SECA Awards fete rising artists
Among the things the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art does to help support Bay Area artists is staging the annual SECA Awards, which not only helps emerging artists but arts fans who want to get acquainted with them. The award is named for an auxiliary of the museum, the Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art, founded in 1961. Its role was to create a better connection between the museum and Bay Area artists, and the annual SECA Awards are part of that.
The awards have been granted each year since 1967to an artist or group of artists who display appreciable talent and artistic development but have not yet garnered much recognition. Each winner is granted an exhibition at SFMOMA and accompanying catalog as well as a cash prize.
The best part, as far as arts fans are concerned, is that we can view each artist's exhibit. For free. This year's winners are Binta Ayofemi, Maria A. Guzmán Capron, Cathy Lu, Marcel Pardo Ariza and Gregory Rick. Each artist gets a second-floor SFMOMA gallery with which to display site-specific works showcasing their works. Ayofemi's installation deals with such concepts as Black abstract art and Black joy; Capron's sculptures merge human figures with more abstract forms; Lu's clay creations, as SFMOMA puts it, combine “long-nailed hands and corner-store fruits”; Ariza displays portraits of Bay Area transgender leaders that mimic Catholic altarpieces; Rick's complex abstract paintings tackle race issues.
Details: Through May 29; second floor at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; free; www.sfmoma.org.