Judges have been selected for the 2008 Wyoming Arts Council visual arts fellowships. They are Lawrence Argent, Mary K. Connelly and Patty Ortiz.
Lawrence Argent was born in England and educated in sculpture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia, and has a M.F.A. from the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore, Md. He is the recipient of numerous fellowships including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation; the Colo. Council on the Arts: the Core Fellowship at the Fine Arts Museum, Houston, and has been an artist in residence at the John Michael Kohler Foundation. He is professor of art at the University of Denver, and was awarded the Distinguished Scholar award in 2002. He has exhibited internationally and is working on public art projects around the U.S. His art “encompasses a breadth of form and materials, enveloping each with a path of consciousness through which the physical promotes the non-physical and the sublime emerges as a vehicle laying a slippery foundation in the gap between stimulus and response.” Web site: www.lawrenceargent.com
Born in 1961, Mary K. Connelly was raised in Belleville, N.J. She earned her B.F.A. in painting at Washington University in St. Louis and received an M.F.A. in painting at Indiana University in Bloomington. Recently awarded “First Place” in the 10th International Open 2007 at the Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, Connelly was awarded a solo show at the gallery in 2008. Shows in 2007 included a solo exhibition at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and a three-person show at Stanford University. Her work was featured in the 2007 edition of The William and Mary Review. The artist’s work is now featured in a four-person show at the SFMOMA Artist¹s Gallery at Fort Mason in San Francisco. Connelly resides in Denver and is an assistant professor of painting and drawing at the University of Colorado Denver. Web site: www.maryconnelly.com
Patty Ortiz has been the executive director of Museo de las Americas since 2005. Located in Denver’s revitalized Santa Fe district, the Museo strives to educate the community about the diversity of Latin American art and culture, from ancient to contemporary. Patty earned her B.F.A. at the University of Texas at Austin and her M.F.A. at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She is known for her distinctive works of public art, such as the 140 floating steel airplanes on display at Denver International Airport. She recently received a Livingston Fellowship from the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation to study fundraising models and create one appropriate for the Museo; research the management styles of model leaders in business as well as the nonprofit sector; and develop mentorships with several directors/curators of museums in the U.S. and Latin America. Find more at the Museo web site: www.museo.org
Application forms will be mailed by Feb. 15. They also will be available by that date on the WAC web site at http://wyoarts.state.wy.us.
Postmark deadline will be April 30.
For more information, contact Michael Shay, individual artist program specialist, at 307-777-5234 or mshay@state.wy.us.
