Name/Title
2019 Irwin ScholarsDescription
Exhibition by this year’s UC Santa Cruz Irwin Award winners draws inspiration from contemporary unease
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — The Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery is excited to introduce IRWIN 2019: Present/Tense, the 33rd annual Irwin Scholarship Award exhibition, which showcases the work of a select group of UC Santa Cruz’s most promising young artists: Ella Boker, Lizzy Choi, Jesse Collins, John Contreras, Marcus Cota, Kaleigh Fleischmann, Jamie Franks, Sophie Lev, d Lynch, Gregory Shilling, Oliver Stoops, Ashley Rose Tacheira, and Yu Zheng.
In this present age, information is distributed virally through online digital platforms. As emerging artists, “How do we anchor ourselves to our personal understanding of the world when we are constantly being bombarded with images of false advertising and propaganda?” The Irwin scholars ask, "How does the role of the artist evolve in a generation where content creation and self-publishing have become increasingly accessible?”
Present/Tense features thirteen artists whose works both process and challenge these questions and the insecurities of a constantly shifting socio-cultural landscape. Examining the personal impact of structural inequality, environmental destruction, technological anxiety, globalized alienation, and the commodification of the self, Present/Tense explores the position of the artist in an unsustainable world. It is an attempt to navigate the 21st century maze of institutional boundaries, powerful corporations and exponentially-progressing technologies with candid self-expression and humor.
Showcasing a variety of approaches to contemporary art practice, the exhibition includes drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, stop-motion animation, artists’ books, performance, and video installation.
“I look forward to the Irwin scholar exhibit each year,” says 2012 Irwin scholar and local Santa Cruz artist Louise Leong. “It’s interesting to see the work of these emerging artists’ transform or conform to a formal art space and hear the student perspectives of if and how a space influences their practice.”
