On June 26, 2008,The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation honored the winners of the eighth annual Individual Artist Award.  The recipients of the award in the "Established Artist" category are Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle and Anne Wilson.  The winner in the category of "Emerging Artist" is Jason Lazarus.  Each artist received an unrestricted award of $15,000 in recognition of their work.

The goal of the Driehaus Individual Artists Award is to support and encourage excellence, artistry, focus, direction, maturity, and originality in the visual arts. All artists nominated for the award must live in the Chicago area and be working in one or more of the following media: painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, photography, video/film, fiber, book arts, jewelry, mixed media, installations, and conceptual art.

Eighteen anonymous visual arts professionals from the Chicago area nominated forty five visual artists. Nominators were asked to judge artists’ past work and future promise and to nominate artists for whom this award is likely to have the greatest impact at this time in their careers.

A jury of five arts professionals selected the recipients of the award, who demonstrated exceptional talent and commitment.

Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle works in media including sculpture, film, sound, and photography. Working collaboratively with other artists, scientists, architects and historians, he creates installations that explore the correlation between nature and man-made society. He investigates systems such as climate, genetics and weather in order to explore issues of politics, immigration, race and identity.

Manglano-Ovalle’s work takes on multiple meanings as each artwork relies on the viewer to complete the experience. Examples include creating an imposing titanium cloud hanging from a ceiling to represent how weather patterns have no boundaries as a commentary on border immigration. He also recently built a full-scale model of a military truck that may or may not have ever existed to question the government’s justification for war.

Manglano-Ovalle is currently a Professor in the Department of Visual Art at the University of Chicago. He has received many awards, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award (2001) and a Media Arts Award from the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, as well as a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He has had major exhibitions at the Rochester Art Center in Minnesota; Art Institute of Chicago, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey,Mexico, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.

Anne Wilson’s work, in her own words, melds social and political ideas through “the material processes of handwork and industry.” Using performance, sculpture, video, sound, animation, installations and Internet projects, Wilson looks at the domestic culture within a larger societal framework.

Wilson constructs environments that are beautiful and thought-provoking, employing materials found in daily life: hair, linen, lace, pins, wire, and thread. Recent examples include “Portable City,” a series of hand-made environments built in vitrines that house intricately laid out lengths of fiber resembling the tension of architectural structures and “Wind-Up: Walking the Warp,” a collaborative performance and sculpture that recreated the “Portable City” in real time.

Wilson is a Professor in the Fiber and Material Studies Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has shown extensively in Chicago and elsewhere.  Recent solo exhibitions include the Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan and the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston. Group exhibitions include the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Cranbrook Art Museum in Michigan, the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago and the 2002 Whitney Biennial. Anne Wilson is represented by Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago.

Jason Lazarus is a photographer who explores a variety of conceptual approaches to contemporary life. In examining, as he puts it, “the role of the contemporary artist as hell-raiser, prophet, failure, and historian,” Lazarus blends documentation, humor and curiosity into a practice that pushes the boundaries of the photographic medium.

Lazarus works in the traditional role as an image-maker and as an image-gatherer. In his “Self Portrait as an Artist” project, he invites viewers to vicariously see life through his eyes. In the “Nirvana” project, he creates pictorial narratives using snapshots and personal stories from strangers and friends, about their first introductions to the band Nirvana. By incorporating these strategies into making art, Lazarus uses the medium of photography as a tool to examine the role of the artist in everyday life.

A Chicago resident since 1994, Lazarus received his MFA from Columbia College in 2003. He currently teaches photography part time at Columbia College and at several other Chicago schools. He has an active exhibition schedule, locally, nationally and internationally. Solo exhibitions include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, D3 projects in Los Angeles, and Bucket Rider Gallery in Chicago. Group exhibitions include the Renaissance Society in Chicago, the Vermont Center for Photography, IFIA in Hong Kong and the Minneapolis Center of Photography. Jason is represented by Bucket Rider Gallery in Chicago and by Kaune, Sudendorf gallery in Cologne, Germany.

The 2008 jury included Nick Cave, artist and past winner of the Driehaus Foundation's Individual Artist Award; Lisa Dorin, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Institute of Chicago; Carol Ehlers, independent curator; Susanne Ghez, Director of The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago; and Lane Relyea, art critic and professor at Northwestern University.

Past winners of the Driehaus Individual Artists Award are Brett Bloom, Nyame O. Brown, Paola Cabal (emerging category), Nick Cave, Juan Angel Chávez, Julia Fish, Gaylen Gerber, Vanalyne Green, Gisela Insuaste (emerging category), Judy Ledgerwood, Laura Letinsky, Brennan McGaffey, Helen Mirra, Darrel Morris, Laurie Palmer, Dan Peterman, David Philpot, Karen Reimer and Richard Rezac, Sumakshi Singh (emerging category), Christine Tarkowski and Philip  von Zweck (emerging category).

Please note: Because of the current economic climate, we have ended the Individual Artist Awards.  Our thanks to all the artists, curators, administrators, collectors, writers and art fans whose vital support and encouragement helped make this award a reality.