The 29th Annual Betty Bowen Memorial Award for Artists

Tacoma-based artist Oscar Tuazon has been selected as this year’s recipient of the 2007 Betty Bowen Award. In addition, two PONCHO Special Recognition Awards in the amount of $1,500 will go to Seattle artist Joseph Park and Portland artist Vanessa Renwick. Five finalists, including Bradley Biancardi and Maki Tamura, were chosen by the committee on September 11, 2007.  A total of 462 applicants from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho competed for the $11,000 award.

An award ceremony and reception will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 23, from 5:30 – 8 p.m. in the Nordstrom Lecture Hall at the Seattle Art Museum’s newly expanded downtown location. A brief slide presentation will be given of each winner’s work, followed by a reception in the Simons Boardroom. The ceremony and reception are free to the public. Please enter through the 1st Avenue and University Street entrance.

Oscar Tuazon resides in Tacoma. He graduated from Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1999, and participated in the Whitney Independent Study program in 2001 and 2002. The nature of his practice does not establish boundaries between his life and his artistic output. Rather, his practice is a lifestyle that is rooted in a theoretical investigation of space and architecture in pursuit of creating an alternative approach to living within contemporary society. Basing his aesthetics on a commitment to sustainable economy, self-sufficiency, and mobility, Tuazon often uses recycled materials and found objects to create works that double as functional dwellings or appliances, which facilitate alternative means of survival. The artist has stated: “My recent work inhabits a central concept of VONU living: that architecture is simply a mode of occupation, a way of living. This is an intangible architecture, not a design practice but a lifestyle that shapes the space around it.” Tuazon has exhibited both nationally and internationally, including shows in Paris, Oslo, and Vancouver. He is a founding member of the Center for Urban Pedagogy in New York.    

Joseph Park is a Seattle artist who received his BA from Cornish College of the Arts in 1988, and his M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts in 1990. Over the years he has developed a distinctive array of styles and subject matter. His most recent work explores still life and portraiture, and resonates with aspects of both cubism and digital imagery. Park was a recipient of the Neddy Artist Fellowship in 2005, and has had solo exhibitions at the Frye Art Museum, Howard House, and Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco. 

Vanessa Renwick is a Portland artist whose media include video and video-based installations. At times she appropriates segments of antiquated black and white films, redirecting their meanings toward the present. Elsewhere, her own animation or documentary style footage is used to address pressing social and environmental issues. Music plays a leading role in her work, often shaping the viewer’s judgments and emotional reactions. Renwick is represented by PDX Gallery in Portland, and her films have been screened throughout the world. 

Bradley Biancardi received an M.F.A in Painting and Drawing in 2005 from the University of Washington. Living and working in Seattle, his work explores architectural space through a variety of techniques, including painting, drawing, collage, and photography. Alternating between multiple systems of perspective and between diverse variations of line and color, Biancardi utilizes the formal means of painting and the structural dimension of architecture in ways that expose unexpected aspects of both. He has worked as an instructor at the Gage Academy of Fine Arts and at the Pratt Fine Arts Center. In 2006 he had a solo show at Crawl Space Gallery, where he has also worked as a curator. 

Maki Tamura received her M.F.A in 1999 from Temple University.  She was born in Kyoto, Japan and lives and works in Seattle. In her most recent series, titled “The Enlightenment,” Tamura engages 18th Century European and American imagery in order to contemplate the relation between that period and our own. Small, round watercolors are arranged into a circular format and bound together by decorative paper constructions that evoke a sense of Baroque and Neo-Classical opulence. Her work was exhibited at the Seattle Asian Art Museum in 2003, and she received the Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship Award in 2001. 

Now in its 29th year, the Betty Bowen Committee was established in 1977 to acknowledge and reward artistic achievement. It is an independent committee whose funds, administration, and promotion are supported by the Seattle Art Museum. The Committee reflects Betty Bowen’s deep interest in working artists of the Pacific Northwest. The primary vehicle for this support is the Betty Bowen Award, which is a non-restricted cash grant given each year to a single artist from Washington, Oregon, or Idaho, and often supplemented by PONCHO Special Recognition Awards.

The Betty Bowen Committee includes Michael Alhadeff, Gary Glant, Mark Levine, Tom Wilson, Merrill Wright, Llewelyn Pritchard, Peggy Golberg, Jeffrey Bishop, Anne Gould Hauberg, Bill True, Norie Sato, Greg Robinson, Mike Hess, Maggie Walker, and Michael Darling. Each year two past winners of the award serve as rotating artist committee members. This year’s artist members were Margie Livingston and Brian Murphy. 

Further questions about this year’s award can be sent to robertb@seattleartmuseum.org.

 
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