ATLANTA (April 2, 2011) – The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA GA) today announces the winners of the 2011/2012 MOCA GA Working Artist Project: Gregor Turk, Martha Whittington and Brian Dettmer.

The Working Artist Project (WAP) is an awards program created by MOCA GA to support visual artists of merit who reside in the Atlanta metropolitan area. This initiative provides an unparalleled level of support for individual artists, expands the museum’s mission, and promotes metropolitan Atlanta as a city where artists live, work and thrive. As in the past three years, jurors selected three visual artists to receive the award. Representing our city’s best and brightest; these artists will be supported with an exhibition, promotion, a studio assistant, and a major stipend to create work over the course of the year. This program is supported by a major grant from The Charles Loridans Foundation.

Robert Edge, Chairman of the Charles Loridans Foundation, stated, “The story of MOCA GA is a remarkable one . . . It has been and continues to be a pleasure for the Loridans Trustees to support your efforts and to provide funds for some of the dreams you dream.”

This year, Michael Rooks, Wieland Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the High Museum of Art served as the guest juror for the 2011/2012 awards. Prior to joining the High, Rooks divided his museum career between three organizations in Chicago and Honolulu. During his tenure at The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu and later at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, Rooks introduced new artists to the state of Hawaii through original and traveling exhibitions. At Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Rooks curated numerous solo shows and survey exhibitions including Roy Lichtenstein: Interiors and H. C. Westermann for which he co-authored Westermann’s catalogue raisonné. His thematic exhibitions at MCA include the first major response to the war in Iraq titled War What Is It Good For?  Besides his responsibilities at the High, Rooks was the Commissioner of the U.S. Pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale of Architecture.  

Gregor Turk received his BA from Rhodes College in Memphis, TN and his MFA from Boston University. Between degrees Turk served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Liberia, West Africa. Utilizing a variety of media, Turk’s work typically incorporates mapping imagery. His “49th Parallel Project” focused on the 1,270 mile section of the U.S./Canadian border which he traveled by foot and bike in 1992. The project was part of the 1996 Cultural Olympiad and included a documentary broadcast on public television and a large body of artwork (produced over a three-year period) that was exhibited internationally. Also in 1996 Turk was the recipient of the “Alternate Visions Grant” funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Warhol Foundation. In addition to numerous exhibitions, he has completed several public art commissions including permanent installations at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta and Jacksonville International Airports and a series of outdoor sculptures at a fire station.

Martha Whittington, 100 Whispers, Installation view at Studioplex, 2010. Photo courtesy the artist.

Martha Whittington is an Atlanta-based sculptor and educator. Whittington received her MFA in sculpture from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA and her BA in sculpture from Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, MO. Whittington has been the recipient of a 3 month artist residency at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art. In support of her work, she has also been awarded grants from the Office of Cultural Affairs Atlanta. Much of her work involves small objects, multiplied many times in controlled, site-specific arrangements. She has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally with shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville, FL; the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center; Gallery Rebolloso in Minneapolis, MN; and the AMOA-Laguna Gloria Art Museum in Austin, TX. Whittington is also a professor of foundations studies at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta, GA.

Brian Dettmer, Organized Knowledge in Story and Picture, 2010, Altered set of vintage encyclopedias

Photo courtesy the artist.

© The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia

75 Bennett Street, Suite A2, Atlanta, GA 30309 / 404.367.8700 tel / 404.367.1477 fax / info@mocaga.org