Schaefer Portrait Challenge Jurors’ Choice Award Winner Announced

Schaefer Portrait Challenge 2015 Jurors’ Choice Award winner Allyn Bromley (left to right) with “Richard,” and Jack Gray and Carolyn Schaefer Gray at the 2015 Schaefer Portrait Challenge opening reception and award ceremony. Photo by Jose R. Morales Jack Gray and Carolyn Schaefer Gray.

By Maui Now Staff

The Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s Schaefer International Gallery announced the Schaefer Portrait Challenge 2015 Jurors’ Choice Award winner  at the opening reception on Sunday, Jan. 11.

O‘ahu resident Allyn Bromley won the prestigious award with its $15,000 cash prize donated by Jack and Carolyn Schaefer Gray.

Bromley is a retired professor from University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. She has enjoyed a successful career as an exhibiting artist. Her recent exhibitions include Natural Unnatural Supernatural at The Contemporary Museum 2014, and her retrospective, “Finding Lattitude,” in 2010. She was the recipient of the Alfred Preis Award in 2003.

The winning portrait, entitled “Richard,” is a combination of screen print and drawing.

In her “Artist’s Statement” accompanying the entry to the challenge, Bromley wrote: “Richard Gerage is the subject of this portrait. He had been a teacher of printmaking until an automobile accident 40 years ago, which changed his life forever. Directing his life from a wheelchair now, Richard is one of the most proactive people I have ever met. He volunteers for his church and for the Honolulu Museum of Art, where I first met him. He has made many friends over the years, and has been an inspiration to everyone. He is a man of extraordinary optimism, courage and generosity, and I have learned much through my interactions with him, sketching him at his residence, and socializing with him. His enormous capacity for patience, peace and humanity guide us all.”

Schaefer Portrait Challenge 2015 features 66 portraits of the people of Hawai‘i by 64 artists, determined by a statewide juried competition.

The exhibit is open through March 22, Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Schaefer International Gallery at The MACC. Admission is free.

Visitors to the gallery through March 8 can vote for their favorite piece in the “People’s Choice Award” competition, which will be announced at a reception on Sunday, March 14.