Hallie Maxwell, a student in the MFA visual arts program, received the International Sculpture Center’s 2023 Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award.
A panel deliberated over 646 images of sculptural works submitted by 182 students from 94 universities to select 10 award recipients from around the world.
Maxwell works with installation, sculpture, video, drawing and performance. A descendant of survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, in World War II, her work explores themes of intergenerational trauma, feelings of disconnection from cultural identity and the distortion of oral history over time.
Lily Lee, an associate professor and graduate director in the art department, said, “Hallie is a courageous risk-taker in the studio. For example, for one semester she challenged herself to not make any objects. As a graduate student with formal training in ceramics, this was a rather radical aspiration. She focused on installations, audio, and video work, prioritizing viewer experience as a means to convey her concept. The following semester, when we were working together in an independent study, Hallie applied what she had learned from her work outside of object-making to re-engage with materiality. Her artwork thrived as she fed her appetite for object-making with a reframed perspective.”
Maxwell received a BA in art from California Lutheran University in 2019 and has participated in Artist in Residence programs at Cove Park in Scotland and at Surel’s Place and MING studios in Boise. She will be part of a group exhibition and a feature in the January/February 2024 issue of Sculpture magazine. View her feature here.