Miami New Times' Mastermind Awards honors the city's most inspiring creatives. This year, we received more than 150 submissions, which our staff narrowed to an elite group of 30. We'll be profiling our honorable mentions, and eventually the finalists, in the weeks to come. This year's three Mastermind Award winners will be announced March 8 at Artopia, our annual soiree celebrating Miami culture. For tickets and more information, visit the website.
Sara Kontoff Baker
Who knew geeks could use the right side of their brains, too? Meet Sara Kontoff Baker, the woman with degrees from Boston University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology who uses her smarts to play with light.
As an artist, Baker specializes in light imagery: neon, holographic sculpture and 2-D light works without a camera. In other words, you're gonna want to be good and sober when you see her work -- it's mind-boggling as is.
Baker has already made a name for herself in the field, with a 15-piece neon installation commissioned by The Boston Children's Museum under her belt. Her work has also been exhibited all over the world, in galleries like the Holographic Museum, OK Harris, and 49th Street Gallery in New York. The Newport Museum, the Attleboro Museum, the Boston Society of Architects, and Sister City Exhibition in Kyoto Japan have also given Baker's stellar light shows a spotlight (no pun intended).
This brainiac has one hell of a resume (she also taught studio art and art history at Northeastern University). But ultimately, her trippy passion is what truly makes her work shine.
Honorable Mentions:
Jason Snyder
Valeria Yamamoto
Jayme Gershen
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