Juror Comments:

Two Swimmers, a lithographic monoprint by Michael Walden, features two photographic images layered over each other. Both images are duplicated horizontally creating a mirror image. One represents the surface of rippled water, printed in a deep, inky blue. The second “mirrored” layer in black ink represents the male figure, wearing swim trunks and cropped at the shoulders and right above the knee. The scale of the work is intimate, however the composition itself holds a great presence due to the use of symmetry. 

The juxtaposition of the two images, at first glance, would indicate the art historical theme of bathers. However, the symmetrical mirroring of the two layers prompts the viewer to pass by the apparent, furthering the conversation within the piece about (self) reflection, enlightenment, figuration, the awe of the sublime, or the layers’ visual shifting eliminating a hierarchy of the represented images. Walden’s statement communicates these principals by saying the work “focuses on illuminating the dialectic of obscuring things–which sometimes speaks to discomfort or hiding–and emerging things–which speaks to the process of enlightenment… Enlightenment only comes with reflection.”

The conceptual warhorse of this piece is the use of mirrored imagery and equally weighted layering. Both images are printed with equal visibility, allowing the viewer’s focus to seamlessly switch between the figure and the water’s surface. By repeating the imagery (mirrored horizontally), the print has the illusion of a single fold similar to a book which, in turn, subtly asks the viewer to approach this work more intimately than a standard composition. Walden’s use of the figure and treatment thereof deepens the significance of this, as the figures are quartered in towards the other, creating a nod to our personal self-reflections. By cropping the figure at the shoulder, the identity of this figure becomes empathetic, allowing the viewer to import their own self into the narrative. It becomes less about the physical body in space as an object and more about the body as a “dialectic” communicator, seeking understanding through opposition and enlightenment through reflection. 

Juror Comments:

Bay Window, a watercolor painting by Vidar Haaland, represents a ground-floor section of a white clapboard house. Each clapboard reveals a keen observation of glancing sunlight within the cool shadows. The gutter, foundation, basement window, and the bay window itself make this composition dynamic, while at the same time, convey the reality of the house’s architectural vernacular and a sense of place. 

What makes this watercolor more than what is described above is the use of reflections on the double hung windows. The side windows are reflecting the sides of the house that are out of view from the composition. The center window is where the viewer of the work is implicated. Here, we see the sky with two clouds, a telephone pole with wires, a grassy horizon, an indication of the house’s interior, and most importantly, the slight indication of someone’s reflection in the window (at the approximate center of the picture plane). Is this the artist at work observing his subject? Or is this me, the viewer, seemingly enjoying the sense of light and geometry, only to realize the self as voyeur, looking into the windows of another’s home?   

Haaland’s painting conjures relations to luminicsm and American Realism, and summons a reference to the historically notable work of art, Les Meninas (The Maids of Honor) by Diego Velasquez. Here, Velasquez paints himself into the group portrait, looking around his easel and out at the viewer. In Haaland’s Bay Window, the portrait is of the white clapboard house and the artist’s reflection (or is it yours?) is the humorous, yet implicating presence of an outside observer.

Juror Comments:

Reflections (2020) is a carved marble figurative sculpture by artist Cecilia DelGaudio. The nude figure is depicted sitting on the ground with the head and torso leaning over bent knees, obscuring the figure’s face. A swath of fabric is wrapped around the lower portions of the legs and feet. The figure’s hair is falling forward over the knees and gradually morphs into the folds of the fabric, merging the two together seemingly as one form. 

The figure’s face being tucked down points to this being a personally intimate portrayal of the female figure - not in an outwardly presenting pose like the figures in, for example, Édouard Manet’s painted figures (e.g. Olympia or Le Déjeuner Sur I’herbe). The subject of the sculpture could be, on one side, in a moment of recovery (physical or emotional), self comfort, or rest. On the other side, this figure can be viewed as being in a pose of self-protection, reclusiveness, or defeat. In this latter scenario, the carved hair flowing into the draped fabric points to one’s self as a source of comfort, as a blanket can reference safety, comfort or concealment. Here, the hair covers the body as a form of comfort, like the blanket. 

The way DelGaudio uses the rough texture and smoothed polish of the marble to distinguish the different planes between the body and fabric is not only a simple and effective way to convey tactility and capture or reflect light, it gives the viewer a sense of ease. This well-earned technical ease conceptually allows the viewer to empathize with the figure as the artist’s hand is coming through in a more honest, personal capacity. This is a welcomed facet of the work, pulling it away from the classical traditions of figurative marble sculptures.