The National Sculpture Society awards the 2023 Alex J. Ettl Grant to Warren King. The Grant is presented to sculptors who have demonstrated a commitment to sculpting and an outstanding ability in their body of work. It consists of an unrestricted cash prize of $5000.

NSS Fellows Rosetta (from CO), Marc Mellon (from CT) and LeRoy Transfield (from UT) served as the 2023 jurors. Transfield says, “Warren King’s work shows great imagination and invention. Each piece also shows artistic sensitivity and meaning. I enjoy all his work and look forward to new and interesting works of greatness.”

King works primarily with corrugated cardboard. He uses his art as means for him, as a child of immigrants, to study the Chinese diaspora and examine how cultural roots withstand migration over distance and time. In 2010, King traveled to China for the first time, to the village where generations of his family had lived. During his visit, he met people who shared memories of his grandparents from when they had lived there before the Chinese Civil War. King created an ongoing series of life-size figures, based on the village residents. He has shown his works internationally at Museum for Papirkunst (Denmark); Body+Soul exhibition at Canary Wharf (United Kingdom) and CODA Museum (Netherlands). His latest exhibition is in SoHo (New York City) at the Pearl River Mart Gallery through April 23^rd.

The Society has awarded the Alex J. Ettl Grant since 1989. Alex J. Ettl (1898–1992) was a member of the National Sculpture Society’s board of directors and established the award in his name with an endowed gift.