Burlington sculptor Lydia Kern has received this year’s Diane Gabriel Visual Artist Award, with a cash prize of $5,000 and a $1,000 credit to access Burlington City Arts studios.
The award aims to support emerging artists who exhibit high skill, a willingness to experiment and a commitment to innovation.
Kern, 31, sculpts pieces exploring the relationship between life and death; her work is often framed in devices resembling windows or tombstones. Her sculptures incorporate an eclectic array of materials: the shell of a double-yolked egg, a robin’s nest flattened by a rainstorm, discarded whistles salvaged from a dumpster. A jury of four selected Kern from 69 applicants.
“It’s not something that you would say, ‘Oh, I saw that somewhere else,’” said Heather Ferrell, Burlington City Arts curator and director of exhibitions. “She’s really developing an original vision.”
Gabriel, the prize’s namesake, was a prolific Vermont artist who died in 2017 at the age of 70. Her family created the award in collaboration with Burlington City Arts in 2021, when portrait artist and photographer Crystal Stokes took home the inaugural $1,500 prize.
Ferrell said she’s advocated for increasing the prize money over the years to support artists trying to make it full time. The prize money doubled this year, up from $2,500 in 2023.
Kern said she plans to use the money to purchase materials and will continue experimenting with unconventional objects.
One particularly memorable item she’s used: a deer’s spinal column that a friend of hers happened upon in the woods. Kern turned the bones into a piece she titled “Fleet,” animal vertebrae suspended in the air to resemble birds.
Her next project, a 9-by-11-foot archway to be installed on the perimeter of Burlington City Hall Park, will feature preserved flowers suspended in resin. Kern collected the flowers after posting on the neighborhood social network Front Porch Forum that she was hosting “flower drop-off hours” in the space where the sculpture will eventually be installed. The City of Burlington commissioned the piece as part of its Great Streets BTV initiative to revitalize public spaces.
“It feels good to be working on a piece that can give back to the community that has supported me,” Kern said.
On Friday, July 12, 5 to 7 p.m., the BCA Center will host a reception in celebration of Kern and her work.
