Meet the 2021 Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize Winners

The School of the Art + Design and the College of the Arts is pleased to celebrate the ninth year of the Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize at Portland State University.

We are proud to be able to reward and encourage young artists with this prize, the highest award offered in our school. It acknowledges the achievement and promise of our students and is an important expression of our values and commitment to excellence in higher education and the arts. This year’s submissions represented work in a wide range of media. General trends included the use of natural materials, reflecting on the environment as well as the interaction of art and technology. Many artists were working with concepts of home and family in their work as well.

A jury composed of PSU Art + Design faculty and representative professionals from the art and design community reviewed 30 applications from art and design students, both undergraduate and graduate, to be awarded first, second, and third place prizes.
We are pleased to announce that this year’s recipients are Gigi Woolery (BFA Art Practice), First Place $5,500; Nolan Hanson (MFA Art & Social Practice), Second Place $4,000; and Maria Wehdeking (BFA Graphic Design), Third Place $3,000. 

There was a strong pool of applicants this year. As a result, the jury awarded an unprecedented seven Honorable Mentions: Safiyah Maurice (MFA Contemporary Art Practice candidate), Macy Eiesland (BFA Graphic Design candidate), Lisa Banta (BFA Art Practice, 2021), Gail Booth (BFA Art Practice, 2021), Emma Duehr (MFA Contemporary Art Practice, 2021), Darby Harrington (MFA Contemporary Art Practice, 2021), and Jordan Rosenblum (MFA Contemporary Art Practice, 2021).

We are extraordinarily grateful to the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation for their support to create the Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize. It was established by Arlene Schnitzer in 2013 to recognize the achievements of students in the School of Art + Design and to raise awareness of the quality of art education at PSU. With Arlene's passing in 2020, we are now grateful for this annual opportunity to formally honor her memory and legacy as a devoted and inspired leader of art and culture in Portland. The endowed award ensures that each year, three aspiring artists and designers will receive significant recognition and a financial boost as they begin their lives as active, creative practitioners.

An exhibition featuring the work of the prize winners will be held at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University from November 2 through December 4, 2021, alongside an exhibition of prints by Louise Bourgeois from the collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his family foundation. A public reception and awards celebration for the prize winners will take place Thursday, November 18, 5-7pm.

About the prize winners

Gigi Woolery – First Prize, $5,500

Synthesizing found objects, foraged material, and second-hand textiles, Gigi Woolery focuses on textiles and sculpture to create sentimental objects. Their work is influenced by land stewardship, the Colombian diaspora, and traditional home economics passed down from grandmothers, with themes that include gender and violence, and growing up culturally between the Pacific Northwest and Colombia.

Gigi Woolery is a multidisciplinary artist working out of Portland, OR. Their art has been included in group shows in Portland, Los Angeles, and New York, and has been featured in local and national print and online publications. Gigi leads workshops on textile dyeing and repair, aiming to bring hyperlocal knowledge and deep care for land to art pedagogy. They will receive their BFA in Art Practice from Portland State in September 2021.

www.cucarron.net
Instagram: @c.ucarron
 

Nolan Hanson – Second Prize, $4,000

Nolan Hanson applies an interdisciplinary approach to their practice, using existing cultural forms to directly engage with society to examine concepts of identity, power, and history. Their site-specific and socially engaged projects often have collaborative, participatory, and educational components. Nolan is the founder of Trans Boxing, an ongoing co-authored art project in the form of a boxing club that centers on trans and gender-variant people.

Nolan’s work has been shown in New York (Art in Odd Places, CUE Art Foundation, On Air Fest), Chicago (ACRE Projects, EXPLODE! queer dance: Midwest), Portland (Assembly), San Francisco (Heavy Breathing, SFAI), Berkeley (Cube Space Gallery), and Cincinnati (Wave Pool Gallery). Nolan participated in the More Art Engaging Artist Fellowship program in 2018 and in 2019-2020 they were selected for the Engaging Artist residency program. They received their BFA in Painting from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2014 and in 2021 they graduated from the Art and Social Practice MFA program at Portland State University.

nolanhanson.com | transboxing.org | Instagram: @_nolanhanson @transboxing 
 

Maria Wehdeking – Third Prize, $3,000

Obsessed with soft colors and organic lines, Maria Wehdeking mixes digital and traditional media to create enchanted worlds full of feminine shapes and endearing characters. Her style combines her western culture juxtaposed with her favorite eastern expressions to convey new perspectives. Her experience and growth as an immigrant and the associated feelings like giddiness, loneliness, and nostalgia are the main inspiration in her work.

Maria Wehdeking is a Colombian illustrator and designer based in Portland, Oregon. As an undergraduate in the School of Art + Design at Portland State University, she is involved in the International Cultural Service Program – a scholarship program where she uses her artistic skills to promote and recognize her Colombian heritage through cultural presentations and the creation of graphic elements. She also works as part of the PSU Campus Rec marketing team, where she is the creative mind behind campaigns promoting student health and wellbeing. She will receive her BFA in Graphic Design in winter 2022.
 

2021 Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize Jury

• Kate Bingaman-Burt, Associate Director, School of Art + Design, Professor of Graphic Design at PSU
• Horia Boboia, Professor of Art Practice at PSU
• Lisa Jarrett, Associate Professor of Community and Context Arts at PSU
• garima thakur, Assistant Professor of Interaction Media and Graphic Design at Western Oregon University, incoming faculty in the School of Art + Design at PSU, Fall 2021
• Maryanna Ramirez, Director of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at PSU
• Jordan Hoagbin, Art Director at NIKE and 2013 Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize recipient
• Kelsey Snook, Freelance Designer and Creative Director
• Yaelle Amir, Curator-in-Residence at University of Oregon's Center for Art Research

 
About the School of Art + Design

Driven by a belief in the power of art to shape society, Portland State University's School of Art + Design and its dynamic faculty provide a place where emerging artists, designers, and art historians can question, create, reflect and learn. With over 1,100 undergraduate majors, a vibrant and growing graduate program, a faculty of internationally recognized artists, designers, and scholars, PSU's School of Art + Design brings students from a variety of backgrounds together to exchange ideas and cross conventional aesthetic boundaries. Whether in the studio, computer lab, lecture hall, or working in the community via internships, service projects, exhibitions, and collaborations, our students have the opportunity to forge connections between traditions of visual art and their own developing expression.