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The Wauson Fellowship Fund was created in 2008 in memory of Kim Wauson (1954–2008), a highly creative and remarkably committed artist advocate. Kim devoted most of his life to the discovery and encouragement of artists of exceptional talent who were underrecognized for their vision and rigor of practice. His advice, support, and friendship were valued by friends and colleagues.

Advisors to the FOR-SITE Foundation nominate candidates for the Wauson Fellowships. By design, eligibility guidelines are broad. There is no restriction with respect to medium or style, nor is there an age, nationality, or educational requirement. Artists at any point in their professional career are eligible; however, underrecognized, emerging, and midcareer artists are understood to derive greater benefit from the award. Awards are granted with no special conditions—the artist may use it as he or she sees fit.

The FOR-SITE Foundation has selected Lori Ellison, Terence Haggerty, Dan Schmidt, and Barbara Takenaga as recipients of 2009 Wauson Fellowships. The artists have been awarded $5,000 fellowships and a small exhibition of their work will be held at Haines Gallery, San Francisco, in the second half of 2009.

Lori Ellison works in a compulsive manner to create drawings and paintings that appear both rough and refined in their use of repeating visual elements. Using media ranging from gouache on panel to ballpoint pen on notebook paper, her work draws from traditions as disparate as Indian miniatures and high school notebook doodles. Ellison's work was most recently shown at Sideshow Gallery in Brooklyn, NY.

Terence Haggerty's large-scale wall drawings create dynamic movement and depth through the repetition of line. Technically precise and visually spare, the works are arresting in their use of color and negative space and are well-fitted to the vertical surfaces they occupy. Haggerty is represented by Kuttner Siebert Galerie in Berlin, and recently had a solo exhibition at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.

Dan Schmidt applies the language of abstraction to found objects such as scraps of packaging material and minimally-designed household goods. By highlighting form and pattern he lessens the emphasis on drawing and composition, and transforms the nature of the readymade from something exposed to something revealed.

Barbara Takenaga's dense abstract paintings on linen or wood panel create complex spatial relationships through the repetition of colorful geometric and organic forms, producing a hypnotic, fractal-like effect. Takenaga is represented by Gregory Lind Gallery in San Francisco and DC Moore Gallery in New York.

The five advisors for 2009 were: Agnes Gund, art collector and president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art; Wynn Kramarsky, art collector and founder of the Fifth Floor Foundation; Larry Rinder, Director of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive at the University of California, Berkeley; a prominent abstract artist; and a leading writer and art critic, both of whom wish to remain anonymous.

Special thanks to FOR-SITE board member Jane Scott, Scott McDonald, the family of Kim Wauson, and funders of the Wauson Fellowship.

 

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