Gowell Selected as Torpedo Factory 'Artist of the Year'

Friends of the Torpedo Factory Art Center has named Ruth Gowell as the “2013 Torpedo Factory Artist of the Year.”

Gowell has been a Torpedo Factory artist since 1991. She works in woven fiber art and kiln-formed glass.

The annual competition recognizes outstanding achievement in art, with the honoree receiving a cash award and the opportunity to exhibit in the Torpedo Factory's Target Gallery.

Alison Sigethy was the runner-up. 

The juror for the 2013 award was J. W. Mahoney, who is the Washington corresponding editor for Art in America, a contributing editor for the New Art Examiner, and an affiliate professor of Visual Arts at the University of Maryland.

“Her three-dimensional abstractions in glass and her weavings of iridescent cords echo—in their serialized forms—both the rich, independent color and the almost musical repetition of lines and shapes found in Ruth’s deepest artistic inspiration: the art of the Washington Color School,” Mahoney said of Gowell.

Gowell’s upcoming solo exhibition will be in Target Gallery from July 6 through July 28, with a reception on July 11 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Her show will feature several new pieces and include work in fiber and glass, weavings and optical glass. Her work is additionally on view in Studio 8 at the Torpedo Factory Art Center and online at www.ruthgowell.com.