Lucelia Artist Award Winner, Jessica Stockholder September 17, 2007

Jessica Stockholder, 2006; Fluorescent light, bicycle rack, plastic waste basket, plastic thermos, red light bulb and fixture with plastic pitcher shade, yellow plastic crates, electric wires, wooden stool and bench, plywood, rubber mat, metal flashing, plastic ties, acrylic and oil paint and orange weight for weight lifting; Installed: 64 by 81 by 80 inches; © Jessica Stockholder, Courtesy Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York

Jessica Stockholder is the 2007 Lucelia Artist Award winner. Stockholder works in expansive installations at a time in which the boundaries of sculpture and installation have been so greatly enlarged that even an installation the size of a room might seem modest by comparison to other artists working in the genre.

The scope of her work, I'm convinced, is part of her appeal: the artist works sometimes at a quite large scale, but the focus is always on the work's interaction with the space on a detailed scale. She carpets floors and builds false walls; she uses electrical outlets. She draws directly from the local architecture to build out relationships between color and material through space.

The Washington Post writes up the award, focusing on Stockholder's use of found and commercial materials:

Working with things saves me from the problem of the blank canvas. The materials are freighted with significance to respond to. Sometimes, not knowing what I need, I go out looking for stuff: I go to Home Depot, T.J. Maxx, Goodwill and to tag sales, or I collect things that people have left on the street.

The jurors who chose Stockholder were David Joselit (art history chair, Yale University); Helen Molesworth (contemporary art curator, Harvard's Fogg Art Museum); David Reed (artist); Paul Schimmel (chief curator, MoCA in Los Angeles); and Rochelle Steiner (director, Public Art Fund).

The Lucelia Artist Award is part of the museum’s ongoing commitment to contemporary art and artists through annual exhibitions, acquisitions and public programs.  The exhibition Celebrating the Lucelia Artist Award, 2001-2006 will be on view beginning September 21, running through June 22, 2008.

• Jessica Stockholder, Sculpture, Lucelia Award, American Art,
  Smithsonian American Art Museum