PELHAM, NY (May 17, 2023) — Colorado-based artist Haley Hasler has won the 2023 Alexander Rutsch Award for her painted self-portraits that depict the joys and challenges of being both a mother and an artist.
The Pelham Art Center will present a Haley Hasler Solo Exhibition from May 24 to July 16.
Here’s what you need to know:
- Hasler’s work represents herself as a central point in an endlessly revolving domestic drama.
- She has had solo exhibitions at Boston’s Alpha Gallery, the Fort Collins Museum of Art (CO), and the Richard J. Demato Gallery in Sag Harbor, amongst others.
- Hasler has also taught at Colorado State University, University of Virginia, Piedmont Virginia Community College, College of Fine Arts (Boston), and at the University of the West Indies as part of the US Fulbright Program.
- Through her life events coupled with fiction and fantasy, Hasler explores the role of women in today’s society through the lens of art history, culture and domesticity.
- Hasler was selected for the 2023 Alexander Rutsch Award from among eight finalists and approximately 400 total applicants nationwide.
- The judging panel for the 12th Biennial Rutsch Award was composed of Rutsch family members, Pelham Art Center Gallery Advisory Board members, and two guest jurors: Patricia Miranda and Jason Stopa.
Hasler says that painting has never felt as urgent to her as it does now. “The email I received letting me know that I had won the 2023 Alexander Rutsch Award arrived at a time in my life when I have been working under some constraint,” she says. “Despite the challenges, this incredible honor comes at a time when I have discovered new energy and purpose in my work. The Alexander Rutsch Award exhibition at the Pelham Art Center will greatly expand the conversation I am able to have with viewers of my work. That is the artist’s dream.”