San Francisco Museum announces recipients of the 2008 SECA Art Award

I commend SFMOMA for honoring the brightest talents in the Bay Area with a museum show. It's forward thinking on all fronts. A Washington, DC museum would do well to emulate this progressive stance.

From artdaily.net

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2008 SECA Art Award. Administered by SECA (Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art), an SFMOMA auxiliary, the biennial award honors local artists of exceptional promise with an exhibition at the museum, an accompanying catalogue, and a modest cash prize.

The 2008 SECA Art Award exhibition, featuring the work of Tauba Auerbach, Desirée Holman, Jordan Kantor, and Trevor Paglen, will be on view at SFMOMA from February 14 through May 17, 2009.

The SECA Art Award distinguishes artists working independently at a high level of artistic maturity whose work has not yet received substantial recognition. This year, SFMOMA considered more than 200 artists working in a broad range of media who were nominated by Bay Area art professionals, including museum and alternative-space curators, art school instructors, gallery owners, critics, SECA members, and former recipients of the SECA award. After visiting the studios of 31 finalists, the winners were selected by Apsara DiQuinzio and Alison Gass, SFMOMA assistant curators of painting and sculpture.

Of the award process the curators state, “It was an exceptional year. Our experience reconfirmed that the Bay Area is a thriving artistic community, which made the final decisions especially challenging. Work being made here clearly holds an important place in the context of the larger art world in its nuanced engagement of our contemporary moment. It is an honor to acknowledge four among the many deserving artists considered for the award this year.”

Finalists for the 2008 SECA award include: James Buckhouse, Monica Canilao, Dina Danish, Veronica De Jesus, Lucas DeGiulio, Ala Ebtekar, Dustin Fosnot, Aaron Gach, David Huffman, Prajakti Jayavant, Packard Jennings, Ruth Laskey, Christian Maychack, Keegan McHargue, Julio Cesar Morales, Jay Nelson, Kate Pocrass, Emily Prince, Lordy Rodriguez, Zachary Royer Scholz, Paul Schiek, Andrew Schoultz, Jennie Smith, Chris Sollars, Travis Somerville, Paul Wackers, and Mary Elizabeth Yarbrough.

Since 1967 SECA has honored more than 50 Bay Area artists with its award program. Recent award recipients include Sarah Cain, Kota Ezawa, Amy Franceschini, Mitzi Pederson, and Leslie Shows (2006); Rosana Castrillo Díaz, Simon Evans, Shaun O’Dell, and Josephine Taylor (2004); John Bankston, Andrea Higgins, Chris Johanson, and Will Rogan (2002); Rachael Neubauer and Kathryn Van Dyke (2000); Chris Finley, Gay Outlaw, Laurie Reid, and Rigo 98 (1998); and D-L Alvarez, Anne Appleby, and Barry McGee (1996).

The SECA Art Award is funded by SECA, an auxiliary of SFMOMA. The cash prize is made possible by the Robert Huston Memorial Fund.