Four Artists Honored for Top Works in Athenaeum’s Annual Juried Art Show

The 32nd annual Juried Exhibition at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla, with works from more than 50 artists, continues through Sept. 28.

Juror Armando Pulido, a writer and curatorial assistant at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, selected the final 52 artists and 51 works to exhibit. Nearly 300 artists entered 900 works for consideration.

Prize winners for the show, announced last month, are Luis Alderete, who took first place for “Welcome Home PAISANO,” created in wood, metal, epoxy, ixtle, fabric, polymer clay, oil, stone and bone.

Second place went to Gracie Moon for “Whitewashed,” in acrylic on wood and third to Francesca Isabella Towers for “Ekstasis en Helio Kardia,” in acrylic on canvas. The Leslie von Kolb Memorial Award was presented to Emily Gilmore for “Big Picture Illogic,” in mixed media on wood.

Other artists in the show include Clara Barra de Guevara, Nikusha Beatty, Natalie Bessell, Joe Cantrell, Aldo Cervantes, Ethan Chan, Sherry Chen, Frisco Dancon, Carolina Danu, Gabriela Domville and Marie Najera, Venezzia Dutra, Gaby Espina, Stephen Frank Gary, Sam Grenier, Rodrigo Jimenez-Ortega, Paul Kauffman, Amanda Kazemi, Yena Kim, Viviana Lombrozo, Annalise Neil, Lee Puffer, Dusty Rose, Tim Topalov, Kathy Trice, Christina Valenzuela, Karina Velasco, JP Wackenstedt, Rebecca Webb, Jessica Yambao. 

Pulido has contributed to exhibitions at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and was recently a fellow of the AllPaper Seminar at the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College. Prior to the Lucas Museum, Pulido held curatorial positions at the Whitney Museum of American Art. His research has focused on art from the U.S.–Mexico borderlands, Mexican muralism and contemporary U.S. Latinx art.