Gallery artist Ko Kirk Yamahira has been named the Grand Prize Winner of the Alden Mason Foundation Award.
Established in 2017, the Alden Mason Foundation was formed to sustain and celebrate Alden Mason’s extraordinary legacy as one of the Pacific Northwest’s most prominent artists and to acknowledge his influence on several generations of students as a professor of art at the University of Washington.
Since its inception, the foundation has published a comprehensive monograph about the work and life of Alden Mason, contributed and assisted in the organization of a major survey of Alden’s work at the Bellevue Arts Museum. The Foundation has also provided an endowed yearly scholarship in Alden Mason’s name to a candidate in the MFA program in painting in the School of Art at the University of Washington.
Throughout his career, Mason was a generous mentor and supporter of younger artists whose work he felt deserved recognition. With this in mind, and Alden’s wish to help foster a vibrant art community, the Alden Mason Foundation established the Alden Mason Foundation Award – three prestigious awards created to pay homage to the enduring artistic legacy of beloved Washington artist, Alden Mason.