2014
|
|
2014 Artist Recipients
The San Diego Art Prize committee selected two established San Diego artists who then chose emerging artists to feature in the final exhibitions. This year's recipients were Marianela de la Hoz with emerging artist Bhavna Mehta and Philipp Scholz Rittermann with emerging artist Joseph Huppert exhibition at Anthenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla.
Catalogue Writers |
Ben Strauss-Malcolm, Director Quint Gallery
Constance Y. White, Art Program Manager, San Diego International Airport Danielle Susalla Derry, Curator, Oceanside Museum of Art Kathryn Kanjo, Chief Curator and Head of Curatorial, The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego Roxana Velásquez, Maruja, Baldwin Executive Director, San Diego Museum of Art |
Marianela de la Hoz
|
|
|
Marianela de la Hoz paints using the ancient medium known as egg tempera, with a contemporary look into current images. The works are extremely detailed, delicate and precise. She seeks to offer insights into the hidden character of her subjects through visual codes and exaggerated features. Her version of magic realism has been termed “white violence” because of her use of black humor and fantasy to depict the darker side of humanity. Like a researcher she puts a drop of the blood of each theme under the microscope. Each painting is analyzed without moral judgments. It takes considerable skill and a great deal of time to observe these subjects and compose this art so well, hence the small formats. The viewer peers into a miniature world, unlocks a key and enters armed with a magnifying glass, expecting to come close enough to hear a whisper, to feel a pinch, to discover a hidden secret, and perhaps to crack a smile. The contents, the formats, the technique, the texts (written thoughts), all conform a unique work of art and invite the viewer to approach, to get closer and closer. The small size perhaps makes an audience feel safe, but like a spider draws a fly into its web, de la Hoz seeks to entrap the viewer rationally as well as viscerally. Marianela de la Hoz artwork has been exhibited in prestigious galleries as well as in several museums, universities and cultural institutes in her native Mexico, in the USA where she resides since 2001, and in Canada, Dubai, Japan and Germany. De la Hoz is represented by Noel Baza Fine Art.
Bhavna Mehta
Bhavna Mehta draws with a knife, cutting paper to tell visual stories. Her work is based on the idea that everything is connected. Starting with a single sheet of paper, she cuts out shapes to reveal the image. She was raised in India where pattern and color are part of daily life. The abundance of these memories roots her work. Whether it's a figurative story or one inspired by a line from a song, her goal is to build a narrative with a universal theme. In telling one story in a particular setting, she hopes to speak in a common language about cultural and personal associations. Mehta has been exhibiting her work since 2009 and her work was reviewed in Art Ltd in 2013. She has engineering degrees from both India and US and worked as a software engineer for many years before turning to art. She learned paper cutting from Beatrice Coron at Penland School of Craft. She is now the Education Chair for San Diego Book Arts and teaches workshops all over San Diego County.
|
Philipp Scholz Rittermann
From nocturnal scenes of industry to views of pristine landscape, Philipp Scholz Rittermann’s work spans opposite ends of our environment. His work is held in over one hundred public, private and corporate collections, from MoMA, New York to the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, France. Scholz Rittermann exhibits in national, and international venues. In 2001, he was the subject of a mid-career survey at San Diego’s Museum of Photographic Art. The exhibition was accompanied by the monograph of Rittermann’s work, Navigating by Light. In 2011, MCASD was proud to present the exhibition Emperor’s River: Philipp Scholz Rittermann, which captured China’s rapidly evolving economy with a study of life along its historic Grand Canal. Philipp Scholz Rittermann has been teaching photography for over thirty years in the USA and abroad.
Joseph Huppert
Joseph Huppert was born in Mesa, Arizona and grew up Phoenix and discovered early that drawing was his passion. He likes the simplicity of using just a few materials, for example graphic lead on a mylar substrate. He soon learned that although University was not for him, he had a hunger for information, first art history then art theory, but most importantly the books by the artist in their own words when clear and concise. One artist led to another as he explored the writings of Donald Jude, Sol LeWitt, and Robert Smithson. He admired the words and eventually with direct experience the artist Robert Irwin. He helped install his 2007 show at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and now works as a full time assistant to Irwin. They both share the love of dance and often use the metaphor of improvisation to explain a process which has similarities. Huppert was a break dancer, Irwin loves jazz. Huppert chooses to work outside the context of museum and galleries with guerrilla type intervention but has in the past few years accepted the challenges of exhibiting at Ice Gallery and Bread and Salt. The inside space has limitation that he embraces including the dimensions of the space, entry point, and light and that led him to a bias toward geometry in those processes. Working now with Philipp Scholz Ritterman, they will be exploring the more limitless outdoor spaces where both will influence the outcome in a series on Collaborative Interventions.
|
San Diego Art Prize presented by:
|
|
|
© 2006-2025 San Diego Visual Arts Network (SDVAN). All Rights Reserved.
