The Artist Space Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of the fourth Abstract online Art Exhibition. Along with the selected artists, the jury selected award winners in the following art categories: painting, sculpture and mixed media. The show displayed a variety of artistic styles and mediums: oil, acrylic, stainless steel, graphite, watercolor, colored pencil, photography, digital art. Out of all submissions received 68 artworks were selected to be included in the exhibition.
Best of Show
Dan Simoneau
Short Biography and Statement
Dan Simoneau is a seasoned American painter with over 45 years of professional experience. His work has been exhibited in more than 150 regional, national, and international exhibitions, earning over 70 awards, including multiple Best in Show honors. He holds signature or elected member status in several prestigious art societies, including the Allied Artists of America, the American Artists Professional League (Fellow), the American Watercolor Society, the International Guild of Realism, the Intternational Society of Acrylic Painters (Master), the National Society of Painters in Casein and Acrylic, and the National Watercolor Society. His paintings, primarily in acrylic and watercolor, are featured in private, corporate, and museum collections worldwide. My abstract paintings are a departure from my realist work, embracing the fluidity of form and the emotional resonance of color (or lack thereof). Through layered compositions, I explore the tension between structure and spontaneity, allowing light and shadow to shape meaning in unexpected ways. Each piece is an invitation for viewers to engage with ambiguity, finding their own interpretations within the interplay of texture and movement. While my realist paintings capture the tangible, my abstract works seek to evoke the intangible—memories, emotions, and fleeting moments of perception.
Painting Prize
Mick Ulichney
Short Biography and Statement
My name is Mick Ulichney. I’m an artist with an artist’s drive to create and a dreamer with a dreamer’s desire to discover what could be. I am a retired professor from SCAD. (The Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah Georgia) My MFA is in Painting, and I have an exhibition record that includes one man shows and acceptance into various prestigious juried shows and have received multiple awards including Best of Show recognition. Art is communication through imagination. An important way that we discover what could be, is through visual stories. My latest paintings are from my “Life of Shapes” series that explores the untold stories that might exist within the world that simple shapes could inhabit. I’m imagining a hidden world where simple primary shapes become the main characters in a variety of diverse story narratives. These glimpses into their secret lives reveal to us their parallel universe. I’m on a creative journey of discovery and I am always surprised by where it’s taking me.
Sculpture Prize
Jason Shih
Short Biography and Statement
Jason Shih was born in 1972 in Taiwan. In 1991, he began to specialize in metal sculpture when he was a sophomore in the Fine Arts Dept. of Taipei National University of the Arts. In 2001, he graduated from School for American Crafts, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA, and majored in Metal Sculpture. And then, he served as the metal sculptor Albert Paley's assistant, involved in crafts and public art work practices. Furthermore, he earned his Art Ph. D. from China Academy of Art, China (2015). Now, he lives in Taiwan, and consistently engages in the both areas of sculpture and public art. Jason Shih’s artistic vision is shaped by a diverse array of influences, from contemporary dance to avant-garde fashion. He cites German choreographer Pina Bausch and British designer Alexander McQueen as significant inspirations. Bausch’s explorations of time and space resonate with Shih’s interest in sculpture’s capacity to embody kinetic energy and spatial imagination. McQueen’s innovative approach to contemporary imagery and themes provides Shih with a broad canvas for creative expression. Shih’s work is also influenced by the aesthetic principles of Futurism and Constructivism, movements that emphasize dynamic energy and continuous motion. These influences are evident in his pursuit of capturing the beauty of movement and the elegant restraint of natural forces. Shih’s sculptures often depict moments of defying gravity, capturing the fleeting beauty of motion in a static form. As a professional sculptor, Jason likes to experience the taste of life with perceptual observation in the subtle moments, and also likes the ever-changing situation of game shapes in the poetic imaginary space. For Jason, art creation is to share various moods and stories in daily life.
Mixed Media Prize
Sharon Dundee
Short Biography and Statement
Sharon M. Dundee received her BFA from Youngstown State University. Specializing in abstract-expressionist analogue collage and mixed media painting, she has exhibited her work nationally in the U.S., including at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, OH, Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA, the d’Art Center, Norfolk, VA, and the Hera Art Gallery, RI. Her most recent solo shows include the 2025 group invitation show PIECED at Context Fine Arts gallery in Cleveland, OH, and Paper, Paint & Canvas in 2024 at the McDonough Museum of Art. She teaches collage curriculum in the Cuyahoga Community College Encore program and other art centers in the greater Cleveland area. Dundee lives and works in Lyndhurst, Ohio. "Reimagining is Repurposing" Raised in the “Rust Belt” my work often reflects the grit and tenacity of that environment. There is beauty in the decay, rust, and detritus of modern materials. By mining a wealth of discarded photos, old newsprint, books stripped of their covers, etc., I seek to repurpose them, imbuing old forms with new life. I aim to inspire those who see my work as a symbol of imagining new worlds out of old ideas.
Winners