Byrd Gallery receives grant to support contemporary art exhibition

The Mary S. Byrd Gallery of Art at Augusta University is the recipient of a $40,000 grant award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts for an exhibition of new multi-media works by Atlanta-based sculptor Bojana Ginn.

The award, named the Ellsworth Kelly Award, is endowed by the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation to support museum exhibitions for contemporary artists. It is a by-invitation grant to support a solo exhibition by an emerging, mid-career or under-recognized contemporary visual artist at a regional U.S. art museum or university or college art gallery, according to the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.

“We were selected to make an application for the award; we were one of 10 asked to apply. I am thrilled to be a part of the Foundation,” said Mary S. Byrd Gallery Director Shannon Morris.

Ginn received her medical doctorate from the University of Belgrade and previously worked in Emory University’s Biology Department while creating art in her free time. Morris felt that Ginn was a perfect artist to showcase since Augusta University’s history of a medical college combined with a liberal arts college reflects Ginn’s personal history of scientific academia and creative arts.

Born in former Yugoslavia, Ginn is a sculptor whose disciplinary practice combines natural fibers and contemporary technology to explore the possibilities of line, time and space, according to the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.

The exhibition will be presented on Sept. 19, 2019.

“Ginn’s interest in re-defining humanity’s relationship to ancient materials results in installations filled with vistas of light and organic fiber, which she manipulates in a non-traditional manner. As a practicing artist and scientist, she successfully combines the two (disciplines) into a complete aesthetic experience,” Morris said.

“The Mary S. Byrd Gallery of Art mirrors Ellsworth Kelly’s belief in supporting emerging, mid-career and under-recognized artists,” said Foundation for Contemporary Arts Executive Director Stacy Tenenbaum Stark. “The Foundation is pleased that the 2018 Ellsworth Kelly Award will be the first to support an exhibition outside of a major metropolitan area, and the work of a local artist.”