Finalists

2019 Trawick Prize Finalists

Stephanie Benassi, Linden, VA Stephanie Benassi is a conceptual artist working primarily with photography. Drawing from diverse photographic genres, she investigates the ways in which the material conditions and specialized languages of the photographic medium shape our relations to history, power, and the production of images. She has participated in artist residencies including at the Vermont Studio Center and Virginia Creative Center for the Arts. She has shown her work at Full Circle Gallery and Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD, VisArts Center in Rockville, MD, 1708 Gallery in Richmond, VA, and The Art Museum of the Americas in Washington, D.C. Benassi was a semifinalist for The Janet and Walter Sondheim Art Prize in 2014 and 2015. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and her Master of Fine Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Hoesy Corona, Baltimore, MD Hoesy Corona is a multidisciplinary artist. His work is executed across various media and reoccurring themes of queerness, race/class/gender, nature, isolation, and celebration are present throughout his work. Corona has shown internationally in Greece and France, as well as across the United States. He has exhibited and performed at various institutional, private, public and underground venues including The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building in Washington, D.C., The Baltimore Museum of Art and The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD and Athens School of Fine Arts in Athens, Greece. Recent honors include a Merriweather District Artist in Residence. Corona received an Individual Artist Award from The Maryland State Arts Council in 2013 and was a semifinalist for The Janet and Walter Sondheim Art Prize in 2013, 2015 and 2017.
Oletha DeVane, Ellicott City, MD Oletha DeVane is a multidisciplinary artist who explores diverse political, social identities and cultural interpretations. Her work has been in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the U.S. and in the United Arab Emirates. Her work is in permanent museum collections and she has exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Museum of the Americas in Washington, D.C. She has held artist residencies in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Banff, Canada and Lecce, Italy. DeVane is involved in the Baltimore arts community and has served on the board of Maryland Art Place, School 33 visual arts panels and as vice-chairperson of Wide Angle Community Media, a non-profit youth media organization. She is currently the Director of Tuttle Gallery at McDonogh School in Owings Mills, MD. DeVane received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art and her Master of Fine Arts in painting from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
Muriel Hasbun, Silver Spring, MD Muriel Hasbun’s practice focuses on issues of cultural identity, migration and memory. She constructs contemporary narratives and establishes a space for dialogue where individual and collective memory spark new questions about identity and place. Hasbun’s work has been exhibited at Brentwood ArtsExchange in Brentwood, MD, Turchin Center for Visual Arts in Boone, NC, Athenaeum in Alexandria, VA, Betty Mae Kramer Gallery in Silver Spring, and MICA Meyerhoff Galleries in Baltimore, MD. Her work is also in numerous private and public collections, including the Art Museum of the Americas, D.C. Art Bank, Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Hasbun is the founder and director of laberinto projects, a transnational, cultural memory and education initiative that fosters contemporary art practices, social inclusion and dialogue in El Salvador. Previously, she was professor and chair of photography at the Corcoran College of Art + Design. She received a Master of Fine Arts in photography from George Washington University.
Monroe Isenberg, Washington, D.C. Monroe Isenberg, a sculptor, creates work that reacts to overlooked phenomena natural to our world and engages elemental form, balance, tension, light, and sound. He has exhibited nationally and is the recipient of multiple awards, grants, and residencies including the International Outstanding Student Achievement Award recognized by the International Sculpture Center, the Ann Bartsch Dunne Scholarship Award in sculpture and the Tom Rooney Prize awarded by the Washington Sculpture Group. His work is held in both public and private collections. Isenberg received his Bachelor of Arts in sculpture and psychology at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR and is currently pursuing his Master of Fine Arts at the University of Maryland where he serves as an adjunct professor. Most recently he was invited to lead workshops at the Lunga School in Iceland and participate in the school’s fellowship program during the fall and winter of 2019.
Renee Rendine, Towson, MD Renée Rendine uses performance to activate site-specific sculptural installations. With an emphasis on labor-intensive construction techniques, she builds structures that reflect her interest in fiber art and insect architecture. Her work has been exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Hemphill Fine Arts in Washington, D.C., The Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, MD, The Noyes Museum in Oceanville, NJ, and Ethan Cohen KUBE in Beacon, NY. Rendine has been featured in Sculpture Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun and The Surface Design Journal. She received a fellowship from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in 2000 and Individual Artist grants from the Maryland State Arts Council in 2005, 2009 and 2016. She was awarded a Baker Artist Awards B-Grant in 2015. Rendine earned her Bachelor of Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art and her Master of Fine from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Mojdeh Rezaiepour, Vienna, VA Mojdeh Rezaeipour, an Iranian American artist and storyteller, creates mixed media works and installations that explore hyphenated identity and belonging, as well as the intersections of our collective striving for healing and transformation. Her involvement in art and design has taken her to San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Rome, Tokyo and Berlin, where she spent the summer of 2018 on an arts fellowship awarded by The Studio Visit. Her exhibitions have been featured in publications such as The Rib, DIRT, So To Speak, BmoreArt and The Washington Post. Rezaeipour’s work is privately collected worldwide and several of her works were recently acquired for the permanent collection at Eaton Workshop. She is currently a resident at STABLE art space in Washington, D.C. Rezaeipour received her Bachelor of Arts in architecture from the University of California at Berkeley.
Anne Clare Rogers, Baltimore, MD Anne Clare Rogers makes sculptures that she describes as anchored in the real world, taking their purpose from the model of digestion, nourishment, and assimilation. Rogers was a 2017-2018 Visual Arts Fellow at Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA and a 2015 Summer Fellow and Ox-bow School of Art in Saugatuck, MI. She has exhibited at galleries and museums such as the Visual Arts Center in Austin, TX, Brown University’s Center for Public Humanities in Providence, RI, Treasure Town in Brooklyn, NY, Project Space One at the Royal College of Art, London, UK, Gallery Four in Baltimore, MD, and the Provincetown Art Alliance and Museum in Provincetown, MA. She received her Bachelor of Arts in art history from Beloit College and her Master of Fine Arts in sculpture from the University of Texas at Austin.