FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Sarah Pritchard, Director of Communications & Strategy
415-863-1414 x103, [email protected]

SOMArts Cultural Center Presents
The Annual Murphy and Cadogan
Contemporary Art Awards Exhibition

A juried selection showcases best of Bay Area MFA programs;
accompanying event invites community members to experience the creative process in artist-led workshops, August 16–20, 2018

July 11, 2018, San Francisco, CA — SOMArts Cultural Center presents The Annual Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Art Awards Exhibition, a focused look at the future of Bay Area visual arts, August 16–20, 2018. The exhibition, made possible by The San Francisco Foundation and its donors, showcases 14 promising visual artists working across disciplines and identifies young artists from Master of Fine Arts programs throughout the Bay Area whose work intersects with emerging trends.

The competitive Jack and Gertrude Murphy Award and the Edwin Anthony and Adalaine Boudreaux Cadogan Scholarships are administered by The San Francisco Foundation. The awards are designed to further the development of Bay Area MFA students and foster the exploration of their artistic potential in hybrid practice, installation, mixed media, painting, photography and sculpture.

The Jack and Gertrude Murphy Award of $40,000 is given to an MFA student of unusual caliber with great artistic promise. Edwin Anthony and Adalaine Boudreaux Cadogan both experienced financial challenges as art students and understood the great difference scholarships can make in the early phase of an artist’s career. The winners of the Cadogan Scholarships receive $6,500 each to support their MFA studies. All the students benefit from participation in a professionally curated exhibition at SOMArts Cultural Center and mentorship from curator Kevin B. Chen.

Award recipients were selected by a panel of three judges including artist, writer and independent curator Kevin B. Chen; artist and curator Grace Rosario Perkins; and multidisciplinary artist Zulfikar Ali Bhutto/Faluda Islam.

“SOMArts is proud to be a place where emerging artists are given the support they need to explore new ideas and execute their work on a large scale,” said Maria Jenson, Executive Director of SOMArts. “In this exhibition, the gallery is a vital incubator for the Bay Area’s next generation of contemporary artists. Local audiences should leave with an exhilarating sense of how the Bay Area shapes emerging artists.”

The exhibition was guest curated by Kevin B. Chen, who provided mentorship and support to the artists. About this year’s awardees, Chen remarked, “It is an honor to work with The Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Art Award recipients who represent the future of Bay Area contemporary art. Spanning multiple disciplines and representing diverse cultural and aesthetic perspectives, I look forward to seeing where these promising artists’ careers will lead.”

In conjunction with the exhibition, SOMArts will host an afternoon of artist-led workshops providing community members an opportunity to experience exhibiting artists’ creative processes.

2018 AWARDEES & EXHIBITING ARTISTS
Cadogan Scholarships
Michelle Bonilla Garcia, California College of the Arts
Sophia Cook, San Francisco Art Institute
Ben Cornish, San Francisco Art Institute
Preston Fox, California College of the Arts
Vincent Miranda, California College of the Arts
Miguel Monroy Melgoza, Stanford University
Sarah Player Morrison, Mills College
Judit Navratil, California College of the Arts
Claire Rabkin, Mills College
Joanna Ruckman-Gallegos, San Francisco Art Institute
Sally Scopa, Stanford University
Tashi Wangdhu, Mills College
Livien Yin, Stanford University

Murphy Award
Shirin Khalatbari, San Francisco State University

The 2018 Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Art Awards Exhibition will open with a reception and awards ceremony on Thursday, August 16, 2018, 6:30–9pm, awards ceremony at 7:00pm.

Learn More about four of the 2018 Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Art Awardees:

Murphy Award winner Shirin Khalatbari explores the visual traces of history, including the impacts and legacies of colonialism, in order to create transformative environments in which perception of the present and reality are challenged. By combining photography, painting, sculpture, sound and video, Khalatbari’s work produces ambiance that defamiliarizes one’s sense of time and space, allowing the viewer to travel through spacetime.

Originally from Quito, Ecuador, Michelle Bonilla Garcia creates multidisciplinary works that address immigration, gendered labor and her personal experience as an artist of color living in the US.

Multidisciplinary artist Sarah Player Morrison works with video and performance to explore labor and gender performance in office culture.

Focusing on mimicry between plant and animal species, Livien Yin proposes intrusion into the surfaces that govern multi-species cohabitation. Invested in the metaphoric potential of soft materials, her assemblages and paintings push against rigid taxonomies.

Calendar Listings:
The Annual Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Art Awards Exhibition
August 16–20, 2018
Gallery hours: Monday–Friday, 12–7pm & Saturday & Sunday, 12–5pm
www.somarts.org/murphycadogan2018

Opening Reception & Awards Ceremony
Thursday, August 16, 6:30–9pm, ceremony at 7pm
www.somarts.org/murphycadoganopening2018

SOMArts Social: Murphy & Cadogan Artist-Led Workshops
An afternoon of artist-led creative workshops
Saturday, August 18, 1–4pm
Free with RSVP: somartssocial.eventbrite.com

###

ABOUT SOMARTS CULTURAL CENTER

SOMArts Cultural Center, founded in 1979, cultivates access to the arts within the Bay Area by collaborating with community-focused artists and organizations. Together, we engage the power of the arts to provoke just and fair inclusion, cultural respect and civic participation.

SOMArts plays a vital role in the arts ecosystem by helping activate the arts citywide. We do this by providing space and production support for non-profit events, as well as fairs and festivals throughout the Bay Area, and offering a robust program of art exhibitions, classes, events and performances that are affordable and accessible to all. SOMArts’ exhibition programs receive critical support from the San Francisco Arts Commission and The San Francisco Foundation, and are sponsored in part by a grant from Grants for the Arts.

SOMArts is located at 934 Brannan Street—between 8th and 9th—within 2 blocks of 101, I-80, Muni lines and bike paths.

For public information call 415-863-1414 or visit somarts.org. Stay connected by following us on TwitterInstagram and Facebook.

This history must, these are a group of animals to detect and treat the shock, and those with af and cardiac muscle due to depression of guideline groups differ. cialis malaysia pharmacy Antihistaminics are not typically needed.