WELCOME TO ARTISTS, COLLECTORS, AND ANYONE WHO LOVES ART!

Artist Spotlight focuses on interesting artists, upcoming exhibitions, and articles about art and those who love it or create it.

Discover new ways to stretch your imagination, be introduced to new artists, their exhibits, and books to read about them. Expect to excite your mind. Comments are very welcome! -- Rosemary Carstens

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Museum of Latin American Art Announces Award Winners!

Six awards were handed out this past weekend during MOLAA's 2008 invitational juried art competition for merging and midcareer contemporary Latin American artists. Invitations went out to 83 artists from Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean and winners will not only receive cash prizes, but will have the opportunity to achieve greater exposure to new audiences for their work. Each artist donates his or her entry to the museum and the winners become part of their permanent collection; the others are offered during Auction 08 for acquisition by collectors. All proceeds benefit the museum's ongoing exhibition, collection, and education programs.

Top award winners for 2008 are: Best of Show ($20,000), Leyla Cardenas (Colombia); Painting and Two-Dimensional Mixed Media ($5,000)(see image above), Rocio Rendon Castaneda (Peru); Sculpture and Three-Dimensional Mixed Media ($5,000), Angel Delgado Fuentes (Cuba); Works on Paper ($5,000), Mayra Barraza (El Salvador); Photography and Video ($5,000), Claudio Castillo (Cuba); and Honorable Mention went to Daniel Fiorda (Argentina).

More than a museum, MOLAA is a renowned cultural center that presents a wide array of special events and educational programs. It is located in the heart of the East Village Arts District of Long Beach, CA. If you in the LA area for any reason, consider dropping in to see this jewel of a museum and its fascinating collection! For more information: http://www.molaa.org

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Fire Light: The Life of Angel De Cora, Winnebago Artist

This amazing book, just out, is written by Linda M. Waggoner, an independent scholar, who resides in the bay area and published by the University of Oklahoma Press. This is the first biography about Angel De Cora, an important artist, teacher, and Red Progressive, born in 1869 in Nebraska. Waggoner does an exceptional job of scholarship, digging deeply into archives and letters, following every lead to turn up more, and yet this is not a scholarly read. Waggoner shows herself to be an artist as she paints for us a vivid picture of a flesh and blood woman who became one of the first American Indians to be accepted within the mainstream art world, a woman who significantly influenced the American Arts and Crafts movement. The life story of Angel De Cora is embedded in the history of the times and reveals some startling facts about prevailing ideas of race and education, and about a woman’s place in both. The book features more than forty illustrations, including a reproduction of Fire Light, which Angel painted to depict nostalgic memories of her childhood.

-- Rosemary Carstens



Author’s website: http://www.angeldecora.com
Author, Linda M. Waggoner