Hae Won Sohn, a visual artist from Seoul, South Korea, is the winner of the 2021 Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize.
The Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts announced Thursday that Sohn was selected over four other finalists for the prestigious award, which carries a $25,000 prize.
Born in 1992 and based in Baltimore, Sohn uses studio artifacts such as broken molds used to make ceramics and materials such as plaster, clay and cement to create three-dimensional works that explore ideas of “de-/reconstruction” and “(re)development of form and object history.” She works with leftover and broken materials metaphorically, BOPA says, “proposing a system built upon failure as a parallel model to success.”
Announcement of the Sondheim award is usually a highlight of the Artscape festival held in Baltimore every summer. This year’s festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Sondheim competition went on with judges Naz Cuguoglu, Michelle Grabner and Meleko Mokgosi.
“I was definitely surprised,” Sohn said in a statement. “I would say that everyone would be surprised to know that they’re selected for any kind of competition or prize. Even though I do have confidence in my work, I think the artists that were showing with me, their work, it’s amazing.”
The other four finalists – Hoesy Corona, Tsedaye Makonnen, Jonathan Monaghan, and Lavar Munroe – each received an M&T Bank Finalist Award of $2,500. Works of art by the winner and finalists are on view at the Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, through Sunday, July 18, 2021.
The Sondehim Artscape Prize exhibition returned in person this year after being presented online last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
