utilizing the vocabulary of jewelry and architecture, space and place are explored–from the past to the present, from the personal to the cliché, from the obvious to the mysterious. »
Aric Verrastro – Spaces, 2015, necklace, steel, acrylic paint, polyster, thread, 58 x 8.5 x 3 cm, photo: artist
MFA, Metalsmithing/Jewelry, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA, 2015
« I have recently been displaced from living in a city, which has left an emptiness in my life. The creation of each piece has become a method to fill the void. The forms are architectural, modular, constructed from steel, becoming allegorical representations of the energy of a thriving, vibrant environment … As jewelry, the body completes the piece as people fill and give life to architectural spaces, expressing the vitality and connection I feel toward the urban human experience. »
Timothy Veske-McMahon Borve VI (on the body), plastic, aluminum, 8.5 x 12.5 x 1 cm, photo: artits
MFA, Metalsmithing, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, USA, 2013
« We seek out and delve into mirrors for clarifying affirmation but, in truth, are met with a foreign body … This perceived closeness of similarity and familiarity is a deception–fictitious shorthand we use in identifying within society and relationships. If the act of definition is a loss of information, is it possible to create a loss-less object? »
MFA, Metalsmithing, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, USA, 2013
« We seek out and delve into mirrors for clarifying affirmation but, in truth, are met with a foreign body … This perceived closeness of similarity and familiarity is a deception–fictitious shorthand we use in identifying within society and relationships. If the act of definition is a loss of information, is it possible to create a loss-less object? »
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