County Museum
of Art announces winners of annual young Talent Purchase Awards
The winners
of the 22nd annual Young Talent Purchase Awards have been announced
by the Los Angeles Museum of Art.
Ceramist Gifford
Myers and painter Don Sorenson were selected to
receive the $3,000 award sponsored by the Modern and Contemporary
Art Council and the Department of 20th Century Art.
The award is
believed to be the most substantial and prestigious offered by any
American museum or institution to younger artists after the National
Endowment grants.
The Young Talent
Purchase Award program is open only to Los Angeles residents under
age 36 and was established in 1963 to provide support and encouragement
to promising artists.
The selection
was made by senior curator of 20th century art Maurice Tuchman,
curator Stephanie Barron and assistant curator Anne Edgerton in
concert with the selection committee from the Modern and Contemporary
Art Council consisting of Carol Rosenzweig, chairman; Jeanne Meyers,
Doris Redman; Pam Runkle; Bonnie Wilke; and alternates Sharon Bubman
and Nan Corman.
Approximately
80 studios were visited and presentations viewed before Myers and
Sorenson were chosen.
...
Sorenson, 35,
received his M.A. from Cal State Northridge. His one-man shows have
included Nicholas Wilder Gallery, Mount St. Mary's College, the
Roy Boyd Gallery and Hunsaker/Schlesinger Gallery.
Sorenson's work
has been exhibited at the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary
Art, the Albuquerque Museum, Security Pacific National Bank, Long
Beach Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Art
and Nagoya City Museum in Japan.
Sorenson is
best known for his large abstract paintings characterized by the
use of brilliant diagonal slashes and lightning bolts. Gradually
he began to incorporate faint human figures. Eventually the human
forms became the central motifs, being derived from classical Greek
sculptural subjects.
Most recently
he incorporated a more complicated, abstract style, painting very
large canvases full of hidden images.
According to
Tuchman, "Myers and Sorenson have in common an exceptional
exhibition history with 17 solo shows between them, and participation
in almost 100 group exhibitions. Yet they both seem poised for more
ambitious undertakings in their diverse art styles, with sufficient
experience to take on risky and serious artistic explorations."
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