Long Story Short: Jason Ramey
Jason Ramey is the first winner of the annual Chazen Prize to an Outstanding MFA Student, awarded to a 3rd year UW–Madison Art Department graduate student. Ramey makes sculptural objects that merge functional furniture with architectural features, especially walls. There is a dynamic dialogue between object and architecture, with the furniture sometimes subsumed by the architectural element and at other times providing critical support for the structure.
The Chazen Prize is offered by the museum in collaboration with the Art Department; the winner is selected by an outside curator. This year’s curator is Michelle Grabner, professor and chair of the Department of Painting and Drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is a Wisconsin native and previously taught at the UW for 6 years.