Third Annual Daniel Manacher Prize for Young Artists – Opening Reception
Join us in celebrating the winners of the 2024 Daniel Manacher Prize for Young Artists, selected by esteemed juror, Josephine Halvorson, an accomplished artist and the Chair of the MFA Program in Painting at Boston University’s College of Fine Art.
The Opening Reception of the Gallery Exhibit featuring their works is on September 15 from 4-6pm. The show will run through October 6.
The three winners are:
Aidan White
Mico Aldmar Mendoza
Warwick Willow
Aidan White
Mico Aldmar Mendoza
Warwick Willow
Aidan White was born in Princeton, NJ, and has lived in the Berkshires since he was eight. He is a painting major at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and expects to finish his BFA in August, 2024.
From his statement: I enjoy painting portraits of people and their pets using an expressionistic style. I sometimes place objects in the painting representing something of the subject’s life. While I place objects in a painting intentionally, I leave it to the viewer to make of it what they will. Sometimes, the allusion is obvious, and sometimes not. I also enjoy experimenting with surrealistic subjects that are disjointed and dreamlike. I find the images I use as inspiration in literature, music, current events, and nature, especially human anatomy.
White_Aidan_Abstraction No. 1_03 – Aidan White.jpeg
White_Aidan_Brain Attic_02 – Aidan White.jpeg
White_Aidan_Abstraction No. 1_03 – Aidan White.jpeg
White_Aidan_Brain Attic_02 – Aidan White.jpeg
Mico Aldmar Mendoza was born in 2000, and grew up in a small rural town in Central Luzon, Philippines. I am a computer science major, and has a background in environmental sustainability and studio art. He plans to pursue an MFA after graduation and wants to explore the possibilities when it comes to upcycling waste, minimizing material dependence, and exploring sustainable practices/techniques in art.
Warwick Willow grew up surrounded by art. Their early creative experiences involved painting with homemade watercolors, sculpting with salt dough, and exploring their mother’s vast art collection in their family home in New Mexico. They began their formal study of the arts at the age of 15, going on to graduate from Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, with an Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts. Having discovered their love of clay, they transferred to the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, where they studied ceramics and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. They currently work at Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington as a Community Director.
