Bethesda Painting Awards Finalists

Childs_PA 2022Stephanie Cobb, Washington, D.C.

Stephanie Cobb received her Master of Fine Arts in studio art at Louisiana State University College of Art + Design and her Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Savannah College of Art and Design. Cobb’s work has been exhibited in galleries nationally and internationally including: The Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH; Viridian Artists, New York, NY; Intersect Arts Center, St. Louis, MO; and SCAD’s Open Studio event in Lacoste, France. Cobb has attended residencies at the Burren College of Art in Ireland, the Kentucky Foundation for Women in Louisville, HOME in Philadelphia, and the Kentucky College of Art and Design in Louisville. Her work has been published in the 23rd issue of Create! Magazine and the upcoming 154th issue of New American Paintings. Cobb also works as the Exhibits Specialist at Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center in Solomons, MD.

 

Condron_PA 2022Grace Doyle, Baltimore, MD

Grace Doyle is a 2023 Master of Fine Arts candidate in Towson University's Studio Arts program. Doyle graduated from The University of Baltimore with a Master’s in Business Administration in 2019, and Maryland Institute College of Art with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2009. She has spent summers painting abroad, including in Norway under contemporary painter Odd Nerdrum. Doyle was a Finalist in the 2023 Miami University Young Painters Competition for the William and Dorothy Yeck Award. In 2022, Doyle was a Semi-Finalist for The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards. In 2022 and 2021, Doyle was a Bethesda Painting Awards Semi-Finalist. In 2021, she was a Boynes Emerging Artist Award Finalist. Doyle has been an adjunct professor at Towson University and the Community College of Baltimore County. She serves as treasurer on the Board of Directors at Hamilton Arts Collective, an artist operated cooperative gallery in Northeast Baltimore.

 

PA 2022_HladkyKate Fleming, Arlington, VA

Kate Fleming is a painter, printmaker, and muralist. Fleming graduated from College of William & Mary in 2014 and participated in Maryland Institute College of Art’s summer travel intensive program at Sorrento, Italy in 2013. Between 2019 and 2021, Kate traveled to and painted in all 50 states alongside her partner, photographer Tom Woodruff. The small oil paintings she created on the road capture the human-built American landscape: gas stations, parking lots, strip malls, and big box stores. Kate has completed residencies at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop in Washington, D.C.; Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Amherst, VA; and Penland School of Crafts in Penland, NC. In 2022, Kate created a pop-up gallery in a 2,000-square-foot, two-level retail space in Washington, D.C. This exhibition, called People from Away, included over 150 works by Kate and her partner, photographer Tom Woodruff.

 

Jirsa_PA 2022Jeffrey Deane Hall, Richmond, VA

Jeffrey Deane Hall received a Bachelor of Arts in both Physics and Studio Art at the University of Richmond before continuing on to get his Master’s at Virginia Commonwealth University. Hall’s art is highly influenced by the trompe l’oeil painters of the 19th century. both in the high degree of realism and deep symbolic meaning. Often his paintings deal with the challenges of family life, from marriage to the complex balancing act that is one’s relationship with their own children. Hall’s work has been exhibited throughout the country including New York, Virginia, South Carolina, and more. In addition to painting, he is also a high school art teacher and department chair at Maggie L. Walker Governor's School in Richmond, VA. 

 

Laurie_PA 2022Trace Miller, Towson, MD

Trace Miller was born in western Pennsylvania and now resides in Towson, MD, where he is a lecturer and assistant chair in the Department of Art + Design, Art History, Art Education at Towson University. Miller received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and a Master of Fine Arts from Maryland Institute College of Art, Hoffberger School of Painting in Baltimore. His work has been exhibited extensively in the Mid-Atlantic region including the Delaplaine Arts Center in Frederick, MD; Hanover Street Bridge, Maryland Art Place in Baltimore, MD; and the Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover, DE. His work is currently represented by Goya Contemporary.

 

Wallace_PA 2022Lindsay Mueller, Arlington, VA

Lindsay Mueller received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Boston University. While living in Boston, she exhibited in galleries including at VanDernoot Gallery and Muskat Studios Gallery. Mueller values the power of arts to create connection within communities, and she has worked often with older adults and teens leading art classes and community arts programming. Mueller primarily paints in oil, focusing on landscape. She exhibited at the Katzen Rotunda at American University in Washington, DC; Del Ray Artisans Gallery in Alexandria, VA; and the Laconia Gallery, Boston, MA. In 2022, Mueller was a recipient of the Ruth Meixner-Bird Scholarship Award, a scholarship that recognizes deserving graduate students in the AU Studio Art Program. Mueller is currently a Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts student at American University.

 

Williams_PA 2022Rachel Rush, Baltimore, MD

Rachel Rush earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She is a recipient of the Ted Carey prize, and a Richard C. Von Hess Prize Nominee. The artist has participated in solo and group shows, including Full Moon Acupuncture and Apothecary, Baltimore, MD; Wishbone Reserve, Baltimore, MD; Goucher College, Baltimore, MD; Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD; and The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA. Her work is in the permanent collections of Unity Hall, Baltimore, MD and Baltimore Peninsula, Baltimore, MD. She is currently the Education Manager at The Creative Alliance.

 

Yun_PA 2022Nicole Santiago, Williamsburg, VA

Nicole M. Santiago holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in studio art from Indiana University and a Master in Fine Arts in painting from the University of New Hampshire. She is a Professor of Art at the College of William and Mary, where she teaches life drawing, drawing, color theory, and 2D design. Most of Santiago's works consist of semi-autobiographical paintings, drawings, and prints, containing layered narratives thinly veiled by the mundane debris of domesticity. Her work is exhibited often, having been included in over 100 groups and solo exhibitions during her career. She is a member of Zeuxis and First Street Gallery, New York, NY. Additionally, her works have been reproduced in several art publications, such as The Artist's Magazine, Art New England, INPA (International Painting Annual), and Fine Art Connoisseur.

 

Yun_PA 2022Julio Valdez, Washington, D.C.

Born in the Dominican Republic, Julio Valdez is a painter, printmaker, teacher, and mixed-media installation artist. He studied at the National School of Fine Arts in Santo Domingo and graduated in Fine Arts/Illustration from The Altos de Chavόn School of Design, the Parsons School of Design affiliate in 1988. Valdez received his first museum exhibition at the Omar Rayo Museum in Colombia in 1988. Since then, he has exhibited across Latin America and the United States. Locally, Valdez has displayed work in the Library of Congress, The World Bank Art Collection, and the Inter-American Development Bank Art Collection. In 2022, his exhibition “Mapping the Layers” was showcased at the Art Museum of the Americas. Valdez has presented 28 institutional and gallery solo exhibitions nationally and internationally, and has participated in more than 100 group exhibitions, biennials, and related educational programs in the visual arts.