ArtPrize Pitch Night Louisville Winner Bringing Bubble-Gum Pink Gazebos

ArtPrize has announced Wednesday's Pitch Night Louisville winning entry.

"Gaze-bo(ught)" by Leticia Bajuyo is the winner of a $5,000 cash grant as well as a high-profile spot at Lyon Square in Grand Rapids for ArtPrize Eight.

The Kentucky-based artist’s work intends to build a “meta-moment” similar to a play within a play, or an infinite series of photographs that question one’s own existence amongst time and space. In addition to an infinite series of bubble-gum pink gazebos, Bajuyo will install a carnivalesque merchant cart.

Bajuyo’s work often disrupts one’s sense of scale through familiar objects.

“The size and scale of shrinking objects make us feel both controlled and in-control, vast and independent while being both small and introspective simultaneously,” said Bajuyo of her previous work and of how she intends ArtPrize viewers to respond to her upcoming installation.

“The magic, mystery, curiosity and creativity that imagination generates is vital to humanity,” said Bajuyo about the work. “Human creativity and imagination is something that is needed in history, in culture, economic development and especially education.”

Bajuyo’s work was selected from among five artists and artist collectives that were invited to present at Wednesday's Pitch Night event. Each artist was given five minutes and five slides to sell their site-specific installation idea to a panel of local arts professionals including: Chris Radtke, artist and co-owner of Zephyr Gallery, Partner at IDEAS xLab; Chris Reitz, Assistant Professor, Critical and Curatorial Studies & Gallery Director, Hite Art Institue of the University of Louisville; Daniel Pfalzgraf, Curator at the Carnegie Center for Art & History; Joey Yates, Associate Curator of the Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft; and Alice Gray Stites, 21c Museum Hotels Chief Curator and Museum Director.

“The playful colors will be a beacon drawing visitors to Lyon Square where they will dive deep into a contemplation of not only the work but an interior contemplation of both the historic site and the context of ArtPrize,” said Stites who announced the winner in front of a capacity crowd in one of 21c Louisville’s main galleries.