Art Prize

Calder Plaza, Grand Rapids, MI

Sept 16 - Oct 3, 2021

I had the honor of creating an art installation at Art Prize in 2021 as an Equity Grant Award Winner. I submitted a proposal after being encouraged by Sarah Ayers of Patch & Remington who curated Calder Plaza that year.

I'm a big fan of Alexander Calder, and to create work in a place dedicated to him was super special.

Throughout Art Prize, people would send me photos they took, and so many of them came from the interior view which I had neglected to capture myself. The work read as an immersive sculpture even though it was only a 2D painting. The way the light played off the walls and the paint casting shadows... it was stunning to see how dynamic such a simple work could be.

Even Art Prize seemed to have gotten a kick out of the work. So cool to see my work pop up in their IG on several occasions throughout the event.

The work was titled Connected, and connected me to Grand Rapids through Calder and my love of Modernism. When I came back to de-install the work, I found a crap load of humans with fancy equipment doing things.

I asked what was going on, and if it was ok for me to take down my installation, and they said no.

They told me they wanted to get a hold of me, so they could ask permission to use the work as a backdrop for one of their shots. So, my painting which I thought was going to be temporary, will now live forever as a couple seconds in a movie called Block Party. It's the first Juneteenth film, and a great honor to be a part of. How freakin' cool?!

Here's a short behind the scenes video of them video-ing. I may or may not be allowed to post this, so if I'm not supposed to, just pretend you never saw it (you can't really see anything anyways).

I'll end this write up with a few shots from a sunny day and a lil video so you can see the interior in 360.