I am pleased to announce that noted sculptor and Scripps College alumna Elizabeth Turk ’83, winner of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship for 2010, will be the College’s commencement speaker on May 15, 2011.
As an artist, Elizabeth is best known for creating a series of 16 exquisitely carved marble sculptures, “The Collars.” Elizabethan ruffs, delicate patterns of lace, as well as natural and corporal imagery—from spider webs to the human skeletal system—were the inspiration for the collars, each sculpted from a 400-pound block of Sivec or Carrara marble. Two of the collars in the series were Elizabeth’s responses to the events of 9/11 and demonstrate “the fragility of life manifested in the hardness and stability of the marble.”
Elizabeth is one of 22 Americans to receive the MacArthur Fellowship for 2010. The fellowship, often called “Genius Award,” is given by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to exceptionally creative individuals as “an investment in a person’s originality, insight, and potential.” The award comes with a $500,000 no-strings attached grant to “offer unprecedented freedom and opportunity to reflect, create, and explore.”
Elizabeth has received several additional awards and recognitions, including the New York City Art Commission Award for Excellence in Design, the 2010 Barnett & Annalee Newman Foundation Fellowship, and, in 2001, the L’Oreal Art and Science Prize for her collaboration with Kirara Kawachi in Japan. She exhibited a selection of her work at the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at Scripps in 2003.
After receiving her BA in international relations from Scripps College, Elizabeth pursued a master’s in fine arts from Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute in Baltimore. A Pasadena, California, native, she is currently working on a new series inspired by water.
Commencement will be held on Elm Tree Lawn at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, May 15, 2011.