2012 USA Fellows Announced

Last week, United States Artists celebrated the 50 artists named as their 2012 USA Fellows, including six in the category of Craft and Traditional Art. The prestigious prize recognizes artists in Architecture & Design, Dance, Literature, Media, Museum, Theater Arts, and Visual Arts as well. The fellowship includes a generous monetary prize, each underwritten by many of the most forward-looking philanthropists and foundations in the nation.

Among this year’s fellows is Kurt Weiser, an Arizona-based ceramic artist and member of the American Craft Council College of Fellows since 2003. His stunning images in china paint on porcelain vessels are among the most beautiful and enigmatic in contemporary ceramics. Haunting faces and lushly rendered botanical images share the composition in scenes that spring from both art historical sources and the artist’s imagination.

Also recognized is the Tiligit/Aleut artist Nicholas Galanin, whose work contrasts traditional norms with contemporary practice; metalsmith Myra Mimlitsch-Gray, known for playing off of familiar forms in ways that question their ubiquity in our everyday life; the self-taught basket maker Leon Niehues, who has innovated on the traditional Ozark splint-knife method with inventive sculptural compositions and the use of modern materials; glass artist Sibylle Peretti, who uses the medium to create highly narrative portraits of children; and textile artist Rowland Ricketts, who has brought traditional Japanese indigo dying techniques to large-scale installations.

Of note in the Visual Arts category is Theaster Gates, whose performance and interventionist practices invigorate our often assumed relationship with everyday and past material culture. His work is included in the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's current exhibition "40 Under 40: Craft Futures."

Notable previous USA Artists Fellows include American Craft Council College of Fellows members Arline Fisch (Fellow 1979, Gold Medal 2001, USA Fellow 2006), Tom Joyce (Fellow 2003, USA Fellow 2011), Richard Notkin (Fellow 2007, USA Fellow 2008), Joyce Scott (Fellow 2000, USA Fellow 2010), and Akio Takamori (Fellow 2006, USA Fellow, 2011).