"I'm completely honored. Thank you. . . . This is going to change my life and my practice," Trecartin, 28, said at the award ceremony at Tyler.
Born in Webster, Texas, raised in Ohio and now a resident of South Philadelphia, Trecartin works in painting and sculpture but is mostly known for his highly embellished vrit video work.
His name was winnowed from a pool of about 20 candidates. The competition did not accept unsolicited applicants; it was structured so that an advisory board from Tyler and across the globe solicited about a dozen nominators whose expertise they felt represented the international art scene. Each nominator proposed an average of two names.
Those were considered by the jury, which consisted of Ingrid Schaffner, senior curator at the Institute for Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania; Melissa Chiu, director of the Asia Society in New York; and Paolo Colombo, art adviser to the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art and managing director of Dorje Film, Rome.
They met and simultaneously decided on the three finalists and the winner. Why name two other finalists if the winner was already chosen?
"That was part of the agreement the school had with Jack Wolgin. It was not only to have a feeling of suspense, but also so we could have an exhibition with more than one person," said Philip Glahn, a Tyler assistant professor of critical studies and aesthetics who was a member of the prize's advisory board.
Glahn said the parameters for this inaugural year of the Wolgin competition ended up reflecting, about half and half, the wishes and ideas of the donor and the advisory board. The winner was to be "an emerging talent."
"Known but not too well known," he said. "It was not to be a lifetime-achievement award."
The other finalists were Sanford Biggers of New York and Michael Rakowitz of Chicago and New York. Their work, like Trecartin's, has been on display at Tyler this month.
