The 2022 Art Auction Awards Jurors
Contemporary Faith J. McKinnie
Faith J. McKinnie is an independent curator and consultant who has held leadership positions at the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento Theater Company, Bigger Than Us Arts, and is the founding director for the Black Artists Fund. She is a gallerist and owner of the Faith J. McKinnie Gallery located in Midtown Sacramento. Faith has been the driving force behind Coordinates: Ice Pack, a site-specific transitory art exhibition in March 2022 using vacant and underutilized spaces for creative inquiry. Originally from South Sacramento, Faith wields the transformative power of diverse, equitable, accessible, and inclusive art in her critically acclaimed projects, programs, and exhibitions.
Figurative Patris
Patris operates her own studio and gallery where she teaches weekly drawing and painting classes, coordinates artist workshops, art exhibits, and other events. Life drawing and painting sessions are scheduled several times a week at her studio, providing artists from all over the region with the opportunity to develop and hone their skills. In her studio gallery, Patris features her artwork along with works by other prominent artists, The main theme that runs throughout her artwork is her pursuit of painting and drawing from life – whether figurative, still life, or en plein air.
Landscape Leslie Toms
Color, light, and luscious painterly brushstrokes have long characterized the works of California artist Leslie Toms. Born in 1951 and raised in the quiet suburbs of Sacramento, her interest in art began at a very early age. This passion progressed through college degrees, a graphic design career, commissions, awards, and exhibitions to a full-time pursuit of painting. She studied with and was influenced by some of America’s finest painters, such as Wolf Kahn, Joseph Raffael, Wayne Theibaud, and Gregory Kondos. In search of subject matter, she often travels, working on location to complete studies which are later refined in the studio. Her work recalls influence from Impressionistic and Fauvist traditions as well as those of her native Northern California area. In Leslie’s ongoing pursuit as a colorist, her subjects become more symbolic than real. Her deft use of materials with these compositions compels the viewer.
Photography Andres Alvarez
Andres Alvarez is an interdisciplinary artist who creates 2-D work in painting, drawing, and photography. The focus of the work explores intergenerational identity, history, and intersectionality. Andres explores these ideas in street photography, color field photography, and portraiture. He has exhibited his work in several galleries in the Sacramento region. His photographs have been published in several magazines, newspapers, books, and online resources. Andres enjoys using his photography to support the arts community in Sacramento.
Sculpture Tony Natsoulas
Tony Natsoulas has been working as a professional artist emphasizing large-scale figurative ceramic sculpture since receiving his Masters of Fine Arts degree in 1985. As an undergraduate and graduate student at the University of California, Davis. Tony was fortunate to have studied with world-renowned funk art professor Robert Arneson. Tony's pieces are in galleries and museums collections around the world. He was named by the Smithsonian as one of the top 100 craft artists in the United States in 2004. His commissioned work includes several public and private sculptures in bronze, fiberglass, and ceramic. He maintains a studio in Sacramento, California.
Still Life Elizabeth Reagh
Elizabeth Reagh is a painter currently living and working in Sacramento, California. Reagh lived in Brooklyn, New York for 20 years before returning to her native California in 2019. Her focus is on finding a balance between observation and invention. Still Life has proved the perfect genre/vehicle for this exploration. She has exhibited in New York and California and had two solo shows in 2021.