Winner sculpts loss

Sculptor Ledelle Moe will become $20,000 richer tonight when she receives the Kreeger Museum’s Artist Award at a reception in the institution on Foxhall Road Northwest. The 37-year-old artist, who was born in South Africa and lived in the District before moving to teach in Baltimore, is the third recipient of the prize, awarded to a deserving local artist every two years.

”Erosion,” a concrete-and-metal sculpture by Ms. Moe, has been installed at the Kreeger and will go on public view Friday through Nov. 29. Two more of her large, carapacelike pieces and a series of drawings are being exhibited at American University’s Katzen Arts Center through Oct. 26.

“Her work is really provocative and powerful and makes you think about humanity,” says Katzen curator and Director Jack Rasmussen, one of five judges who selected Ms. Moe as this year’s award winner. “She has blossomed into a major talent in a very short time.”

The cash award was established in 2004 to reflect the artistic interests of the late David and Carmen Kreeger, whose collection forms the basis of the Philip Johnson-designed house-turned-museum. So far, only artists working in three dimensions have won the honor, reflecting the decline of traditional media such as painting and printmaking in the contemporary art world as much as the talent in the region.

The first winner, Washington sculptor James Sanborn, whose piece “Kryptos” graces the CIA headquarters, was followed in 2006 by sculptor and installation artist Kendall Buster, who now lives in Richmond. Both won $10,000; this year’s doubled cash prize is underwritten by Chevy Chase Bank.

The selection of Ms. Moe, who chairs the sculpture department at the Maryland Institute College of Art, seems particularly timely during the current economic crisis, given her interest in the illusion of permanence.

”Erosion,” the piece displayed at the Kreeger, belongs to a monumental “Collapse” series that addresses ideas of loss and decay. Completed in August and previously shown at Baltimore’s Area 405 gallery, it is less fragmentary and inscrutable than the artist’s previous works, which often resemble ruins from a forgotten civilization.

”It’s the first time I’ve ever done an entire figure from head to toe,” Ms. Moe said during an interview at the Kreeger earlier this week. The artist will give a museum talk about her work Nov. 19.

Her inspiration came from the worn statuary in a Richmond cemetery. “I thought it would be amazing to blow up one of those anonymous figures that interact with the elements,” she said.

The large sculpture vaguely resembles a reclining woman - or perhaps a man - in a flowing gown with an arm and a head discernible at one end. It takes up most of a lower-level room and - unlike the outdoor installation of Ms. Moe’s work at the Katzen - forces the viewer to confront the physicality of her sculpture up close. The rough concrete surfaces and metal armature of the piece express a raw, industrial quality in defiance of the pristine, carpeted gallery.

Still evident are the chalk marks identifying the approximately 40 sections that are bolted together within a steel grid to form the sculpture. One end of the hollow piece is left open so visitors are able to look inside and understand its construction.

As for the prize money, Ms. Moe plans to use it to fund site-specific projects in far-flung countries such as India and Senegal. “It’s important to branch out and create work elsewhere,” she says.

Also judging this year’s award contenders, who included District sculptor Dan Steinhilber, were Ms. Buster; local collector Robert Lehrman; Stephen Bennett Phillips, fine-arts program director at the Federal Reserve Board; and Phyllis Rosenzweig, curator emerita of the Hirshhorn Museum.