2023

3rd Place recipient

Tamara Kostianovsky

Tamara Kostianovsky is a Latinx artist whose work addresses themes including the environment, violence, and consumer culture, often employing discarded clothing to create visceral and intricate sculptures and installations. Her work has been exhibited in group exhibitions El Museo del Barrio NY; The Jewish Museum NY; Nevada Museum of Art, NV; Bienal Sur, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Musee du Textile et de la Mode, Cholet, France; Children’s Museum of Manhattan, NY, and many others.

She has presented solo exhibitions at Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY; Fuller Craft Museum, Boston, MA; Slag Gallery, NY; RX Gallery, Paris, France; Ogden Contemporary Arts, UT; Denver Botanic Gardens, CO;  the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, MI, and other venues.

Kostianovsky is the recipient of distinguished awards such as a Guggenheim Fellowship and grants from New York Foundation for the Arts and from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. Her work has been reviewed in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, WBUR, the Village Voice, Marie Claire, La Repubblica, El Diario New York, Colossal, and Hyperallergic, among others. Selected Residencies include Yaddo; Wave Hill Gardens, LMCC, Socrates Sculpture Park, and Franconia Sculpture Park.

Kostianovsky received a BFA from the National School of Fine Arts, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.

Rosewood Root, 80 x 82 x 36 in, Discarded Textiles, wood, Life-size, wall-mounted tree stump

Seeing Reed, Installation View, Discarded Clothing, textile meat sculptures

Foul Decorations, 48 x 112 x 12 in, Discarded Textiles on Wood, Native American birds "invade" French wallpaper

Abacus, Discarded Clothing, Chains, Meat Hooks, Life-size meat carcasses suspended from ceiling

Smack Mellon, Installation View, Discarded textiles, Collection of tree stump sculptures

Installation View, Smack Mellon, NY, 2021, Discarded textiles, meat hooks, Collection of dead bird sculptures

Uprooted, 64 x 48 x 34 in, Clothing Belonging to the Artist’s Father, Textile, Life-size tree log sculpture

Withered, 49.5 x 46 x 5 in, Discarded Textiles on Wood, Tree Slice with Moss

Till Death do Us Part, 12 x 6 x 4 in, Discarded Textiles, Two dead birds hang form antique nail

Colonial Carcass, 72 x 25 x 21 in, Discarded Clothing, Meat Hook, Chain, Carcass with outgrowths of vegetation and bird

Actus Reus, installation View, Smack Mellon, NY, Discarded textiles, metal poles, Chains, Meat hook, "Meat sculptures" created w artist's clothes

Fowl Decorations (detail of Central Panel), 48 x 112 x 12 in, Discarded Textiles on Wood, American birds repose on a French wallpaper

Grafted Gardens, Installation view,Discarded textiles

Textile Jungle, 96 x 56 x 6 in, Discarded Textiles on wood, Tropical vegetation "invades" wall paper design

Becoming Native, 72 x 48 x 7 in, Discarded Textiles on Wood, 3d Native American birds invade French wall paper

Grafted Gardens, Installation view, 2022, Clothing Belonging to the Artist’s Father, Textile, trees slice and tree log sculpture

Every Color in the Rainbow, 57 x 38 x 41 in, Discarded Textiles, Bird is attached to motor that makes it spin

Tropical Abattoir, Discarded Clothing, Meat Hooks, Chains, Carcasses with luscious vegetation interiors

Installation View, Smack Mellon, 2021, Discarded Clothing, Meat Hook, Chain, carcasses with luscious vegetation