Sandisfield Arts Center

Awards Presentation, Gallery Opening and Reception: Winners of the Daniel Manacher Young Artists Prize
2022-08-13 14:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | MA
We are proud to announce the talented winners of the 2022 Daniel Manacher Young Artists Award, an award in honor of the late Daniel Manacher and funded through generous donations in his name. Join us for the opening reeption and awards presentation Saturday August 13 2 -4 PM. The show runs through September 7 by appointment (gallery@sandisfieldartscenter.org) or when the Arts Center is open for an event. This is the first year of the award competition.
Featured image is Daniel Manacher, Shwoopy Loops, 2013, and Daniel’s Camaro in the Petersen Automative Museum in Los Angeles.
Daniel Manacher’s parents, Carol Birnbaum and Adam Manacher, have described the intent of the prize:
“With this prize, we hope to carry forward values that were important to Daniel. We are happy that the judges have found young artists who tenaciously pursue their vision, seek to make ordinary objects extraordinary, and bring community into conversation.”
Judges this year were Jess Cofrin, artist and Gallery chair at the Sandisfield Arts Center, Susie Crofut, artist, and Arts Center Board member, and Jessie Young, a teacher of Daniel’s who has a specialty in digital art and works a lot with young artists.
From the judges: “The selection committee was very pleased with the caliber of artists who applied for the prize. The three winners were chosen because they all have a clear artistic voice that comes through their chosen media. The work they applied with was consistent, cohesive, and showed a deep understanding of the materials.”
About the prize
Winners:
Julia Rose Miner:

Formed A New
2020
Acrylic Paint, Faux Fur, and Joint Compound on Board
36”x24”

Statement:
Hi, my name is Julia Rose Miner. I am a painter who lives and works in the small, artistic town of Stockbridge, MA. In my most recent collection, my textural paintings of abstracted landscapes explore the ideas of innocence and decay. I use a pallet that consists of candy, stuffed animal materials, and vibrant pastel colors. These works play with the corrosion of nostalgia while holding onto a childlike optimism. At the age of seven I was diagnosed with a visual impairment, called Stargardt Disease, leaving my world altered with a constant vibrating visual texture. I use the sense of touch as a source of sight to navigate through life and art. This is how I experience the world and I feel compelled to use these tools when making my work. In my practice I translate bits and pieces of visual information to fabricate a new reality that lies in the comfort of unease. I welcome and encourage both delight and putrefaction to coexist. Building layers I construct and paint distorted and discolored imagery inspired by my everyday surroundings. My work embraces the ideas of joy and deterioration while abstracting the world.

Natasha Wein:

Spaces: Suburbs
2022
Acrylic paint, gouache, and water-soluble ink pencils on paper
24×18 inches

Statement:
“Spaces” explores the interface between external and internal experience, specifically how we hold the spaces and relationships we inhabit in our minds as memory. The mental landscapes we foster and the narratives we tell ourselves about those landscapes inform our sense of belonging and resilience. In this series, I used my longing for contentment amidst a particularly distressing and uprooted period in my life to influence my use of color and shape; by painting with intention, I created an external space with movement and possibility from where I could work with my internal distress and, in turn, repaint my psychic wallpaper. When we strip back the cognitive clutter, a more honest rendering of our experiences and desires can be exposed, and one that is often more sincere and playful. This way of working can decongest complicated and backlogged feelings so they can be integrated into our present experience. I used tape as a tool to create territories of paint and water-soluble ink pencils to make lines connecting territories of color. We often think of boundaries as points of separation, but they are more meeting points that allow for a relationship to occur. This was a process of experiential learning through process—a practice in clearing spaces and rendering passages to navigate memories, circumstance, and dreams.

Alorah Welti:

Eve Adam Lilith (Red White Blue)
2022
Paint and decoupage on plastic skeletons
approximately 20×20 inches

Statement:
My work, primarily in mixed media, paper, and fiber, asks and seeks to answer the question of what is sacred. As someone with synesthesia, a sensory neurodivergence that connects senses like sound and color, I am eternally searching for the visceral and dreamlike. Texture, saturation, and reclamation are fundamental to my practice, as are myth and feminist spirituality. I am endlessly inspired by fertility, ancestry, and the constant presence of history in all things.
