Arts & Culture

11 UK Student Artists Take Awards at 2018 Open Studio

photo of winners at 2018 Carey Ellis Show
Eleven UK student artists were recognized for their work at the 2018 Carey Ellis Show. Photo by Rob Southard.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 13, 2018) Eleven art students from the University of Kentucky were recipients of awards totaling almost $14,000 during the 2018 Carey Ellis Juried Student Show held Nov. 30. The exhibition is part of the UK School of Art and Visual Studies popular visual art celebration, Open Studio, held in the Art and Visual Studies Building.

During the annual Carey Ellis Juried Student Show at Bolivar Art Gallery, six students were recognized for their works’ excellence as part of this year’s exhibition. The grand prize winner selected by juror Paul Brown, director of Institute 193, was Alex Lewis, an art studio senior minoring in art history, from Covington, Kentucky.

Five other students were recognized with honorable mentions for the show. Those award recipients were:

  • Kaley Kemplin, an art studio and art education senior from Lexington;
  • Cooper Gibson, an art studio senior from Eubank, Kentucky;
  • Samantha Hensley, an art studio senior from Frankfort, Kentucky;
  • Wes Rankin, an art studio and Lewis Honors College sophomore from Lexington; and
  • Elizabeth Sturgill, an art studio senior from Paintsville, Kentucky.

The School of Art and Visual Studies also presented several other honors at the show, including the Arturo Alonzo Sandoval Fiber Award. This award, presented by the recently retired Alumni Endowed Professor of Art Arturo Alonzo Sandoval, is given to artists whose work reflects the significant use of fiber. The winner of the Sandoval Fiber Award was Grace Barnes, a digital media and design and integrated strategic communication junior from Prospect, Kentucky. In addition, an honorable mention was presented to Maggie Simmons, a freshman majoring in nursing from Wentzville, Missouri.

The Theophilia Joan Oexmann Awards were given to Samantha Hensley, Alex Lewis and Angus Willis, an art studio senior from Nicholasville, Kentucky. Faculty of the School of Art and Visual Studies present the Oexmann Awards to students who show great promise in their work through creativity and originality.

The Ross Zirkle Memorial Art Studio Award was presented to Elizabeth Sturgill. Created in memory of faculty member Ross Zirkle, funds for this award were raised by donations from family, friends and former students of Zirkle. This award is presented to a student who is studying printmaking or drawing, and demonstrates qualities of artistic excellence, hard work and interest in helping the community, like Zirkle.

The NCAA Award was presented to Nicolette Lim, an art studio senior from Lexington. The award provides financial aid to students who demonstrate potential for academic and/or artistic success. This award is made possible from an endowment set up with proceeds from posters created by UK art faculty for the 1985 NCAA tournament at Rupp Arena.

For the first year, the School of Art and Visual Studies presented an award in art history at Open Studio’s Carey Ellis Show. The Outstanding Paper in Art History was presented to Aaron Reynolds, an art history and visual studies senior from Lexington.

UK’s Windgate Fellowship nominations went to Samantha Hensley and Alex Lewis. UK was allotted two nominees to be considered for the prestigious Windgate Fellowship, one of the largest awards offered nationally to college graduating art students.

The School of Art and Visual Studies at the UK College of Fine Arts is an accredited member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in the fields of art studio, art history and visual studies, art education, and digital media and design.