89th Annual Awards Exhibitions – Prize Winners Announced

exhibition

The Jury of Awards met at Brookgreen Gardens to decide the 17 prize recipients of National Sculpture Society’s 89th Annual Awards Exhibition. The Jury of Awards is composed of at least two sculptors and a curator and this year included Eugene Daub, Sculptor and Fellow of NSS; Kaitee Floyd, Owner, Cheryl Newby Gallery (Pawleys Island, SC) and Bryan Rapp, Sculptor.

The top prize, the NSS Gold Medal and Charlotte Geffken Prize, went to French American sculptor Emmanuel Fillion. Fillion started sculpting a t 15 years of age and began as an apprentice renovating prestigious historical monuments in France including Notre Dame, Chateau de Chambord, the Louvre, the Sainte Chappelle in Vincennes, the Cathedrals of Amiens, Sens, Beauvais, Rouen, Bourges, Moulins and Blois to name a few. About his work, Fillion says “When carving or modeling clay, I aways feel that I am in the right place in time and space. My contemplative approach to life takes me into a meditative state to materialize a thought, a form, or an emotion often impressed by love or admiration. The movement and beauty of dance, the infinite possibilities of the grace in the nude, the fascination of dramatic events. I believe my work is a direct expression of my spiritual experience and approach to life in the light and the dark. The white marble used for Exaltation reminds me of the lines of snow in the mountains and the gentle curves shaped by the wind. It is an homage to Martha Graham, one of the most iconic and revolutionary choreographers of the 20^th century. An ode to the beautiful body in motion. A celebration to movement.”

The NSS Silver Medal and Maurice B. Hexter Prize went to Duality Column by NSS Fellow Richard MacDonald. Working from his Monterey, CA studio, MacDonald is a self-taught sculptor who has spent the last 50 years reviving the lost art of figurative sculpture through innovation, passion, and intense commitment. “Duality represents a principle that is fundamental to art from all time periods and cultures – it is the timeless paradox that opposites exist in harmony and interdependence with one another,” MacDonald begins. “Light and dark, day and night, male and female: each principle is defined by its opposite, and when the two are seen in balance a state of harmony is achieved: we perceive a oneness that is transcendent.”

And rounding out the top three awards is Walking Down the Railway by NSS Elected Member Varvàra Fern, which earned the NSS Bronze and John Cavanaugh Memorial Prize. The Russian born artist, who now calls Philadelphia her home, is a 2022 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts graduate. “My art is strongly inspired by my own travel experience, and it reflects the beauty I saw in the forms of road landscapes during my journeys,” says Fern. “My art is focused on both the emotional and physical aspect of the travel experience. My own voyages taught me that travel does not just bring a person to a different place; it also makes a great impact on one’s emotional condition. I therefore dedicate my artistic attention to portraying people during their journey in physical space, as well as traversing from trauma and loss to harmony and fulfillment in their spiritual dimension.”

NSS Gold Medal and Charlotte Geffken Prize of $4,000

Exaltation by Emmanuel Fillion

NSS Silver Medal and Maurice B. Hexter Prize of $3,000

Duality Column by Richard MacDonald, FNSS

NSS Bronze Medal and John Cavanaugh Memorial Prize of $2,000

Walking Down the Railway by Varvàra Fern, NSS

The André Harvey Award of $2,500

Home Is Where You Find It by Stefan Savides, NSS

The Anna Hyatt Huntington Award of $1,000 and a Brookgreen Medal

Red Queen by Jeremy Bradshaw, NSS

Fred and Cheryl Newby Patrons Award of $1,000

Oneira: Muse of Dreams by Kristine Poole, NSS