West Michigan Area Show

May 9, 2015 - August 9, 2015

The work of West Michigan’s talented community of visual artists is on display at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts’ annual West Michigan Area Show. Since the 1960s, this annual juried exhibition has showcased exceptional work in all media, drawing hundreds of entries from a 14-county region. Each year, an experienced juror chooses the artists from more than 300 submitted entries, ranging from paintings, prints and photos to mosaics, ceramics, jewelry, sculpture and mixed-media works.

Jurying this year was performed by KIA Executive Director Belinda Tate, and Hamza Walker, Associate Curator and Director of Education of The Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago.

More than $3,000 in awards were given out on May 9, in an opening reception for the exhibition, to the following artists:

AWARDS

  • Grand Prize ($1,000): Elisabeth Carnell, L’essentiel est Invisible, saggar-fired white stoneware
  • Second Prize ($500): George Robeck, Storage Jar with Cord and Weights, porcelain with fiber cord
  • Third Prize ($400): Taylor Mazer, Plow, pen and ink on paper
  • Fourth Prize ($300): Albert Lavergne, Cross Arch, fabricated steel
  • Fifth Prize ($200): Jonathan Wijnberg, American Liberians, oil on canvas
  • Kalamazoo Knitting Guild Award for Fiber ($100): Susan Blackwell Ramsey, Anthropology, hand-spun, hand-knit wool
  • Log Cabin Quilters’ West Michigan Art Quilt Award ($200): Ann Baddeley Keister, Shibori Dancer Triptych, silk, cotton, wool, glass beads
  • Signature Artists Cooperative Award ($200): Thomas Rumsey, Holes, lathe-turned white oak burl
  • Weavers Guild of Kalamazoo Award for Fiber ($250): Susan Hale, Orbis Marem (Globe of the Sea), traditional wet felting with multiple resists
  • West Michigan Potters Guild Eleanore Smith Memorial Award for Ceramics ($250): Maria Scott, Untitled, pit-fired stoneware
  • Kalamazoo Book Arts Center Award ($250): Crystal Shaulis, 1,000 Words Out of Context, accordion book: letterpress and graphite
  • Peepers Stained Glass Award ($250): Linda Kekic, Night Pyramid, beveled dichroic glass, copper, sterling silver
  • The Martin Maddox Prize for Imaginative Realism ($350): Joseph Cherian, Portrait of a Mother, oil on canvas
  • Ward H. and Cora E. Nay Director’s Purchase Prizes: Elisabeth Carnell, L’essentiel est Invisible, saggar-fired white stoneware; Mary Whalen, Nest, tintype, and Untitled, tintype