The results are in. A big congrats to the three winners of our 2022 Cover Art Contest!
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FIRST PLACE: ghost no more, by semillites hernandez velasco
semillites hernández velasco (he/him) is a trans and brown visual artist and printmaker based in vancouver, on the unceded territory of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam Nations. semillites was born in mexico city in 1995 and at the age of nineteen he immigrated north. semillites’ mediums range from drawing to textile art, board games, drawing and animated gifs. his artworks are love letters to himself, his ancestors and every flower and grasshopper that has ever crossed his path.
At first glance I was very drawn to the graphic quality of this piece and the abstraction of its figurative form. Coming to understand the concept and the feeling of being invisible as a bed-sheet ghost, the work spoke to me greatly about the experience of being able to see yourself belonging in a living that doesn’t feel made for you. The rigidity in the figures, the rhythmic tones of the imagery with all the spaces gave me a sense of the challenges of how one can protectively push forward in a systematic space. The repetition in action and motion aligns with the hopeful sense of becoming that the artist explains as a foreword existence of rebellion in self-care and reclamation of space. Within such an intimate and moving expression of personal experience, I found this piece being a beautiful and playful interpretation of how to survive in a world within a world of being. — Judge Ness Lee
My name is Mariana, and I’m a writer and illustrator. I feel I’ve always lived in between worlds throughout my life and work. I’m of Japanese descent born in Brazil, currently living in Canada and I found myself lost in my identity. Making art is the place I can belong.
I can relate to this piece in its emotionally figurative expressions- the fullness of the bodies fitting into one another and the movement of lines expressed with the figurative forms. There is a soft density and stillness present in the way these bodies of presence are one with another. I thought this was beautiful in the way we can feel many phases of self in an inner world. — Judge Ness Lee
Danielle Klebes lives and works at Wassaic Project in Wassaic, NY. Danielle has exhibited in notable galleries and museums throughout the United States, Europe, and Canada. Danielle received her MFA in Visual Arts from Lesley University College of Art and Design in Cambridge, MA, in 2017.
I thought this was such a vibrant and serene piece that gave me a sense of being comfortable in a shared silence, or when bodies are able to be together in vulnerability in the present moment. Being able to see into this moment of such an intimacy, in a space that we can take for granted, reminded me of how important it is to be mindful of the spaces we occupy with ourselves and with each other and how it can be a process to feel a home with yourself in a place that is not yours but yours for now. — Judge Ness Lee
The First Place winner will be featured on the cover of our upcoming issue, 46.2! You can see Mariana and Danielle’s stunning pieces, published via the links above. As always, we are hugely grateful to everyone who shared their art with us and our judge – we know it is a vulnerable experience to submit your work to a contest, and we appreciate every single person who has taken the time to send us their pieces.
A special thank-you to this year’s excellent judge, ness lee, for taking time the time to thoughtfully and carefully consider all submissions and ultimately select our winners, and our 46.2 cover art with such reverence. Our 2023 Cover Art Contest will open again in November 2023.
The featured image on this post the winning images from the contest – left: ghost no more, centre: Hoping Coping, right: Interiors.
