SonomaArts Awards for Emerging Artists: Julie Cavaz - Sarah Frieberg - Geirrod van Dyke
May 10 - Jun 29, 2008
The Sonoma County Museum is pleased to present SonomaArts Awards for Emerging Artists, celebrating the work of promising artists with $5,000 cash awards and an invitation to exhibit their work for the first time in the Museum’s Main Gallery. Established by the Sonoma Arts Council in 2006, this second iteration continues the recognition of emerging artists for their outstanding work and provides the opportunity to advance their development as artists.
This year’s winners include Julie Cavaz, Sarah Frieberg, and Geirrod Van Dyke. Nominations were invited from 70 Sonoma County arts organizations with the aim to increase arts awareness and to build a stronger arts sector within the community. Cavaz, Frieberg, and van Dyke were selected from 57 applicants who were among 98 artists eligible for the award in a blind jury process first selected by a committee of arts professionals, and unanimously chosen by three esteemed Bay Area visual arts experts:
Scott Shields, Chief Curator, Crocker Art Museum
Allison Gass, Assistant Curator, Paintings & Sculpture, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Carrie Lederer, Curator of Exhibitions & Programs, Bedford Gallery
The 2008 awards are managed by the Arts Council of Sonoma County and funded by Community Foundation Sonoma County (CFSC). CFSC is currently building support for an Emerging Artists Endowment, which will provide sustainable funding for these awards in the future.
Artist Bios:
Julie Cavaz (b.1966) lives and works in Sonoma. She attended the Rhode Island School of Design where she received her MFA in Painting in 1992, and the University of San Francisco Academy of Art where she earned a BFA in Painting in 1990. She is owner and designer of Bacchus Glass, a hand blown glass lighting studio since 1995, also in Sonoma. Cavaz taught painting, drawing and print making in New Orleans prior to moving to California. She has participated in group exhibitions at: A Street Gallery, Santa Rosa; Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Biennial 2005; Di Rosa Preserve; as well as various galleries in San Francisco since 2001.
Excerpt from Artist Statement: This current work is an investigation of rosaries and chaplets, devotional objects invoked for solace. The large scale is an attempt to take the chaplets away from jewelry, something held in the hand, insignificant. To make an object that requires attention to the meaning of devotion and prayer, to reflect on the personal and universal aspects of faith.
Sarah Frieberg (b.1977) lives and works in Petaluma. She is currently completing her BFA in Printmaking and Sculpture at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park. Frieberg has shown in group exhibitions in Washington State, Sonoma State University Art Gallery, A Street in Santa Rosa, and California State University - Chico for the Janet Turner Print Invitational.
Excerpt from Artist Statement: I rely on elements of Printmaking and Sculpture, as well as non-traditional materials, relating to a certain body of work. For example within my current work concerning honeybees, I draw upon beeswax, bee pollen, and honey, as the strongest means to stimulate intrigue within the viewer, while maintaining the integrity of the subject matter. Choosing which materials to incorporate is as essential and unique, as a single note is to a melody.
Geirrod van Dyke (b.1981) lives and works in Santa Rosa. He earned his BFA from Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park. Van Dyke has shown at A Street Gallery in Santa Rosa, and at the University Art Gallery at Sonoma State University. He is proficient at oil painting, printmaking, digital painting and sculpture.
Excerpt from Artist Statement: In the artistic entrenching process I have found a deep-rooted interest in the fleeting nature of mans presence, the idea that as living flesh we only have limited time to understand what we are and what we could be. As a solitary individual, our great works will go unfinished; our numerous conquests will be forgotten, lost to an ever-progressing time line. In essence, only by leaving a legacy are we able to circumvent our own ephemeral nature.
