Akiko Kotani is the Recipient of the 2023 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art

Twin brothers Elliot and Erick Jiménez awarded the People’s Choice Award

The Orlando Museum of Art is pleased to announce that Akiko Kotani has been awarded the 2023 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art, along with $20,000, which was generously underwritten by Gail and Michael Winn, longtime supporters of the prize. Hansen Mulford, retired Chief Curator and Consultant on the exhibition, made the announcement on Friday, June 2, at the Florida Prize Exhibition Preview Party.

Elliot and Erick Jiménez, the first collaborative artists to be featured in the exhibition, were voted the winners of the People’s Choice Award. Along with bragging rights, the pair received a check for $2,500, also underwritten by Gail and Michael Winn.

As a young aspiring artist living in New York, Akiko Kotani discovered the expressive power of textile art while taking a weaving class at the YMCA Manhattan Weaving Workshop. The experience was life-changing, leading her to continue her studies in Guatemala, a country with an exceptional textile art tradition.

Kotani’s process of crocheting plastic bags and other materials into long bands is an innovative development that has allowed her to create a variety of large-scale sculptural forms. All her work is, in some way, an expression of her concerns for women. Her use of textiles and the repetitive practice of weaving pay homage to the extraordinary achievements of women throughout history, which have typically been undervalued by society.

Elliot and Erick Jiménez are first-generation Cuban Americans raised in Miami. Growing up with shared interests in art and photography, each contributed individual strengths, creating their work through a process of planning, communication, and mutual respect.  Their aesthetic approach is inspired by the canon of European art history and their Cuban heritage while also being relevant to contemporary visual culture.

In their current series of photographs, the Jiménezes have visualized the representation of deities within the syncretism of Lucumí and Catholic beliefs.  Pictured are symbolic figures, their faces deeply shadowed or obscured but identifiable through iconography, much the same as the saints seen in old master paintings.

The Florida Prize in Contemporary Art is on view at the Orlando Museum of Art through September 17, 2023.