Exhibitions & Awards

Misty Dailey Award at the Dela Cruz Gallery, DC 

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​Judge's comments: It is so rare to visit a student show and see a body of work that doesn’t feel like a class project. Ina’s work demonstrates an intentional theme and palette. Her paintings are simultaneously from another time, and contemporary scenes of yesterday’s party. Ina’s paint application is strategic; she uses impasto in sections of the painting and selectively on the figures, and rather than seeming inconsistent, it works. Backgrounds are blurred and bodies merge into one another, much like the activity and movement found on a dance floor. The brightness of the figures is clearly an effect of flash lighting, yet the viewer moves beyond the fact that these are painted from photographs. These figures develop their own identities, separate from what the source photos had dictated they be. What Ina accomplishes is not easy, and her work leaves the viewer hoping for more. In awarding the First Prize, it was an easy and clear choice. I didn’t feel like I was judging a student’s work, but rather that of an artist.  I look forward to following Ina’s work in the future.