Bartlett Center now hosting ‘Rising Voices 3: The Bennett Prize’ painters exhibition
September 13, 2024
The newest exhibition at The Bo Barlett Center showcases the work of talented female figurative realist painters. The prestigious 30-piece “Rising Voices 3: The Bennett Prize” exhibition—on display through Saturday, Nov. 30—celebrates the work of 2023 Bennett Prize winner Shiqing Deng and the nine Bennett Prize finalists.
“We are thrilled to highlight the extraordinary talent of these women artists. Their work features a rich tapestry of perspectives, technical brilliance and cultural significance for which the Bennett Prize is known,” said The Bo Bartlett Center's director, Mike McFalls. “Hosting this work is a testament to our commitment to supporting and celebrating emerging and established female artists, and we are honored to be a part of their journey.”
On Thursday, Sept. 26, the center will host a complementary public reception from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Patrons and guests can enjoy refreshments and live jazz while visiting with some of the artists and discussing their works.
A Thursday, Oct. 17, lecture by 2023 Bennett Prize finalist Artist Kyla Zoe Rafert will spotlight her work. Rafert combines painting and screen printing to create images of women and adolescent girls that “play on feminine and Romantic notions such as the peril of curiosity, the potency of beauty, and the inevitable fall of innocence.” This lecture begins at 6 p.m. and is ideal for students and the community; it is free and open to the public.
DENG AND THE BENNETT PRIZE
Deng, the 2023 Bennett Prize winner, is a painter from China who currently calls Brooklyn, New York, home. Her work is described as “quiet, contemplative, mysterious and humorous, her paintings hide as much as they reveal.”
“[Deng’s works] are strange and compelling scenes painted with technical bravado. Her distorted figures inhabit playful, unsettling spaces,” said Zoey Frank, one of four jurors and a renowned painter whose work has been displayed at The Bo Bartlett Center. “From the surrealist place settings on the table to the graphic elements on the back wall to the peculiar hand gestures, the details in each painting keep us engaged and questioning.”
Deng (pictured) holds a BFA from China’s Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and
an MFA from the New York Academy of Art in New York City. Her works have been presented
in the U.S. and China, with solo gallery exhibitions in Los Angeles and New York.
The Bennett Prize, established in 2018 and awarded biennially, is the largest for women figurative realist painters and includes a $50,000 monetary award. The competition’s other finalists included Ruth Dealy, Providence, Rhode Island (winner of the Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt Prize for Achievement in Figurative Realism); Ronna S. Harris, New Orleans; Haley Hasler, Fort Collins, Colorado; Sara Lee Hughes, Lockhart, Texas; Monica Ikegwu, Baltimore; Laura Karetzky, Brooklyn; Linda Infante Lyons, Anchorage; Mayumi Nakao, Brooklyn; and Kyla Zoe Rafert, Amanda, Ohio.
ABOUT THE BO BARTLETT CENTER
Columbus State University’s Bo Bartlett Center is a dynamic, creative learning laboratory that is part-gallery/museum, part-experimental
arts incubator, and part-community center. Located in Uptown Columbus and part of
the university’s RiverPark Campus, its 18,000-square-foot interactive gallery space
hosts six to eight rotating exhibitions of regional, national and international acclaim
each year. It also permanently houses The Scarborough Collection—14 large-scale paintings
by the center’s namesake, artist Bo Bartlett—as well as the complete archive of sketchbooks,
correspondence, journals, recordings, photographs, artistic notes, memorabilia and
objects relevant to the production of Bartlett’s work.
Except when closed for holidays, The Bo Bartlett Center is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, visit bartlettcenter.columbusstate.edu.
Featured news image: “Life” (top) and “Visual Art” (bottom); both are oil on linen. Courtesy of the artist, Shiqing Deng (also photographed).
Media contacts:
Julie Umberger, Gallery Coordinator, The Bo Bartlett Center, 706.507.8432, umberger_julie@columbusstate.edu
Michael Tullier, APR, Executive Director of Strategic Communication + Marketing, 706.507.8729,
mtullier@columbusstate.edu