Assistant professor of studio art Amer Kobaslija is a finalist in the 2019 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art, presented by the Orlando Museum of Art. The sixth annual exhibition features ten of the most progressive and exciting artists working in the state of Florida today. Additionally, one of these outstanding artists is selected to receive a significant monetary award. There will also be an opportunity for a people’s choice award, voted on by guests of the exhibit’s opening preview event.
Kobaslija is the fourth School of Visual Arts and Design faculty member since 2015 to be chosen for this award. In 2015, associate professor Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz was nominated for the prize, associate professor Mark Gerstein was named a finalist in 2017, and most recently, Brooks Dierdorff was a finalist in last year’s 2018 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art.
About Amer Kobaslija:
Originally from Banjaluka in Bosnia, Amer Kobaslija (b. 1975) fled his war-ravaged homeland in 1993 to a refugee camp in Nuremberg, Germany. Later he traveled to Düsseldorf, where he attended the Kunst Akademie. In 1997, Kobaslija was offered asylum by the United States and immigrated to Florida. There in Sarasota he completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Ringling College of Art and Design. In 2003 he went on to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree at the Montclair State University in New Jersey. Prior to joining UCF in 2018, he has taught painting and drawing at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. He is a recipient of the Joan Mitchel Foundation Grant and Pollock-Krasner Award. A 2013 Guggenheim Fellow for painting, Kobaslija has had numerous one-person exhibitions in Paris, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New Orleans. His work has been featured in more than twenty solo exhibitions, including seven at George Adams Gallery in New York, and in more than thirty group shows in the United States and Europe. The monograph Amer Kobaslija: Places, Spaces was published in 2015 to accompany a traveling survey exhibition of his work, which was presented through 2017. Kobaslija’s paintings have been reviewed and reproduced in numerous publications including The New York Times, Art in America, ARTnews, Art & Antiques, New York Magazine, New York Time Out, The Village Voice, The Florida Times Union, The San Francisco Chronicle and The Japan Times.
Photo of Kobaslija’s work in the 2018 Faculty Exhibition shown at the UCF Art Gallery:
Artwork Details:
Left Painting: Amer Kobaslija, Riverscape with Landfills, Oil on wood, 2015.
Middle Painting: Amer Kobaslija, After Bruegel, Oil on wood, 2016.
Right Painting: Amer Kobaslija, Plein-air Painter, Oil on wood, 2017.
Learn more on the Orlando Museum of Art’s website.