The 2021 Future Art Awards Virtual Exhibition is an arts-based exploration of the changing meanings, practices, paradoxes, and futures associated with Democracy.
CalArtians were among the recipients of the second annual Future Art Awards and inaugural Future Art Writers Awards, both issued by MOZAIK Philanthropy for creative explorations of the 2021 theme “reimagining democracy.”
The Future Art Awards were launched in 2020 as part of MOZAIK’s COVID-19 emergency relief response, prompting artists nationwide to share works reflecting on social upheaval and crisis. The 2021 edition’s theme urged artists to pursue an “arts-based exploration of the changing meanings, practices, paradoxes, and futures associated with Democracy.” Matthew Pagoaga (Art MFA 21) and Elana Mann (Art MFA 07) were among this year’s 10 Featured Artists, each of whom received a $2,000 prize.
MOZAIK also issued Special Mention awards of $1,000 to 40 artists, including fellow CalArtians Christine Yerie Lee (Art MFA 21), Marina Heintze (Art BFA 08), and Jennie E. Park (Art, Critical Studies MFA 22). Park was also a MOZAIK 2020 Featured Artist.
All the honored artists’ works can be viewed in virtual exhibition and gallery.
This year, MOZAIK also issued the Future Art Writers Awards, based on essays written about the 2021 Future Art Awards exhibition for MOZAIK’s Ezine. Isabel Yi Jimenez (Art BFA 22) and Park were awarded for their essays “Art-Making as the Fabric of the Body Politic” and “Re-Imagining Democracy, Re-Imagining Ourselves,” respectively.
Check out the issue on MOZAIK’s website (Jimenez’s essay on p. 16-21 and Park’s essay on p. 26-41).