Idaho – Three Idaho artists have been awarded Fellowships in Visual Arts: Joe Casey Doyle (Moscow), Karen Woods (Boise), and Chad Erpelding (Boise). The awards, given every two years by the Idaho Commission on the Arts, recognize outstanding artists, honoring work deemed to exhibit the highest artistic merit during peer review. Applicants were reviewed anonymously in a highly competitive process by panelists from out of state and were judged on the basis of existing work and professional history. Fellowship winners will each receive $5,000.

JOE CASEY DOYLE Doyle is an Associate Professor of Art and Design at the University of Idaho

“Utilizing sculptural strategies, a strong dedication to craft and work ethic, humor, and popular culture, I maintain a hybrid practice that explores sculpture, craft, and moving image. As an advocate for gay rights, equality, and myself, I create sociopolitical works that question our relationship to gender roles/stereotypes, sexuality, and the built environment.”

CHAD ERPELDING Erpelding is Professor of Painting and Drawing, and the Graduate Program Director at Boise State University

“The stock market is commonly used to gauge the overall health of economies and is followed with an almost religious fervor. The major corporations that drive the market continue to increase in size and power through consolidations and governmental influence. They write many of our laws and regulations, control legislation, and play a significant role in foreign and domestic policy. My work utilizes data visualization and systems-based strategies to investigate corporate power.” Drawing on the history of abstract painting, Erpelding’s work replaces the formal and idealistic space of Modernism with a new idol—the market.

KAREN WOODS Woods is represented by the George Billis Gallery in New York, and the Stewart Gallery in Boise

“If the road is a common metaphor for the journey of a life, taking snapshots and then painting them is an attempt to capture a moment in that journey. The click of a camera freezes an image that subsequently takes hours, days, weeks to paint. The difference in length of time and amount of effort between snapping the picture and creating the painting echoes the difference between the ease of blithely passing time versus the hard work of living an examined life.”