AJF Announces Sharon Massey Winner of 2009 Emerging Artist Award

The Art Jewelry Forum (AJF) is pleased to announce this year’s Emerging Artist Award winner, Sharon Massey. Ms Massey was chosen from among ninety-one entries, a record number, from the United States, Canada, China, Germany, United Kingdom, Australia, The Netherlands, Italy and Israel.

The goal of this award is to acknowledge promise, innovation and individuality in the work of emerging artists. The competition is open to makers of art jewelry who have recently completed their professional training and have not been a featured artist in a commercial gallery or museum. Ms Massey will receive a $5000 cash award. In addition, her work will be featured by an AJF member gallery at the Sculptural Object and Functional Art (SOFA) Expo in Chicago and in AJF advertisements and she will serve as a juror for next year’s competition.

Jurors for the 2009 competition were Ursula Ilse-Neuman, curator of jewelry at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York City; Gail Hufjay, long-standing member of AJF and a collector of contemporary jewelry; and Masumi Kataoka, jewelry artist and recipient of the 2008 award.

Ms Massey received a BFA in sculpture with a concentration in jewelry/metals in 1999 from Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC. She received a Masters in Metal Design in 2006 from East Carolina University, Greenville, NC.

Ursula Ilse-Neuman commented: ‘Rebecca , a close runner-up, expresses intellectually challenging ideas in her one-of-a kind, CAD/CAM pieces. Her work goes beyond the application of an advanced technology characteristic of our age, to imbue this new formal language with an aesthetic sensitive to profound social, political and personal messages that distinguish her work from purely formal/technical concerns.’ And Masumi Kataoka noted, ‘Ms Strzelec is able to use the CAD/CAM process in her own unique way that is easily recognizable from other people’s work in the same medium.’

Formal announcement of this award, with images of the work, will be made at SOFA Chicago, November 6-8, 2009.