Marie Watt, Blanket Stories: Great Grandmother, Pandemic, Daybreak, 2021, 105 reclaimed blankets from 21 states and cedar, 108 x 38 1/4 x 40 inches. Collection of Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, Portland, OR. Photo: Kevin McConnell. Courtesy of the artist.
MARIE WATT RECEIVES ARTISTS’ LEGACY FOUNDATION’S 2024 ARTIST AWARD
September 13, 2024
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA—The Artists’ Legacy Foundation is pleased to announce Marie Watt (b. 1967) as the recipient of the 2024 Artist Award. Watt’s multidisciplinary practice explores identity, history, and connections to the greater world. She often collaborates with craftspeople and local communities to create regional dialogues and encourage links between generations.
The Artist Award is an unrestricted merit award of $25,000 given annually to a painter or sculptor who has made significant contributions to their field and whose work shows evidence of the hand. Each year, ten artists are proposed for the Award by five anonymous peers from around the country, and one is selected by a panel of three jurors. Over $400,000 in grants have been distributed to artists since 2007.
Board president Squeak Carnwath states, “The first time I saw Marie Watt’s work was at the Seattle Art Museum. I loved that she was able to marry the traditional ceremonial with contemporary visual culture. I have since made it a point to see as much of her work as I can. Her work is generous in its beauty and deep in its conceptual form.”
The 2024 jury consisted of William Moreno, arts administrator and consultant; Michelle Yun Mapplethorpe, Executive Director of the Katonah Art Museum in Katonah, NY; and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, artist, activist, and recipient of the 2023 Artist Award.
Michelle Yun Mapplethorpe states, “Marie Watt’s compelling meditations deftly and seamlessly engage history, memory, place, and social practice. The impressive formal mastery exemplified across her practice, along with her many accomplishments in the field, merit Watt the ideal recipient of the 2024 Artist Award.”
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith says, “Marie Watt stands out in a crowd of artists with her storytelling that relates history to contemporary culture. Further, her materials are all recycled, blankets, cedar and steel, but made into objects that are outstandingly elegant.”
“Employing a variety of elements such as blankets, cedar, neon, steel and beads, she takes the ordinary and transforms them into formidable cultural avatars,” says William Moreno. “The results are meditative and emotionally arresting– a metamorphosing of traditional domestic textiles into transfixing, urgent totems. Watt’s work is confident, resonant and determined, both in materiality and message.”
Watt states, “I am so honored to receive this ‘artist’s artist’ award and recognition from my respected peers. I have long admired the Artists’ Legacy Foundation for leading generative conversations around archiving and legacy planning, and I am grateful for their support not only through this award but also through the work they do every day.”
Watt is renowned for her methods of storytelling through objects and materials. Her totemic sculptures comprised of blankets reflect on shared experiences, generosity, and humanity, and honor the blanket donors by including their individual stories. Her recent work with jingle cones reflects on the origin and meaning of the jingle dance, and the way traditions spread over time. Jingle cones have been used as adornments since the late 1800s, and were traditionally made from the lids of tobacco cans. While there are various stories of the jingle dance’s origin, Watt has referred to one about an Ojibwa nation woman whose dream directed her to create dresses with jingles and dance around her sick granddaughter as a method of healing. This practice spread to other tribal communities, likely due to positive outcomes.
The Artists’ Legacy Foundation will host an online program on Thursday, October 17 at 4:00 pm PT (7 pm ET) featuring Watt in conversation with Dr. Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander, the Robert M. and Ruth L. Halperin Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University.
Viola Frey, Artist’s Mind/Studio/World wallpaper
INTRODUCING VIOLA FREY x FLAVOR PAPER WALLPAPER
November 21, 2023
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – Artists’ Legacy Foundation, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, and Flavor Paper are pleased to announce the reproduction of wallpaper designed by Viola Frey. Frey’s wallpaper designs were originally created during a residency at The Fabric Workshop and Museum’s printing studio in 1992. Frey created a bold pattern using imagery from her visual lexicon, including nude models, figurines, globes, and her face in silhouette. Titled Artist’s Mind/Studio/World, the wallpaper is part of a larger body of work that explores the ways artists take in their surroundings and reflect them in artwork.
The original wallpaper included up to nine colors screenprinted on wide paper- backed cotton sateen, a truly artisanal – and commercially challenging – endeavor. Only a limited amount was produced at The Fabric Workshop and Museum, and it was included in two exhibitions in 1992. 40 years later, a visit to the FWM archives sparked a conversation, which led to this exciting reproduction project.
The new Flavor Paper reproduction utilizes the design industry’s latest processes and materials, making Frey’s signature large-scale and vibrant designs available for the first time to the public.
This re-issue highlights the project’s collaborative nature, wherein the artist and studio staff worked together to explore the medium’s possibilities.
Visit the Flavor Paper website to learn more about the printing materials and to place your order.
About Flavor Paper
Founded in 2003, Flavor Paper produces wallcoverings by handscreened and digital methods using water-based inks and quality substrates to create wallcoverings that are eco-friendly and made-to-order or to the trade. Flavor Paper collaborates with selected artists to create wallcoverings that carry out their vision.
About Artists’ Legacy Foundation
Founded in 2000 by painter Squeak Carnwath, sculptor Viola Frey, community advocate Gary Knecht and anticipating bequests from other artists, the Foundation stewards the work of Legacy Artists and facilitates their posthumous philanthropy; recognizes outstanding painters and sculptors through awards and grants; and serves as an educational resource for artists, scholars and the general public.
About The Fabric Workshop and Museum
The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) is an internationally acclaimed contemporary art museum devoted both to the creation and presentation of innovative works of art. Its Artist-in-Residence Program provides artists at all stages of their careers with the opportunity to collaborate with FWM as they experiment with new materials and new media, taking their work in fresh and often unexpected directions. Founded in 1977 by Marion “Kippy” Boulton Stroud (1939-2015), FWM presents ambitious exhibitions which convey a story of contemporary art that unites process with finished works.