FINE ART. DESIGN. SCULPTURE. MUSIC. FILM. RENO TAHOE.
Congratulations to our 2023 Reno Tahoe Artist Awards finalists & winners!
The regional RTA Awards recognize artistic excellence in 6 categories for artists from the Reno Tahoe area. Decided on by a panel of esteemed judges, the winners will each receive $1350 and a special edition award. The grand prize winner, for the Reno Creative Movement Award, will win $5000, a special edition award, and a full-page artist focus for an upcoming issue of American Art Collector magazine.
We thank Nevada Arts Council for sponsoring the RTA Awards, and are looking forward to the RTA Awards Gala held on-site at the RTIA Show on Saturday, September 16, 7pm-10pm. The Gala ceremony will also include recognition of the 'Best of Show' Awards decided on by popular vote, sponsored by Nevada Tourism & Cultural Affairs.
Furniture, Lighting, Functional Art
Andy Cline
Anela DeLaveaga
Tony Lamorte
Oil & Acrylic
Candida Webb
Julia Schwadron Marianelli
Kimbo Franke
Rossitza Todorova
Mixed Media: 2D
Candace Garlock
Jennifer Hartnett
Sabrina Frey
Thomas Gilbertson
Photography
Jordyn Owens
Stephanie Hogen
Will Enos
Mixed Media: 3D
Beck Baumann
Benjamin Langholz
Catherine Schmid-Maybach
Kyle Karrasch
Watercolor
James Gayles
Ronnie Rector
Thomas Gilbertson
Reno Creative Movement Award
Julia Schwadron Marianelli
RTA Awards Partners & Sponsors
About the Awards
Presented by nevada arts council
The Reno Tahoe Artist (RTA) Awards is an annual awards program and Gala created to recognize individual artistic achievement and the overall ascendancy of Reno Tahoe into a national destination for arts and culture.
A 509(a)2 entity, the regional component of the RTA Awards presents cash prizes and special edition awards for excellence in artistic achievement in 6 categories to artists living and working in the Reno Tahoe region. Winners are selected by an appointed panel of jurors looking to recognize key contributors to the development of Reno Tahoe’s arts and culture landscape. The Grand Prize is selected from the category winners.
Running in correspondence with the Reno Tahoe International Art Show, the 2023 RTA Awards introduces the ‘Best of Show’ Awards, a voter-based, jury assisted, awards program celebrating what’s best within each presenting category of the RTIA Show. Attendees and exhibitors are asked to vote for one winner per category on-site at the RTIA Show between the VIP Preview Thursday, September 14 and 6pm on Saturday, September 16 ahead of the Awards Gala.
Austin Pratt
Austin Pratt is an artist, educator, and curator based in Reno, Nevada. He received an MFA in Painting+Drawing from the University of Tennessee and a BFA in Painting with a Minor in Museum Studies from the University of Nevada, Reno. Pratt was a recipient of the Nevada Arts Council Visual Artist Fellowship and has been featured in New American Paintings magazine. His work has been shown widely, including Baitball Art Fair in Italy and solo exhibitions at Oats Park Art Center in Fallon, Nevada, and at Channel to Channel Gallery in Nashville, Tennessee, among others. Pratt is currently the Curator and Manager of Sheppard Contemporary & University Galleries at the University of Nevada, Reno, and a faculty member in the MFA program in Interdisciplinary Arts. He splits his time between programming exhibitions and teaching courses in Painting, Drawing, and Contemporary Theory and Practice.
Frances Melhop
Frances Melhop is a visual artist, curator and gallery director, born in Christchurch, New Zealand, living and working at Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Melhop works in tactile mediums such as photography, printmaking, hand embroidery, sculpture and oil paint exploring the tensions between the virtual and physical ways we experience the world. Her focus is on human presence and absence in our screen and material lives. She has exhibited collaborative works with Susan Norrie at Nancy Hoffman Gallery (New York, NY) and the NSW Museum of Art, (Sydney, Australia). Awards include, University of Nevada, Reno, Outstanding Artist Award, 2019, NNDA Innovator of the Year 2014, Luerzers Archive World’s Best Photographers 2009/2010. In 2020 as a curator and artist, she opened Melhop Gallery °7077, at Lake Tahoe, Nevada, representing 12 national and international artists. She also curates themed group shows with other invited exceptional artists. For the last 6 years she also taught in the art departments of University of Nevada, Reno, Western Nevada College, Truckee Meadows Community College and Lake Tahoe Community College.
Megan Berner
Megan Berner is a visual artist and arts professional living and working in Reno, NV. Coming from a multi-disciplinary and non-traditional art background, Megan is interested in innovative ways to activate public space and create opportunities for citizens and artists to engage with the community and connect people to their environment. Her personal practice is centered around place and the psychological experience of the environment. Megan holds an MFA from the University of Iowa in Intermedia. She currently works as the Arts & Culture Manager for the City of Reno.
Nettie Oliverio
Nettie is a partner with Foothill Partners Urban Development in the position of Arts and Culture Director. She collaborates in all the company’s projects to incorporate culture and commerce to build and sustain community.
A graduate of the Alabama School of Fine Arts and former dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, Nettie served 10 years on the City of Reno Arts & Culture Commission and chaired the City’s Public Art Committee and Arts & Culture Grants Panel. She co-chairs the regional Reno Arts Consortium and serves as board president of the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts.
Parker Stremmel
Parker Stremmel is the Director of Stremmel Gallery, a Reno-based fine art gallery that specializes in contemporary paintings, drawings, and sculptures by mid-career and established American and European artists. Stremmel serves on the board of directors for the Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum, The Barracuda Championship/ Reno-Tahoe Open Foundation, the John and Geraldine Lilley Museum of Art at UNR, and the Prospectors’ Club. Additionally, Parker is part of the Coeur d’Alene Art Auction, which specializes in the finest classical Western and American Art, representing past masters and outstanding contemporary artists.
2023 Members of the Jury
Congratulations to 2023 Best of Show finalists & winners!
Introducing 'Best Of' the 2023 RTIA Show, based on popular vote and a little help from our judges.
Winners receive a $1500 credit to RTIA 2024
+ a special edition award
+ acknowledgement in Art Confidential Magazine - courtesy of Sir Daniel Winn
Independents
Alan Potter
Hannah Eddy
June Brown Sculpture
Liana Weber
Soulful Art by Bridgette Durante
Heart of Reno
Beck Baumann
Candace Garlock
Karen Dukes
Kimbo Franke
Sabrina Frey
Art Cities
Bearcloud
Bennett Sculpture
Candice Brokenshire Buchan
Core Contemporary
Chung 24 Gallery
Sculpture: Small-Scale
Demolski Glass Works
Ironbear Sculpture
Heather Rison
June Brown Sculpture
Jennifer Johnson
Galleries & Features
Buffalo Creek Art Center
Gefen Gallery
Pacific Crest Gallery
Piper J Gallery
Stremmel Gallery
Sculpture: Large-Scale
Alpine Meadow Artists
Mark Rivera
Peter Hazel
Olivia Guethling & Mar Ricketts, Guildworks
True Mirror Experience
First Nations, Indigenous Peoples
Bearcloud
Created by Navajo Hands
Ironbear Sculpture
JJ Otero Art
Heather Johnston
Student Art
Abigail Kolber
Sydney Stominger
Sydney Flint
Mia Loran
Zane Richards