The SECA Awards are given semi-annually by the Society to Encourage Contemporary Art, an SFMOMA art interest group, to artists working in San Francisco who have never had a solo show. (The actual selections are made by museum curators, not the members of the Society). SFMOMA is currently exhibiting many of the artists chosen over the 50 year history of the award as well as the current award recipients.
I took the docent tour today, and really wanted to be moved, impressed, stimulated by what I saw of the art and heard of the artists. Maybe it was the selections chosen by the docent tour leader, but none of the art really sang to me. More likely it could be that artists in their early careers haven't yet come to maturity in either their techniques or their visual philosophies/statements. Ie, they're just getting started, just finding their artistic voices to express their creative souls.
So, awarding to a young-in-their-career artist is tricky business. Early art is not necessarily a predictor of future quality or even of the artists' futures in the business of art. That business is a tough and often luck-dependent climb to sustainability, and, even with the recognition of the few awards to young artists, not many are able to make it. That said, the SECA Awards are some of the precious few broadly recognized and publicized feathers career-young artists can put in their caps and SFMOMA is to be commended for this 50 year endeavor in support of Bay Area artists young in their careers.
No matter what show I come to at SFMOMA, I thoroughly enjoy the open, airy sculpture garden/roof coffee area:
It's around the corner to the right from this art wall and exterior roofscape.
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