Black-and-white photograph of Anna by Elena Volkova, one of the winners of the MASB Artist Travel Prize

Two Baltimore artists, Elena Volkova and Jackie Milad are the winners of the MASB Artist Travel Prize. They will receive $6,000 to help fund travel essential to their studio practice. 

BY KAZEEM ADELEKE

BALTIMORE, MD – Elena Volkova and Jackie Milad are the winners of this year’s Municipal Art Society of Baltimore City Artist Travel Prize (MASB). As winners of this year’s MASB Artist Travel Prize, Elena Volkova and Jackie Milad will each receive $6,000 to help fund travel essential to their studio practice.

Elena Volkova: Ukrainian Portraits

Volkova’s winning travel project is titled “Ukrainian Portraits.” A community arts project, Volkova examined the emotional struggles and experiences of Ukrainians who have gone through the harrowing experience of Russia’s invasion and how to empower them. The result of the collaboration is a collection of powerful images that humanize and empower the people represented. Volkova’s goal of facilitating an artistic experience focused on the empowerment and healing of dispirited souls is well-articulated in these black-and-white images. Her archive of portraits using a historic photographic process also bears witness to the struggles of Ukrainians as they go through the trauma of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

About Elena Volkova

A Ukrainian-born interdisciplinary artist, Elena Volkova works in the mediums of photography, installation, and drawing. Her current body of work follows the post-minimalist aesthetic and focuses on liminal space. They bring attention to everyday experiences and those overlooked everyday moments.

An award-winning artist, Volkova has received several recognitions and awards. Her awards include the Janis Meyer Traveling Fellowship, the Hamiltonian Fellowship, the Vermont Studio Fellowship, and the Stevenson University Faculty Research Grant. Volkova’s works were part of the Art in Embassies program and have been exhibited in Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

A multi-talented artist, educator, and one who loves impacting knowledge, Volkova was a co-host of the photojournalism podcast, “Ten Frames per Second.” She worked with J.M. Giordano on a series of interviews with local and international photographers. Additionally, she created a series of panel discussions at the Hamiltonian Gallery focused on contemporary art practices. The topics include “On Drawing, Site Specificity,” and “Questioning Photography.” She was also a producer on “Project Line 180,” a series of video interviews with local artists.

Elena Volkova’s work has been exhibited regionally, nationally, and internationally. Volkova currently resides in Baltimore and teaches photography at Stevenson University.

Jackie Milad: Constructing Multiple Layers of History

A Baltimore City-based artist, Jackie Milad, is the other winner of the MASB City Artist Travel Prize. Born to immigrant parents, Milad’s works are influenced by her identity.  As a mixed-cultural person of Egyptian-Honduran origins, Milad’s creative practice brings forth a confluence of ideas that are sometimes chaotic. Adding to that creative frenzy apparent in the artist’s works is her experience growing up in a multi-ethnic and trilingual home where words, sounds, designs, experiences, and cultures cohabit in chaotic order.

The experience of growing up in a multicultural environment inspired a curiosity about history and heritage that continues to influence her work. Her large-scale paintings and mixed-media abstract drawings and collages address the layers, history, and complexities surrounding multi-ethnic identity.  But beyond the multiple layers of history inherent in her work, there is also a performative element to Milad’s work.  The process of layering, excavating, scraping, pasting, and inputting reveals the artist’s fascination with performance art.

About Jackie Milad

Jackie Milad has a background in performance art and painting. In the early stages of her career, she was inspired by the work of feminist and identity-based artists. After graduating from art school and returning to Baltimore, she began to navigate new artistic territories.  She sought out experimental time-based art, and that became a major source of influence for her later works. In many of the works from that period up till now, the artist combines drawing, painting, collage, and textile techniques to create large-scale paintings to tell the story of her individual decisions, inspirations, and personal history.

Furthermore, Milad uses her work to reveal the power of cultural heritage and shifting historical narratives. Milad sees her large-scale painting-collage practice as an integral aspect of performance art and experimental practices.   Milad currently lives in Baltimore City with her son and artist-musician husband. She is a full-time artist and serves as a member of the faculty and a mentor in the low-residency MFA program and the Curatorial Practice MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art.

An award-winning artist, Milad is a multi-year recipient of the Individual Artist Grant from the Maryland State Arts Council. She was a Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize Finalist and a Robert W. Deutsch Foundation Ruby Grantee in 2019. Her work is in the following public collections: the Pizzuti Collection, the GLB Memorial Foundation Collection, The Sheridan Libraries at Johns Hopkins University, the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, and Meta Inc (Facebook).

What do you think about the winners of this year’s MASB Artist Travel Prize and their work? Share your thoughts. Leave a comment.