Friday the 13th will be lucky for one local artist.
On the auspicious July day, jurors will announce the winner of the prestigious Janet and Walter Sondheim Prize ? a $25,000 award.
An exhibit showcasing the finalists? photographs, paintings, films and sculptures opens Saturday at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
“None of us have any idea which artist [will win] ? it really will be a photo finish,” BMA Director Doreen Bolger said.
An independent panel of jurors including Robert Storr, the curator and dean of the Yale University School of Art, selected seven finalists from more than 320 hopefuls from the Baltimore-Washington area.
In 2006, Maryland Institute College of Art alumna Laure Drogoul received the first-ever Sondheim Prize. Winning the $25,000 honor could become a MICA-graduate tradition if Richard Cleaver, Eric Dyer, Geoff Grace or Tony Shore wins.
“It?s pretty exciting,” said Shore, 35, a South Baltimore native. “I was surprised to be chosen.”
On unforgiving black velvet, Shore depicts family and friends who would own a black velvet painting.
“[The medium] is commonly considered in the art world lowbrow, but [in Baltimore neighborhoods] it?s what you put up on your wall and what you were proud of,” he said. While painting, “I gained more respect for the people and culture and what the medium is capable of.”
It?s important to Shore to create paintings that are accessible to a variety of people with the same intensity, he said. During graduate school he solicited feedback on his work from major art critics as well as construction workers laboring on a two-year project at his school.
“Serendipity led to wonderful connections between [artists? works] that couldn?t have possibly been planned,” BMA Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs Jay Fisher said
In addition to the exhibit at the BMA, Maryland Institute College of Art will also exhibit finalists? works.
For more information, visit artbma.org or mica.edu.
