NOVEMBER 3, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Emily Smith, Executive Director, 804.643.1708 or esmith@1708gallery.org
1708 GALLERY ANNOUNCES THE INLIGHT RICHMOND 2012 AWARD WINNERS!
1708 Gallery is pleased to announce the awards from its fifth annual InLight Richmond. Last night InLight 2012illuminated the facades, storefront windows, parking lots and alleyways of Richmond’s downtown Arts & Culture District with light-based art, performances and the Community Lantern Parade. Thousands from the greater Richmond community attended the free, one-night event to experience and participate in engaging and dynamic artworks by national artists installed outside the gallery walls.
The InLight Richmond 2012 juror, Melissa Ho, Assistant Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, selected Virginia artist Devon Johnson’s Noms de Pays for the Best in Show Award. Johnson’s digitally converted 8mm film evokes feelings of time and loss and the fleetingness of memory. Installed in a courtyard in downtown Richmond,Virginia, the intimacy of the space and a sense of history in the architecture extended this sense of nostalgia.
Ho also selected New York artist Jason Peters’ installation Meandering Dynamics, constructed with found buckets, LED lights and cable, for the Best in Green Award. “My sculptures and installations . . . initially disorient the viewer, then give way to the delight of solving his/her visual puzzles, and enjoying the work’s graceful and colorful forms. The materials I use are found and mass-produced. It is looking for these waste streams that gives rise to some great materials and their potential to become something new. Recycling some of these materials allows us to revisit our relationship to items we generally overlook.”
InLight Richmond 2012 attendees were invited to vote for their favorite work of art by texting. The People’s Choice Award was given to Richmond, Virginia’s own Nelly Kate and Dave Watkins’ for their interactive audio visual installation and performance, Interstitial Transduction. “This is an unsettling of dreams deferred. In this collaboration we aim to . . . shorten the distance between action and effect. To create something euphonic and dynamic together in a crowd-affected piece—of sound and video, light and performance—pulsing within the heart of the city. To draw this community inward, where one touch will change everything. To shorten the distance between ourselves, unfolding something common and inspired. To share, coexist, project, create, and progress.”
More information, including pictures and videos, about these and the other art installations featured in InLight Richmond 2012 can be found at www.1708gallery.org/inlight.
1708 Gallery’s InLight Richmond 2012 is made possible by the generosity and support of our sponsors. Special thanks go out to lead sponsor Altria Group, as well as the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Virginia Commonwealth University, Health Diagnostic Laboratory Inc., NBC12, Boitnott Visual Communications, Dominion Resources, the City of Richmond, Magic Hat, Venture Richmond, Style Weekly, the Downtown Neighborhood Association, Hilton Garden Inn Richmond Downtown, Neathawk Dubuque & Packett, TV Jerry, Markel, the Virginia Commission for the Arts and numerous individuals.
The InLight Richmond 2012 Community Lantern Workshops and Parade are generously sponsored in part by MeadWestvaco Foundation and Main Art Supply.
Additional thanks go out to InLight 2012’s in-kind supporters including A Sharper Palate, Terry Brown, Eric Carlson, Light-Tape Electro Luminex Lighting Corporation, Linden Row Inn, Quirk Gallery, and the Richmond Police Department.
Lastly, 1708 Gallery would especially like to thank its generous neighbors, Board of Directors, staff, and numerous interns and volunteers, without whom InLight Richmond would not be possible.
##
1708 Gallery is a non-profit arts organization founded by artists in 1978. Our mission is to present exceptional new art. 1708 Gallery is committed to providing opportunities for artistic innovation for emerging and established artists and to expanding the understanding and appreciation of new art for the public
