2023 Grand Prize Winner

PATRICIA DIART

The letter stitched on the cape reads, “Dear Dad, You were a cop in the police force. Your father was an alcoholic and he had abused you. I know that you suffered. Despite your efforts to be a good police officer, you created chaos in our home. Due to your fear and self-loathing, you terrorized and humiliated our family. You called us names like bitch, nigger, and stupid. You had unpredictable fits of rage, punching your fists into walls, throwing lamps and chairs, shooting things in the house at random with your gun. You tried to strangle Mom once. Another time you put a gun in her mouth because she “gave too much lip.” There was no place to hide. We were molested in the bathroom, the kitchen, and in our bedrooms. My sister was raped by you with a gun to her head. You punched, kicked, and beat us with a belt all the while demanding respect from us with “yes sir." We were not human beings in your eyes, but mere property to be handled and controlled. You were supposed to love and protect us, instead, we feared for our lives every day. You expressed hatred towards anyone who didn’t look like us, and it was forbidden to have black friends. I knew as a young person that the same day to day torments you inflicted upon on us would be thrown upon anyone who was not white. While patrolling the streets, you kept a second gun with you to plant on any suspect as a way to cover up your wrongdoing. For too long, these secrets have made my heart heavy with fear, rage, and grief. No more shall I carry these stories alone.”

— Patricia Diart

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2023 FINALIST

Elizabeth Withstandley

I am a research-based video installation artist that focuses on individuals and communities. I work by experimentation, research and data collection to create conceptually driven projects. For the past 12 years my work has centered around works that often have a web component, which I use to interact with communities and gather material to be used in the project.

My work is rooted in conceptual art, taking the form of multi-channel video installations that explore contemporary culture through a loose narrative structure. The works question individuality, personal identity, morality, and purpose of life, while presenting a portrait of a person, a group of people, a specific culture or location. I'm interested in providing the viewer with an immersive experience that causes them to raise questions. What is it like to be an individual? What is it like to be someone else? Does the identity of a place, person or culture define it? My studio practice involves research and testing that I use when creating my installations often times developing pieces that all come together as a whole when installed. I’m interested in leaving the viewer with questions relating to uniqueness while planting seeds for the viewer to think about ones place in life and the larger universe.

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2023 FINALIST

Jess self

I am an archetype. Or, rather, I have embodied a variety of archetypes (the seductress, the lover, the mother, and the martyr) throughout my life. In my practice, I create figurative sculptures made from life casts, embedded with or covered in wax, wool, wood, or mixed textiles, to ask: why do we cling to archetypes to understand ourselves and each other? By tapping into the power of archetypes, my identity becomes secondary to universally relatable ideas, helping viewers experience empathy and encouraging them to reflect on their own experiences and psycho-spiritual growth. My figures serve as anchor points to my own narrative and, through the familiar visual language of the archetype, give viewers the opportunity to find their own story within our shared mold. Following Jungian archetypes embedded in both the personal and collective unconsciousness we experience and feel similar things, creating a connection or shared narrative experience. By using my own body as an archetype I strive to facilitate an embodied and emotional connection with viewers through narrative shorthands, while also prodding at their validity.

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2023 FINALIST

Krista Svalbonas

My work is concerned with ideas of home and dislocation, as well as with the impact of architecture on human psychology. As an ethnically Latvian/Lithuanian artist my cultural background has informed this interest in architecture. During the Soviet era, the capitals of both Latvia and Lithuania saw cultural buildings repurposed into warehouses and churches demolished. The old town centers were neglected and fell into decay. New construction was cheaply made, with no insulation and inadequate plumbing and heating. My connection to this history has made me acutely aware of the impact of politics on architecture and, in turn, on a people’s daily lived experience. I started to consider the effect of architecture on the tens of thousands of refugees, my parents included, who escaped a life under communism but went years without a permanent home. In recent years I have visited Latvia and Lithuania to further understand this turbulent time in my family’s history and to photograph the architecture there. Many of the structures built during the Soviet occupation of the Baltic region still stand today. During this period the Baltic people continued to practice art forms such as weaving to ensure that their traditions would survive, despite the Soviet regime’s program of cultural suppression.

My recent work combines photographs of Soviet architecture in the Baltic region with traditional Baltic textile designs. I use a laser cutter to cut the textile patterns directly onto my black and white photographs of the cold and imposing buildings. This series explores the power of folk art and crafts as a form of defiance against the Soviet occupiers. It does this by focusing on how traditional textile designs provide a counterpoint to Soviet-era architecture and the memory of its totalitarian agenda. The juxtaposition of concrete structures with folk art designs also references the strength and determination of the women who created the weavings. Overall, this work examines the ways in which people are shaped by their environment, and how they can rebel against it to preserve their identity and culture.

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2023 MERIT AWARDEES

Amanda B Marchand

Anne Leith

Bartosz Beda

Dawn Kramlich

Dona Lantz

Florence Weisz

Heather Pieters

James B Abbott

Julia Forrest

Click here to view the 2023 Virtual Merit Exhibition!

To learn more about The Kite Prize for Contemporary Art and to apply:
The Kite Prize — Amie Potsic Art Advisory