By Stephanie Lloyd
DULUTH, Ga. | The four finalists for the $50,000 Hudgens Art Prize in Georgia have been announced. They are Olu Amoda, Shanequa Gay, Jessica Self and Jamele Wright.
This year’s $50,000 Hudgens Prize will be announced at the closing reception for the exhibition on Friday, October 7, from 5 to 7 p.m., at the Jacqueline Casey Hudgens Center for Art and Learning, in Duluth.
The four finalists were named in April. With a cash award of $50,000 and an invitation for a solo exhibition for the winning artist, the Hudgens Prize is one of the largest art awards given in the nation, and is open only to Georgia residents. As a Hudgens Prize finalist, their works are on view through October 15 at the Hudgens Center.
The finalists were selected by a jury of arts leaders. They are: Lauren Tate Baeza, Fred and Rita Richman Curator of African American Art at The High Museum of Art; Jamaal Barber, artist, printmaker and professor at Georgia State University; and Thomas (Tom) Francis, painter and Professor Emeritus, Savannah College of Art and Design.
Olu Amoda, from Smyrna, has worked consistently over the past three decades to create a sculptural language that has unique character and beauty. Working as a sculptor, muralist, furniture designer, and multimedia artist, Amoda is best known for using repurposed materials found from the detritus of consumer culture. His works often incorporate rusty nails, metal plates, bolts, pipes, and rods, that are welded together to create figures, animals, flora and ambiguous forms. Amoda explores socio-political issues relating to Nigerian culture today, from sex, politics, race and conflict to consumerism and economic distribution. Amoda graduated in sculpture from Auchi Polytechnic, Nigeria, and received a Master’s Degree of Fine Arts from Georgia Southern University, USA.
Shanequa Gay of Atlanta draws upon ritual and personal memory, storytelling, fantasy, and the deep well of southern black traditions found in her home place of Atlanta. Gay’s fodder is play, indigenous belief systems and the spirit of African-Ascendant Women and girls finding divinity in self. Gay engages in this practice through installations, paintings, performance, photography, video and monumental sculptural figures. Gay received her BA from the Savannah College of Art and Design and an MFA from Georgia State University.
Jessica (Jess) Self is a contemporary artist based in Atlanta who works with wax, wool, and wood to create mixed media figurative sculptures. Self received her BFA from Warren Wilson College in North Carolina and an MFA from Georgia State University.
Jamele Wright of Atlanta is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work is concerned with the Black American vernacular experience, creating a conversation between family, tradition, the spiritual and material relationships between Africa and the South. Wright graduated from Georgia State University with a B.A. in Art History, and received his Masters of Fine Art from School of Visual Arts in New York City.
The purpose of the Hudgens Prize competition is to elevate and promote the arts in Georgia while offering a transformational opportunity for the winning artist. The Hudgens Prize was last awarded in 2019 to Paul Stephen Benjamin. Benjamin continues to receive nationwide recognition including a recent exhibition, Black Form, at Davidson College’s Van Every/Smith Galleries.
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