Daily Bytes | Recognized | Visual Arts

Fellowship Awards Announced

Alison Denyer in her studio

The Utah Division of Arts & Museums (what most of us call the Utah Arts Council) has announced the recipients of its 2011 Visual Arts Fellowship awards.

Alison Denyer (seen here in her studio as part of our Artist Profile in June 2010) of Salt Lake City and Kathy Puzey of Ogden, Utah each received $10,000 in unrestricted funds.

Kristen Evangelista, Associate Curator at the San Jose Museum of Art, selected the 2011 fellowship awards. In her juror’s statement she says, “Alison Denyer and Kathy Puzey contribute significantly to the rising dialogue about art and the environment. They balance their concern for humanity’s role in nature with vivid imagination and an innovative use of materials.” She continues: “Denyer investigates the aesthetic potential of mapping and geography and raises our awareness of pressing environmental concerns. She meticulously depicts the earth’s surface in artwork that is loosely derived from satellite imagery and areal photography. Puzey, a printmaker and sculptor, critically engages with our complex relationship to the natural world. Her practice alternates between honoring the intrinsic beauty of the wilderness and bending nature to her will. Through labor intensive and sometimes invasive acts, Puzey blurs the boundaries between the natural and man made and the real and the artificial.”

The fellowships have been awarded annually since 1986. The 2010 recipients were Joe Ostraff and Jan Andrews, both of whom won for their video-oriented works. We recently completed an interview with Andrews, who will be our Artist Profile for the month of January. An interview with Ostraff will also appear in our pages in the following months.

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