Research
Awards
Lucelia Artist Award
2002—Liz Larner
Liz Larner was the second annual Lucelia Artist Award winner. Larner's sculptural work uses the formal roots of modernism to question traditional notions of space and volume. In her early work, Larner examined issues of transformation and decay in a series of petri dish cultures that she also photographed. Her subsequent installations and sculptures address the way an object defines the space it occupies and transforms the viewer's perception of that space. The silhouette created by two intersecting arcs of nylon cord in her Bird in Space recalls the shape of Constantin Brancusi's classically modern 1928 sculpture of the same title. Larner's work has been widely shown in the United States and Europe, particularly in Austria, Germany, and France. In 1999 she won a Guggenheim Fellowship. The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles organized a retrospective of her work in 2001.
Larner was born in Sacramento, Calif. in 1960. In 1985, she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the California Institute of Arts, Valencia. Currently she lives and works in Los Angeles and teaches at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Regen Projects in Los Angeles and 303 Gallery in New York City represent Larner.
Jurors:
Bonnie Clearwater, director and chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami
Matthew Drutt, chief curator at The Menil Collection in Houston
Russell Ferguson, deputy director for exhibitions and programs and chief curator at the UCLA Hammer Museum
Elizabeth Murray, artist
Jerry Saltz, art critic at the Village Voice
Pictured: Liz Larner, Bird in Space, 2001, Nylon cord, silk thread, and stainless steel, Smithsonian American Art Museum. Photo by Susan Einstein Photography
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