Two of this year’s esteemed jurors are arts professionals specialized in ceramics (clay), and printmaking/drawing (ink), respectively. The third juror, is a renowned curator, or curatorial expert, from within the arts or museums industry.
Printmaking/Ink Juror, Kimiko Miyoshi
Kimiko Miyoshi’s printmaking experience began as a collaborative silkscreen printer in Japan. After receiving her MFA in Printmaking from University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, she built scientific exhibitions for Explora Science Center, a children’s science museum, in Albuquerque, NM. The work had a great effect on her creative practice and observational habit. Miyoshi’s recent solo exhibitions include Connecting the Dots, Angles Ink (San Pedro),Merge, Mira Costa College (two persons, Oceanside), Works on Paper at Stonerose Gallery (Long Beach), Layered, Project 643 (two persons, Ventura), Serial Possibilities, La Sierra University (Riverside), and Pull Together, Southern Oregon University (Ashland, OR). She has participated in group exhibitions such as Print is Dead, Dakota Gallery, (Bellingham, WA), Air Water and Earth, Muckenthaler Cultural Center (Fullerton), Printmaker’s Hand IV, Northwind Arts Center (Port Townsend, WA), Breaking Illusions: Artist as Scientist, CGU (Claremont),Pacific State Biennial North American Printmaking Exhibition, Univ. of Hawai’i at Hilo, Five Woman Printmakers, JACCC (Los Angeles, CA), Currency, Turner National Print Competition(Chico, CA), Invisible Systems, Manhattan Beach Art Center, Print Ed, Limerick School of Art and Design (Ireland), Past, Present, Future, Silpakorn University (Thailand), and Mass Emergence, Angels Gate (San Pedro). Miyoshi teaches printmaking at CSU, Long Beach.
Selection Criteria:
“While it was an exciting opportunity to review such a diverse group of works, it was also challenging to evaluate highly tactile art media such as ceramics and printmaking through images on a computer screen.I found each work submitted to have various enticing aspects. Some works reveal the artist’s expertise and commitment in the chosen media and formal grasp (form and composition, color scheme, mark-making etc.). Others have meaningful content, reflecting the socio-political background of our time, love of nature, or inquiry into the human psyche. I was most intrigued by works whose creator seemed to have taken risks and made discoveries during execution, then pushed it a bit further, resulting in the magical and stunning expression.”
Ceramics/Clay Juror, Susan Elizalde-Henson
Susan Elizalde-Henson was born and raised in Southern California. She received a BA in Art History, a MA in Art, and a MFA in Art, with an emphasis in ceramics, from California State University, Fullerton. Graduate study also included coursework at the New York College of Ceramics at Alfred University in New York. She has been Artist-in-Residence at the Watershed Center for Ceramic Art in Maine and the International Museum of Ceramic Art in Denmark. She has served on artist selection panels for the City of Los Angeles, Cultural Affairs Department, Public Art Projects and has served on the Board of the Southern California Women’s Caucus for Art. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, and has been published in several books and periodicals including:Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Art; Triumph of our Communities: Four Decades of Mexican American Art; Chicano Art for Our Millennium; and Puro Muerto: Contemporary Images of Day of the Dead. She is currently Associate Faculty at Saddleback College Emeritus Institute, and Facilitator for Art and Creativity for Healing, Laguna Hills, California.
Selection Criteria:
“Art’s relationship to time matters. How does a work of art evoke the reverberations of history, frame if not reshape contemporary concerns, and assert future relevance? The medium also matters. It carries a unique language of meaning that is both separate from, and inseparable from, the work’s concept. The artist’s mastery of the medium supports how well the work communicates. Experiencing art involves noticing thoughts, emotions; and do they linger? It’ s important to be open to art’s provocations. The surest sign of a work of art’s effect: whether your curiosity fades or grows exponentially, with time.”
Curatorial Juror, Juri Koll
At an early age, Juri Koll actively sought out important artists as part of his studies and began exhibiting his work. After classical studies at UC San Diego, he received his BFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 1984. He has exhibited at Photo LA, Cameravision, Muzeumm, Temporary Space LA, LA Louver, California Institute of the Arts, UC San Diego, the Xenodrome in San Francisco, the Mike Kelley Gallery at Beyond Baroque Literary Art Center, Art Share LA, the Gabba Gallery, the Porch Gallery, the Torrance Art Museum and the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster, California among others. He has written about art for the New York Times, the Huff Post and other publications. Articles on his own work have appeared in the LA Times, and the Huff Post as well as others. He has taught buon fresco at the J. Paul Getty Villa, and has taught art at Brooks College and film at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America. He has produced notable art world documentaries and worked with major museums and galleries, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Gallery in Washington D.C., the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. His work appears in universities, galleries and museum collections including the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., the University of New Mexico Art Museum, Brown University, College of DuPage Library, Corvallis Public Library, McAlester College, and Trinity University. He is an Advisory Board member of Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center and has lived and worked in Venice for thirty-five years and in 2018 opened the Institute’s first permanent galleries. As Founder/Director of the Venice Institute of Contemporary Art (ViCA) since 2011, Koll curates and presents traveling exhibits at museums in the U.S. and abroad, such art the Chabot Museum in Rotterdam, Netherlands and the Wilhelm Morgner Haus Museum in Germany, and the Long Beach Museum of Art, the Torrance Art Museum, and the Museum of Art and History in California. He is the Director of the Fine Arts Film Festival, which features films on the art world from across the globe and is in its sixth year.
Selection Criteria:
“My selection criteria was based on ‘story’, with concept being broadly defined from intangible to crisply enunciated, just that it affected me strongly. This was of course combined with how unique the use of materials felt. Whether traditional use of ink and clay or either one, the selections became clear due to the strength of the work.”
