Academy Art Museum Announces Winners for the Annual Members’ Exhibition

 

The Academy Art Museum is pleased to announce the annual Members’ Exhibition Award Winners. The Museum’s annual Members’ Exhibition invites artists to submit imaginative, traditional, and experimental works in any medium made between November 2022 and November 2023. Each year, the Museum invites a judge to award prizes through a blind jurying process which are awarded on the evening of the opening reception. Many of the pieces in the exhibition are for sale, and can be purchased at the Museum. The exhibition is open through November 26, 2023.

This year’s juror is Peter Nesbett, an art historian, curator, designer, and editor. He is currently the Director of the Mitchell Art Museum at St. John’s College in Annapolis, which, along with AAM, is one of five nationally accredited art museums in the state of Maryland. Previously, he worked at Christie’s and Gagosian Gallery (New York), the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Washington Project for the Arts. From 2001-2010, he co-directed Triple Candie Gallery. He also published artonpaper magazine, which focused on artists’ editions, multiples, photography, and ephemera. He is the co-author/editor of The Complete Jacob Lawrence (University of Washington, 2000), a two-volume publication, that includes the first catalogue raisonné on the work of an American artist of African descent. He holds an MA in art history from the University of Washington and a BA in Visual Studies from Cornell University.

“The Museum has organized an annual Member’s show since our founding year in 1958. It’s a wonderful testament to our exceptionally creative community and the unusually high concentration of talented artists who live in the region,” commented Director Sarah Jesse.

The winners of awards given for this year’s Members’ Exhibition include:

Best in Show: Susan Schauer John, Cooper’s Cousin, 2023, fiber

Catherine Cripps, Cailleach the Scottish Winter side of the Celtic Triple Goddess, 2023, homegrown gourd, paper mache, paint

Nancy South Reybold Award for Contemporary Art: Gentry Pack, God’s Little Secret, 2022, acrylic on canvas

M. Susan Stewart Award for Best in Wood: Heidi Wetzel, Windswept, 2023, fiber

Trippe Gallery Award for Best Work on Paper: Peter Hanks, Pine Branches, 2023, graphite

The Jane Shanahan Hill Offutt Memorial Award for Painting: Laura Era, Jayden, A Cool Dude!, 2023, oil on linen
Robin Westre, Jasper and Greta, 2023, oil on canvas

Best Eastern Shore Scene (sponsored by the Working Artist Forum): Mona Birmingham, Grace Creek, 2023, oil

Best Landscape Award (sponsored by the St. Michael’s Art League): John Moran, Untitled, 2023, oil

Arielle Marks Award for Best Print (sponsored by Amy Haines and Richard Marks): Judith Wolgast, Wilderness, 2023, etching

Excellence in Photography (sponsored by Tidewater Camera Club): Cid Collins Walker, Petroglyph I, The Freemonts, Nine Mile Canyon, 2023, photography