This summer, the Gallery at the Park is showcasing its Annual Juried Show, an exhibition of talented artists from across the region!
The Gallery received 280 submissions from 100 artists, and this year’s juror, Benny Fountain, selected 49 2D pieces and 21 3D pieces, representing 55 artists.
Benny Fountain is a painter and art educator whose work has been exhibited in numerous national and international exhibits.
In 2018, Fountain was awarded Artist in Residence at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. In 2022, he was Resident Fellow at the American College of the Mediterranean in Aix-en-Provence, France.
Fountain recently returned to the Northwest to lead the drawing and painting track at Whitworth University in Spokane. He has also been creating a body of large-scale landscape paintings to exhibit in his sixth solo show at the Froelick Gallery in Portland.
The Reception & Awards Ceremony was held on Friday, July 11. Fountain chose several pieces to receive distinguished awards.
Marguerite Finch won the Linda Ellis Andrews Memorial 3D Award for “Lace Barn,” Sam Sanders won the Nancy Messner Memorial Award for “Specimen No. 1 Venus de Victory,” Victoria Gravenslund won the Leland and D. Eleanor Burger Memorial Award for “Crackle Raku Vessel,” Greg Tate won the Mid-Columbia Watercolor Society Award for “Fly Away #1,” and Sharon Laegried won the Merit Award for “In the Heat of the Summer Sun.”
Board President and Juried Show Chair David Wyatt presented the Director’s Award, which went to Leslie Ann Hauer for “Rattlesnake Mountain, October Moon.”
Finally, Fountain presented the Silver Award to Denise Algood for “Please Don’t Touch My Hair,” the Gold Award to Aaron Melville for “Let Us Divide the Light From the Darkness,” and the Best of Show Award to Felicity Sanford for “Sketch.”
More than $3,000 was awarded altogether!
