Winner Of Third Annual Tito's Prize Named In Austin

AUSTIN, TX — Big Medium officials this week announced the winner of the third annual Tito's Prize, an honor bestowed to an Austin-based artist each year.

Betelhem Makonnen was named winner of the $15,000 award and a solo exhibition in the Big Medium Gallery slated to open with a special reception on March 6, 2020, and run until April 4, 2020. The cash award comes courtesy of a donation from Tito's Handmade Vodka, the Austin-themed liquor company.

Working with a variety of mediums that include video, photography, and installations,
Makonnen researches questions on perception, presence, and place within a
trans-temporal and trans-locative topology that operates on the relational dynamics of a
diasporic consciousness.

A native of Ethiopia who was born in 1972), Makonnen currently lives and works in Austin. Her formal education includes an MFA (2019) from the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago as a New Artists Society Merit Scholar; graduate coursework in Painting,
Time-based media, and Modern and Contemporary Art History (2010 – 2013) at the School
of Visual Arts of Parque Lage (EAV), Rio de Janeiro; and a BA (1995), History and Literature
of the African Diaspora from University of Texas in Austin.

In addition to her artistic praxis, Makonnen is also a co-founder of the Austin-based contemporary arts collaborative Black Mountain Project. She is also a curator at Fusebox Festival, an annual art and contemporary performance arts festival, and co-editor of the online arts periodical Written & Spoken.

The Tito’s Prize is intended to provide an artist the means to take a new step in their career. Big Medium officials said their hope is the award will have a meaningful impact on Makonnen’s artistic practice and help deepen her roots in Austin.

“I am immensely grateful to have been awarded the 2019 Tito’s Prize," she said in a prepared statement. "The award will be a big help towards enabling me to effectively sustain and build on my practice by providing the financial security for my work studio (my rent has gone up twice
and I have yet to finish a new two year lease), and the research and material needs of my practice. Ultimately, this opportunity will allow me to increase the focus, time dedication, and professional development that I am committed to.”