Two of the five emerging artists chosen as this year’s winners of ABSOLUT Au Kurant, an annual competition for emerging artists, are Chicagoans and recent graduates of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s fiber department.
Charlene Nemec-Kessel, 27, and Kyle Huffman, 47, join the other winners, Jodi Salerno of Boston, Keith E. Lo Bue of Pittsburgh and Judith Hoyt of New Paltz, N.Y., in receiving $1,000 cash prizes and the opportunity to exhibit their work at SOFA, the Sculpture, Objects and Functional Art Chicago exhibit that takes place at Navy Pier’s Festival Hall Oct. 17 through 19.
The winners were chosen from 150 emerging artists recommended by dozens of domestic and foreign-established artists who work primarily with three-dimensional media. The final “proteges” were chosen by a jury of museum directors and curators.
“While artists submitted work in every three-dimensional media to ABSOLUT Au Kurant, it’s particularly worth noting that the fiber work–in the past the weakest area represented–was outstanding this year,” says Mark Lyman, the fair’s executive director.
Huffman creates fiber sculptures out of nylon mesh in muted colors. They begin in boxes and unfold as books and have performance possibilities. Like the other winners, her work is for sale, and after SOFA, she plans a show of the same material in Ecuador. She also hopes to collaborate with a dance group using her work in a performance way, she says.
Nemec-Kessel’s fiber work tells a narrative of domestic scenes, full of personal content paired with technical skill. After SOFA, she hopes to have a one-person show at Lyons Wier Gallery here late next year.
Emerging artists are usually without gallery representation, so one of the greater “prizes” for them as an Au Kurant winner is that most are approached and picked up by prominent galleries, as was the case with Nemec-Kessel and Lo Bue, who was picked up by Mobilia Gallery of Cambridge, Mass.