Artadia has announced the recipients of the sixth annual Los Angeles Artadia Awards: Beatriz Cortez, Amir H. Fallah, and Suné Woods. Cortez, a Los Angeles–based multidisciplinary artist, whose work explores topics such as versions of modernity, memory and loss in the aftermath of war, and migration, and Woods, who is best known for her multichannel video installations, photographs, and collages, will be given $10,000 in unrestricted funds. The artist grants were supported by the Angeles Art Fund and the Capital Group. Fallah, who was selected as the Marciano Art Foundation Artadia Awardee, will receive $25,000 in unrestricted funds.“While Amir H. Fallah’s, Beatriz Cortez’s, and Suné Woods’s practices are notably distinct, they all engage non-linear temporalities and the multivalent nature of identity in thoughtful and poignant ways,” said prize juror Katia Zavistovski. “In his exuberant paintings and installation environments, Fallah deftly draws from sources as varied as Persian miniatures, children’s books, and modernist abstraction to present hybrid worlds and layered narratives that unfold over time. Cortez’s labor-intensive sculptures imagine future realms while remaining grounded in a deep knowledge of and pluralistic approach to history and material; and in her entrancing video work, Woods explores liminal spaces—both physical and spiritual, bodily and psychic—often confronting the intimate and vulnerable aspects of being.”
In the first round of jurying, Cole Akers, a curator and special projects manager at the Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; Jova Lynne, a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit; and Anuradha Vikram, an independent curator and writer based in Los Angeles, selected six finalists— Cortez, Fallah, Arshia Haq, Alice Könitz, Shizu Saldamando, and Woods. Zavistovski, an assistant curator of modern art at LACMA, joined Vikram for the second round of evaluations, for which they conducted studio visits with the shortlisted artists. The applications were open to any visual artist, emerging or established, who is living in Los Angeles County and has been based in the area for at least two years.
Commenting on the award program, Vikram stated: “It’s an exhilarating feeling to be able to make such meaningful financial gifts to artists. The awardees reflect the expressive range, artistic precision, and political engagements of Los Angeles, America’s biggest ‘third culture’ city.”
Suné Woods, We was just talking, 2017, video still.
