RISD Announces 2008 Graduate Awards of Excellence

This was the second year that an external jury was assembled to select the winners, and the panelists who reviewed the work represent years of professional experience and an exceptional knowledge and passion for each respective category. Deborah Berke [RISD ’75/77, Architecture] of Deborah Berke & Partners Architects LLP in NYC and professor of Architectural Design at Yale University juried the Architecture category; Julie Lasky, Editor-in-Chief of I.D Magazine and MFA design criticism faculty at New York’s School of Visual Arts juried the Design category; and Ian Berry, Associate Director/Curator of The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College juried the Fine Arts category.

ARCHITECTURE
– Julia Howe – Landscape Architecture
– Frederick Besançon – Landscape Architecture
– Sarah Adeel – Interior Architecture
Honorable Mention
– Robert Highsmith – Architecture
– Sunkyu Koh – Interior Architecture
– Soon Young (Sara) Kim – Interior Architecture

DESIGN
– Ritsuko Hirai – Textiles
– Matthew (Zeke) Leonard – Furniture Design
– Christian Swinehart – Graphic Design
– Jeffrey Nordhues – Industrial Design
– Nora Rabins – Furniture Design
– Brendan Ravenhill – Industrial Design
Honorable Mention
– Moon Jung Jang – Graphic Design

FINE ARTS
– Nathan Craven – Ceramics
– Chandra Glaeseman – Sculpture
– Jeanne Jo – Digital Media
– Nathaniel Katz – Digital Media
– Lucas Roy – Digital Media
– George Terry – Sculpture
– Blade Wynne – Painting
– Shirin Adhami – Photography
– Kara Dunne – Printmaking
– Cooper Holoweski – Printmaking
– Caleb Larsen – Digital Media
– Elizabeth Skadden – Digital Media
– Gabriela Salazar – Painting
Honorable Mention
– Ginny Casey – Painting
– Catherine Jones – Painting
– Annie Langan – Photography
– Lucky Leone – Digital Media
– Breanne Trammell – Printmaking
– Kelly Goff – Sculpture
– Rosalinda Gonzalez – Digital Media
– Noel O’Connell – Ceramics
– Stefanie Pender – Glass
– Erin Perry – Sculpture

“The work is impressive for its ambition, insight, daring, and pure creativity,” said Berke.

“Taken as a whole, these projects reveal that their creators are inhabitants of a wide, complicated, and aesthetically stimulating world,” observed Lasky.

“This year’s group of graduates reacts to our world’s uneasiness, volatility, and unclear future by looking carefully at their most intimate surroundings. The subtle turns in their artworks makes for complex work that rewards repeated viewing,” said Berry.

The work by final year winners of the Graduate Awards of Excellence will be on view at the Rhode Island Convention Center in RISD’s Annual Graduate Thesis Exhibition from May 21 – June 1, 2008. The exhibition, located in Hall A of the Convention Center in downtown Providence, is free and open to the public daily from 12-5 pm (12-8 pm on May 31), with an opening reception on May 20 from
6-8 pm.

The poster announcing RISD’s Graduate Thesis Exhibition can be sighted in New York City in Chelsea and on Fifth Avenue through May 31, 2008.

For more information or to view the work online, visit http://www.risd.edu/graduate

RISD’s Annual Graduate Thesis Exhibition is generously supported by The Phoenix Media Group.

Contact:
Jaime Marland
401.427.6954
[email protected]

http://our.risd.edu

Image above:
Nathan Craven
[RISD MFA 2008, Ceramics]
Title: 4,511 part 1
ceramic
48” x 68” x 112”
2007

For more information go to: http://www.risd.edu