Third Place Award of Excellence

The San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild

2024 Spring Online Exhibition

An International Juried Online Exhibition

March 25, 2024 – May 25, 2024

JUROR:

Nancy Lim, Associate Curator

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Department of Painting & Sculpture

Congratulations to our

Third Place Award of Excellence Winner

Jiela Rufeh

Jiela was awarded the third place for her 36x36” mixed media work (Encaustic, Rice Paper, Archival Ink, Photo, Oils)

Behind the Veil

About Jiela:

Jiela was born in Boston, Massachusetts, of German and Persian descent. She grew up in the small colonial town of Concord, encompassed by a rich cultural and literary history.  Jiela’s education and professional life have taken her across the country from DC, New York, and Boston to San Diego where she currently lives and works. She received her BFA from Syracuse University in the study of Photography and Sculpture. She then went on to do post graduate work at the International Center of Photography in New York, and then to the prestigious Brooks Institute of Photography. While working in commercial photography, she has exhibited nationally for over a decade, including solo exhibitions in Berlin. Her belief in a universal energy has been an evolving interest and her work has been influenced by its manifestation throughout different civilizations, specifically Native American culture, mysticism, Shamanism, Yoga, and Eastern philosophy.

About Behind the Veil:
Behind the Veil is a symbolic representation of the human family tree which depicts blossoming generations, bloodlines ripe with marriages, children, cousins, etc. The first layer of the painting is a collage of my photographs of trees, in black and white, which reflect variety amongst species/individuals. Some squares have branches crossing into other squares as if they are one family. Soon the many boxes become abstracted with layers of encaustic medium (wax and damar resin) and paint- illustrating the passage of time and maturing generations. The white veil blurs the line between the living and the deceased, and the line between who we are today and our ancestorial heritage.

Noteworthy Exhibitions:

Oceanside Museum of Art, 2023/2024 Artist Alliance Biennial, Oceanside CA

Oceanside Museum of Art, Color Pop! Juror Maria Mingalone Executive Director Oceanside Museum of Art

The San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild, 2023 Artist Guild Online Exhibition, Juror: Hugh Davies Director and CEO of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego