Ash Kukuzke, Object Permanence, 2023, Rhinestones on Family Photo, 4 x 4 inches, Courtesy of the artist
RECEPTION: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 5-7 PM
RSVP: bit.ly/asvap2023reception
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 11 am - 5 pm with extended hours until 7 pm on Thursday
The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University is pleased to present the Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize exhibition from February 27 – April 27, 2024. A public reception will be held on Wednesday, March 6, from 5 to 7 PM.
The School of Art + Design and the College of the Arts celebrate the eleventh year of the Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize at Portland State University. A jury composed of PSU Art + Design faculty and representative professionals from the art and design community reviewed 33 applications from art and design students, both undergraduate and graduate, to be awarded first, second, and third-place prizes. The 2023 award winners include: Ashley Yang-Thompson (MFA candidate in Studio Practice), Ash Kukuzke (BFA candidate in Graphic Design), and Mohabbat Khatibnia-Mansouri (BFA in Art Practice, ‘23).
PSU School of Art + Design is extraordinarily grateful to the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation for their support in creating the Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize. It was established by Arlene Schnitzer in 2013 to recognize student achievement in the School of Art + Design and to raise awareness of the quality of art education at PSU. To learn more about how the Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Prize has offered PSU students a springboard for a career in the arts, please visit pdx.edu/arts/news/arts-artists-making
About the Recipients
The product of a Chinese immigrant and a white polygamist from Fort Scott, Kansas, Ashley Yang-Thompson (she/her), has been a performance artist since the day she was ruthlessly shoved out of the safety of her mother’s womb. She works in various media, from figurative painting and zines to performative pissing (a la Diogenes). Her art has been exhibited at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, the Museum of Moving Image, the Essex Peabody Museum, and numerous national and international spaces. In 2021, Bateau Press published her graphic novella, How to be the worst laziest fattest most incontinent piece-of-shit in the world EVER.
Ash Kukuzke (she/her) is a Portland-based graphic designer and artist. An enthusiastic creative, she explores various analog and digital processes in her work, including beadwork, textile, screen printing, and digital collage. Originally from Iowa, her work explores themes of rural upbringing, grief, and nostalgia. Kukuzke’s work explores her experience with Aphantasia—an enigmatic condition characterized by the absence of mental imagery—and its effects on memory, nostalgia, and grief. Through a combination of analog and digital mediums, she creates immersive experiences that prompt viewers to engage with forms of visual obfuscation and their impact on memory.
Mohabbat Khatibnia-Mansouri (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist born and raised in Hillsboro, OR. After receiving a BFA in Art Practice from Portland State University in 2023, Khatibnia-Mansouri is pursuing her MFA as a Sculpture Candidate at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Khatibnia-Mansouri uses tools within sculpture and social science as a vehicle for participatory installations. Her labor-intensive practice enables her to bolster desired messages when engaging with participants in community-based works. She desires to serve and care for others with transparency, cultivating community engagement to build community wherever she is plugged in, earning the trust and insight needed to implement social change through collaborative, collective bodies of fine art.
The Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation
The Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation was established in 1998 as a result of the sale of the historic Claremont Hotel, which provided the Schnitzer family a way to support the community that long supported them. Harold, Arlene, and Jordan always believed in the importance of giving back and the family is honored to join those who also believe that the riches of our cities are our citizens and the cultural, social, religious, educational, and medical institutions that provide so much for all of us!
The mission of the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation is to support arts & culture, youth, education, medical, social services, and community activities that enhance the quality of life for the citizens in the community. The Foundation operates two programs: The Care to Share program which anonymously serves low-income and medically fragile children and their families through a partnership with Oregon Health & Sciences University. And CommuniCare, the Foundation’s primary operating program, which was established to encourage youth philanthropy.
For more information on the Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation please visit
www.schnitzercare.org
PSU School of Art + Design
Driven by a belief in the power of art to shape society, Portland State University's School of Art + Design and its dynamic faculty provide a place where emerging artists, designers, and art historians can question, create, reflect and learn. With over 1,100 undergraduate majors, a vibrant and growing graduate program, a faculty of internationally recognized artists, designers, and scholars, PSU's School of Art + Design brings students from a variety of backgrounds together to exchange ideas and cross conventional aesthetic boundaries. Whether in the studio, computer lab, lecture hall, or working in the community via internships, service projects, exhibitions, and collaborations, our students have the opportunity to forge connections between traditions of visual art and their own developing expression.
pdx.edu/art-design
JSMA at PSU
Located in downtown Portland on the South Park Blocks, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University opened its 7,500 square foot space in November 2019. Developed as a cultural hub for university students, the Portland community, and visitors to the city, the museum aspires to make art and culture accessible to new audiences through engaging programs and exhibitions that feature local, national, and international artists. The museum provides free admission year-round to all visitors.