Mia Feuer is this year’s first-place winner of The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards, a visual art competition produced by the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District honoring artists from Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Virginia. Feuer, an installation artist from Washington, D.C., receives $10,000.
Second-place winner Caryl Burtner from Richmond receives $2,000. Burtner works in collections of ephemera from her own life and popular culture. She was also a Trawick Prize finalist in 2006.
Third-place winner Ryan Browning of Frederick, who works in sculpture, painting and drawing, is awarded $1,000. Browning received the Trawick Prize’s “Young Artist” award (for artists under 30) in 2008. This year’s “Young Artist” award of $1,000 went to Lu Zhang of Baltimore, whose work includes ink drawings and sculpture. She was also a finalist in 2009.
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The awards were announced at an invitation-only reception Sept. 1 held for the finalists, winners, family and friends, and the media. The work of winners and finalists of the Trawick Prize will be displayed September 1-30 in downtown Bethesda at the
Many of the artists will be on hand to discuss their work at the opening reception from 6-9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 9, held in conjunction with the
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According to the Trawick Prize has awarded over $112,000 and has exhibited the work of over 90 visual artists since it was established in 2003. This year, 300 artists applied to be in the exhibit, according to Bethesda Urban Partnership’s Stephanie Coppula.
The finalists for 2011 also included:
- Lillian Bayley Hoover, Baltimore
- Warren Craghead III, Charlottesville
- Adam Davies, Washington, D.C.
- Skye Gilkerson, Baltimore
- Michelle Rogers, Alexandria
- Sofia Silva, Baltimore
- Marty Weishaar, Baltimore
According to Bethesda Urban Partnership, the Trawick Prize is “one of the first regional competitions and largest prizes to annually honor visual artists.”
The competition was established by Carol Trawick, the past chair of the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, past chair of the Bethesda Urban Partnership, and founder of the Bethesda Painting Awards. The activist and philanthropist is also the founder of the Jim and Carol Trawick Foundation, which assists health and human services and arts non-profits in Montgomery County.
This year’s selection panel includes Virginia Commonwealth University sculpture department chair Amy Hauft, Sarah Newman, curator of contemporary art at Washington’s the Corcoran, and Sue Spaid, executive director of Baltimore’s Contemporary Museum.
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The Trawick Prize exhibition will take place at Artery Plaza Gallery, 7200 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda, Sept. 1-30. The gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday, noon through 6 p.m.
