Conway, S.C., artist Yvette L. Cummings last night won the 701 CCA Prize 2016 for South Carolina artists 40 years and younger. Cummings was announced as the winner during the December 1 701 CCA Prize Celebration at Columbia’s 701 Center for Contemporary Art. The winner was announced by Tristan Weinkle and Corinne Goldberg of exhibition sponsor South Carolina Veterinary Specialists and Emergency Care.
“Cummings is an outstanding winner of this year’s Prize,” 701 CCA board chair Wim Roefs said. “She won in a highly competitive field of contestants that included two other excellent finalists, Colleen Critcher and Jena Thomas.” Critcher is from Hartsville and was, like Cummings, selected for last year’s 701 CCA South Carolina Biennial. Thomas is from Spartanburg, where she arrived from Florida earlier this year to teach at Converse College.
As the winner, Cummings will receive a six-week, paid residency at 701 CCA; a solo exhibition at 701 CCA; and an ad in a national art magazine.
Cummings in 2015 was selected for the 701 CCA South Carolina Biennial and for Contemporary South at Visual Art Exchange in Raleigh, N.C. Also in 2015, she had a solo exhibition at Black Creek Arts Gallery in Hartsville, S.C. Other solo shows were at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C., and City Art Gallery in Columbia, S.C. Her work has been in some 30 group exhibitions, mostly in the South and Midwest. Among the venues where Cummings has shown are Women Made Gallery in Chicago, Ill., the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art and Kendall College of Art & Design, both in Grand Rapids, Mich., the Florence County (S.C.) Museum, the Pickens County (S.C.) Museum of Art and History, the Anderson (S.C.) Arts Center and the Durham (N.C.) Art Guild. Cummings holds an MFA and a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies from the University of Cincinnati in Ohio and a BFA from Kendal College. She also studied at the Studio Arts Center International in Florence, Italy.
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Yvette Cummings
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