The talented women of American Women Artists continue to exhibit their work at the Addison Art Gallery of Orleans, MA through September 15. The gallery will host a closing reception for the AWA Member Show & Juried Competition on Saturday, September 13 from 5-7pm.
| Awards Judge Erin Coe impressed with quality of AWA show as she highlights our place in the American Tradition
“…if we follow the trajectory of American art from the past and extend it to the works of art featured in this show at the Addison Art Gallery, we can appreciate more fully how they, like all great works of art, transcend both time and space.” – Erin Coe Erin Coe was the curator of the 2013/2014 exhibition Modern Nature: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George, organized by the Hyde Collection in association with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, an exhibition that achieved national acclaim as it travelled from the Hyde to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, then made its final stop in San Francisco at the de Young Museum. She is the co-author of the exhibition catalog, which was honored with an Award of Excellence by the Association of Art Museum Curators, and was rated as “one of the best book discoveries of 2013” by the Boston Globe. What follows are her remarks about the body of work currently on display at the Addison Art Gallery in Orleans, Massachusetts. I was honored to be selected as the awards judge for the American Women Artists (AWA) Seventeenth Annual Members Show and National Juried Competition. I have been a juror of many shows and it is a daunting task. Serving as the awards judge for the exhibition of the AWA was especially challenging given the exceptional quality of the works on view, which represent a cross section of the most talented and skillful women artists working in the United States today. AWA prescribed the criteria for evaluating the awards and it includes the following elements: composition, draftsmanship, mastery of medium, and quality of design. I’ve applied the same standards to jurying shows and all of the works featured in the galleries fulfilled and, in some cases, exceeded this criterion. Therefore, in determining the awards, I was looking for works of art that transcend these categories and engaged my eye, mind, and heart on a deeper level, whether the work evoked a mood, emotion, sentiment, or idea. Moreover, I wanted to bring a balanced perspective to my judgment by ensuring that my selection represented a variety of genres (landscape, still life, and portraiture/figurative) and medium (oil, watercolor, graphite, bronze, ceramic, stone, etc.). Lastly, I also considered the artworks’ cultural surround. By this, I refer to the visual correspondences that placed the exhibited work in a dialogue with artists of the past. As an art historian specializing in nineteenth and early-twentieth century American art, I was immediately impressed, on entering the gallery, by the visual correspondences between the works on view and historical art. In particular, such artists as Frank W. Benson, William Merritt Chase, Susan Macdowell Eakins, Daniel Garber, Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel, Childe Hassam, Walter Launt Palmer, Jane Peterson, Severin Rosen, and Andrew Wyeth came to mind. The three-dimensional works in the show evoke the streamlined aesthetic of Art Deco, or the curvilinear naturalism of Art Nouveau. While there are echoes of past art in these contemporary works, they speak to the present day and appeal to a captive audience for representational art. American art is grounded in realism. Indeed, the country’s first exceptional native-born painter was John Singleton Copley who specialized in portraiture, and the tradition of realism has persisted in this country from the late eighteenth century to today. It is kept alive by each of you – the members of AWA. In conclusion, if we follow the trajectory of American art from the past and extend it to the works of art featured in this show at the Addison Art Gallery, we can appreciate more fully how they, like all great works of art, transcend both time and space. |
Annual Member Show & Juried Competitions Winners
AWA announced the award recipients for AWA’s 17th Annual Member Show & National Juried Exhibition on August 15th. AWA congratulates the following artists on their award-winning works and all of the exhibiting artists in making for a gorgeous exhibit: AWA 17th National Juried Exhibit 2014 Award Recipients: Best of Show –Aimee Erickson for her oil, “Sarah” Award of Recognition – 3D – Alex Alvis for her bronze sculpture, “Step High!” Rogue Guirey Simpson Memorial Award – Elizabeth Pollie for her oil, “No.13” Marilyn Newmark Foundation Award – Burneta Venosdel for her bronze, “Tick Doc” Southwest Art Magazine Award of Excellence (selected by editor, Josh Rose) – Kelli Folsom for her oil, “Little Red” Award of Merit – Lori Pandy for her sculpture, “Eleanor” Award of Merit – Anna Rose Bain for her oil, “Self-Portrait at 23 Weeks Pregnant” Award of Merit – Barbara Jaenicke for her oil, “Chattahoochee Snow” Award of Merit – Cathryne Trachok for her graphite drawing, “Sun Dance”
AWA Annual Master & Signature Member Show 2014 Award Recipients: Master Signature Gold – Nancy Boren, for her oil,”Summertime” Signature Gold – Mary Dennis for her oil pastel painting, “Bare Limb Trees” |
AWA Annual Show big success for members and juried competitors alike
Over 150 people came together at the Addison Art Gallery in Orleans, MA to celebrate the artists featured in AWA’s 17th Annual Master & Signature Member Show & National JuriedCompetition Exhibition. People were lined up to join in the Opening Reception on August 15 (pictured right). The exhibition runs through September 15, and the show continues to sell exceptionally well.
“The show is running successfully due to the Addison Art Gallery’s excellent marketing efforts and high-season for crowds on Cape Cod,” says AWA Executive Director Diane Swanson.
One of the many benefits of AWA membership is the strategic positioning of our artists for a more powerful and visible presence in the art marketplace. For this show, our marketing efforts really paid off.Southwest Art did a two-page spread editorial,American Art Collector’s editorial ran to 3 pages, and Fine Art Connoisseur gave AWA a full page of editorial coverage (pictured left). Pictured below, Signature Member Leah Lopez of New York City offers a demo to an attentive audience.
Pictured directly above, gallery owner Helen Addison, standing on the far right, shares a moment with AWA artists during the Artists’ Welcoming Reception. Robust opening weekend sales gave everyone something to smile about.
There was also great participation in artist demonstrations this year. Pictured right was the Plein air presentation by Master Signature members Ann Larsen and Bethanne Kinsella Cople. “I was thrilled, honored and incredibly surprised when I found out that I had won. There were so many amazing pieces by artists that I admire and so I really had not thought that I would win anything at all–I was happy to just be included in the show with these wonderful women! It was also exciting to see that red sticker next to my painting when I came to the opening on August 16th. I’ll just say that the week of the show was a very overwhelming one, in the best way” -Jenny Kelley
Houston, Texas based Associate member Winifred Booth (pictured right) was delightfully thrilled to be participating in her first AWA show. “Everyone planned such a spectacular show, which included inspirational painting demonstrations and discussion,” Winifred said. Winifred was struck by Juror Erin Coe’s remarks during the awards ceremony, appreciating Coe’s observations about the overall quality of the show as an echo of the American continuum harkening back to stalwarts such as Wyeth, Inness, Homer and O’Keeffe. “The events I attended and overall experience were fun and of the highest caliber. “
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New Associate member and first-time juried competition finalist Jenny Kelley of Marshfield, Massachusetts (pictured left) was awarded Best 2-Dimensional for her painting, “Christabel Roses”. Kelley received more good news when she learned that her piece was also one of the first to sell. 
