Tara Donovan Wins Calder Prize, Residency in Saché

Tara Donovan, a 36-year-old New York-based sculptor represented by PaceWildenstein (also Alexander Calder's gallery), is the first recipient of the Calder Foundation's new biennial $50,000 prize, established by Calder's heirs in late 2005. The prize includes a six-month residency at Calder's former studio in Saché, near Tours, France—a region dear to the American sculptor. Donovan is known for installations using everyday manufactured materials: plastic cups glued into constellations, supermarket receipt paper arranged as nebulae. During her residency ending June 2006, she created a glass sculpture: hundreds of hammer-broken glass plates assembled to evoke a mountain landscape, placed on a wooden board at the studio's center. The modest-sized form, bathed in natural light, generates countless reflections, dematerializing into an airy mass. Her work is described as atmospheric, inducing a floating sensation that strips viewers of physical bearings, prompting contemplation of materialist objects' meditative power.