THE EUREKA FELLOWSHIP AWARDS: 1999 – 2001

The Eureka Fellowship Awards: 1999 – 2001 marked the third presentation of Eureka fellowship winners at the San Jose Museum of Art and reflected the Museum’s shared commitment with the Fleishhacker Foundation to support Bay Area artists. The 12 fellowship winners were among 113 artists who applied from a candidate pool created by 49 local visual arts organizations, serving as nominators. Since 1986, the Eureka Fellowships have recognized artistic excellence through these one-year awards, which are not tied to specific projects, but rather, support the artists by allowing for uninterrupted creative time and/or the purchase of materials. The fellowships are awarded every three years and are the Bay Area’s largest monetary grant for individual artists.

Curated by Cathy Kimball, former SJMA curator, and now executive director of the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, the exhibition comprised a wide range of the region’s artistic talent with work that is enormously varied in approach, subject and medium and reflected a broad cultural and stylistic diversity. This round of fellowship winners was juried by a panel of three nationally-known arts professionals: Kinshasha Holman Conwill, former Director of the Studio Museum in Harlem; Hugh Davies, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; and Alex Gray, Program Associate of ArtPace in San Antonio, TX.

The following is a brief description of each Bay Area artist’s work:

Frederick Hayes, San Francisco
Hayes’ boldly executed charcoal portraits depict the familiar strangers of everyday life. Scared, defensive, confrontational, self-righteous, proud, and honest – Hayes’ animated faces gaze insistently, demanding attention. These people seem to be caught for a brief moment in time that is fraught with psychological intensity. Hayes’ exaggerated, gestural drawings are composite portrayals of his family and friends, as well as his own group of everyday strangers. He states, “My drawings are personal histories that describe and examine the everyday experience of human interaction and reaction.” Hayes’ steel and acrylic sculptures, which will also be on view, are extensions of his drawings.