Kayla Bauer

The Panczenko Prize goes yearly to an outstanding master of fine arts degree recipient from UW-Madison, and these artists never fail to wow. Being given their own gallery in the Chazen this early in their careers is a rare opportunity. This year Kayla Bauer has created I Left My Heart…, a love letter to San Francisco that is a photo essay of her own photographic prints, coupled with the impulses of a collector — there's a curio cabinet of city souvenirs and a wall filled with San Francisco-themed plates.

media release: MFA candidate Kayla Bauer has been named the Chazen Museum of Art's 2022 Russell and Paula Panczenko MFA Prize winner. The exhibition will be on view in the museum's Garfield Galleries April 25–July 17, 2022.

I Left My Heart… is a love letter to San Francisco. In the exhibition, the relationship unfolds through dozens of photographs and collected objects. The beauty of kitsch, camp and icons appear throughout the images and are represented through mid-century souvenir plates and tiny figurines. Bauer sees San Francisco as a single city where one can experience the illusion of global travel. It took very little time for the artist to fall in love with the destination.

Bauer’s work focuses on a variety of research points from childhood nostalgia to Americana to the act of wandering. Photography was the start of her creative practice which now has evolved to include assemblages, installations, paintings and text. She uses archiving and organizing collections along with shopping at thrift and discount stores to provide inspiration and materials for her creative process. Photography is the main focus and is combined with drawings, textile pieces and found-object sculptures.

“I am honored to have been chosen as the 2022 Russell and Paula Panczenko MFA Prize winner,” said Bauer. “When the Covid-19 pandemic prevented my planned travel to Japan, I turned my attention to particular neighborhoods in San Francisco for my exploration. I hope viewers are able to appreciate the different shapes, colors and shades of the city and seek out the subtle differences.”

“As a university museum, the Chazen is able to support the work of emerging artists and present a diverse collection of art,” said Amy Gilman, director of the Chazen Museum of Art. “Bauer’s outstanding work was chosen for her unique way of storytelling and her innovative approach.”

The Russell and Paula Panczenko MFA Prize is offered annually by the museum in collaboration with the UW–Madison Art Department. The winner, who receives an honorarium, along with an exhibition at the Chazen, is selected by an outside juror. This year’s juror was Janet Dees, the Steven and Lisa Munster Tananbaum curator of modern and contemporary art at The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University.

“Kayla Bauer’s artistic practice is infused with the sensibility of a collector,” said Dees. “The collection of photographs assembled for her thesis exhibition are drawn from the results of this programmed wandering in San Francisco and reflect Bauer’s idiosyncratic attention to detail.”

The Russell and Paula Panczenko MFA Prize is supported by funds from the Russell and Paula Panczenko Fund for an Outstanding MFA Student.

About the Chazen Museum of Art

The Chazen Museum of Art makes its home between two lakes on the beautiful campus of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Within walking distance of the state capitol, it sits squarely in the heart of a vibrant college town. The Chazen’s expansive two-building site holds the second-largest collection of art in Wisconsin, and at 166,000 square feet, is the largest collecting museum in the Big 10. The collection of approximately 24,000 works of art covers diverse historical periods, cultures and geographic locations, from ancient Greece, Western Europe and the Soviet Empire to Moghul India, 18th-century Japan and modern Africa. For more information: chazen.wisc.edu