UMLAUF Prize winner exhibition begins Sept. 6

The UMLAUF Sculpture Garden & Museum is proud to announce the 2018 UMLAUF Prize winner, French Canadian sculptor and multimedia artist Shanie Tomassini. Prize juror Sedrick Huckaby selected Tomassini, one of 12 outstanding candidates, to receive a full-scale UMLAUF exhibition of her work. 

Tomassini’s UMLAUF Prize exhibition Slippery Clump runs Sept. 6 through Nov. 4, featuring oversized sculptures, fountains, and negative-space forms installed throughout UMLAUF’s six-acre site. A full-color exhibition brochure, with an essay by University of Texas professor Amy Hauft, will be available.

Exhibition schedule:

Public opening, Wednesday, Sept. 6, 6-8 p.m. Remarks from Tomassini at 7 p.m. Free and open to the public.

Exhibition, Sept. 7-Nov. 4, Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday 12 -4 p.m. (Closed Mondays). Admission is $5 general, $3 senior, $1 student with ID. Free for children 12 and under and for active military members and their families.

Insights Gallery Talk, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 7 pm. Shanie Tomassini on Slippery Clump. Free and open to the public.

All events take place at at UMLAUF Sculpture Garden & Museum, 605 Azie Morton Road (formerly Robert E. Lee Road), Austin TX 78704. For more info, visit umlaufsculpture.org or call 512-445-5582 ext. 104.

About the artist

Initially based in Montreal, eclectic French Canadian sculptor Shanie Tomassini moved to Texas in 2017 to pursue an MFA at the University of Texas at Austin. She earned a BFA in 2014 from the University of Quebec in Montreal, where she specialized in sculpture and mold-making. She subsequently worked as a freelance sculptor on public art projects, had several group and solo exhibitions, and participated in artist residencies. In 2016 she worked on a large-scale, outdoor sculpture project in China, where she learned how to drive a boom lift and to apply gold on a monumental structure during the typhoon season. She has also worked as a freelance sculptor and mold-making specialist for large-scale projects involving roller coasters, transformer robots, and public art. Prize juror Huckaby says of Tomassini: “By marrying thick, palpable, abstract structures created from diverse materials with interesting ideas of algorithms and inverse forms, Shanie’s work shows a brilliance and uniqueness that needs a larger platform.”

About the UMLAUF Prize

For 14 years, the UMLAUF has recognized emerging artists from the University of Texas at Austin, where Charles Umlauf (1910-1994) taught for 40 years. Each year the UMLAUF Prize honors an outstanding UT graduate student in studio art with a full-scale exhibition, lecture, and cash award. By supporting artists at the beginning of their careers, the Museum continues in the spirit of Charles Umlauf’s mentorship and generosity. The 2018 juror was Fort Worth area artist Sedrick Huckaby, known for his thickly impastoed paintings, including an acclaimed series of painted quilts and an ongoing series of portraits. He has received prestigious awards including the 2018 Texas State Two-Dimensional Artist, the 2017 Moss/Chumley North Texas Artist Award, the Smithsonian’s Outwin Boochever Portrait award, a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among others, and has exhibited at museums across the U.S. Huckaby earned a BFA from Boston University and an MFA from Yale University. He is currently assistant professor of painting at the University of Texas at Arlington.

About the UMLAUF

The UMLAUF Sculpture Garden & Museum is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded around a vast collection of work by American sculptor Charles Umlauf. The UMLAUF exhibits the work of Charles Umlauf, artists who influenced him, and other contemporary sculptors in a natural setting, and provides educational experiences that encourage the understanding and appreciation of sculpture. For more information, go to our website, or call 512-445-5582. The UMLAUF Sculpture Garden and Museum is located at 605 Azie Morton Road (formerly Robert E. Lee Road)Austin TX 78704.