List of 10 winners of ArtPrize art competition taking place in downtown Grand Rapids, Mich.

List of 10 winners of Mich. art competition

The winners of ArtPrize, a new art competition in Grand Rapids, Mich., were announced Thursday. The event offers one of the world’s biggest art prizes: $250,000 for first place.

There were 1,262 entries competing. The public voted for 10 finalists after the first week and then voted for their favorites among the finalists to determine the winners.

A $100,000 prize was given for second place, $50,000 for third and $7,000 for each artist who finished fourth through 10th.

Entries will remain on display until Saturday at indoor and outdoor venues throughout downtown Grand Rapids.

The winners:

— 1st place: Ran Ortner, Brooklyn, N.Y. “Open Water No. 24″ is a lifelike, 19-foot-wide oil painting on canvas depicting the swelling surface of a body of water.

— 2nd place: Tracy Van Duinen, Chicago. “Imagine That!” is a large, colorful mural made from a variety of tiles.

— 3rd place: Eric Daigh, Traverse City, Mich. “Portraits” is a series of 4′ by 6′ portraits, each fashioned from thousands of pushpins.

— 4th place: David Lubbers, Grand Rapids, Mich. “The Grand Dance” is an abstract metal sculpture resembling a school of fish that moves in the wind and is installed on a small island in the Grand River.

— 5th place: Bill Secunda, Butler, Pa. “Moose” is a life-size sculpture of a moose made entirely out of 1,200 pounds of welded steel nails.

— 6th place: Nessie Project (Thomas Birks, Richard App, David Valdisseri and Joachim Jensen), Grand Rapids. “Nessie on the Grand” is a large sculpture of the Loch Ness monster installed in the Grand River.

— 7th place: John Douglas Powers, Birmingham, Ala. “Field of Reeds” is a kinetic sculpture of wood, steel and plastic that resembles a wheat field and uses an electric motor to sway its “stalks” back and forth.

— 8th place: Sarah Grant, Des Moines, Iowa. “The Furniture City Sets the Table for the World of Art” is a giant, 15-ton table-and-chairs set perched atop a pedestrian bridge spanning the Grand River, a nod to the city’s long history as a furniture maker.

— 9th place: Jason Hackenwerth, New York. “Ecstasy of The Scarlet Empress” is a huge sculpture made from twisting together more than 3,000 balloons.

— 10th place: Michael Westra, Grand Haven, Mich. “winddancer 2″ is an abstract steel sculpture with three pendulums that move in the wind.

Source: ArtPrize