The Puget Sound area is alive with artistic activity. There is no better example of that than at the Tacoma Art Museum, where artwork by the eight nominees for the prestigious Neddy Artist Fellowship is on display.

The Neddy Artist Fellowship, named in memory of Robert “Ned” Behnke, grants two unrestricted cash awards to two local artists - one painter and one artist from another medium - every year.

This year’s fellowship recipients are painter Randy Hayes and ceramicist Akio Takamori, who will each receive $15,000. The other nominees will receive $1,000 each. For each artist, the museum selected one or more works to put on display.

Hayes is a Seattle resident and avid traveler, having toured Europe, Asia and the southern United States. His artwork on display consists of a grid of photos from Turkish ruins and a small Mississippi town. The grid is painted over to create a bluish tint, and an image of ruins is painted on top of that.

The works have two faces. From far away, viewers will see a clear, detailed image of Mediterranean ruins. Up close, they will see Hayes’ photos of his travels. The artist has been using this technique since 1990 as a way to explore the relationship between painting and photography.

Hayes will use his award money to continue his art, and in particular hopes to do an artistic study of the southern United States.

Takamori’s two pieces on display are ceramic statues of the princess and the dwarf, both featured in Diego Velasquez’s painting “Las Meninas.” Takamori, who grew up in Japan, has recreated the figures, but from a Japanese cultural perspective. The princess is kneeling with her hands folded in her lap and her hair is dark in comparison to Velasquez’s blonde, pale princess who stands as her maids attend to her.

Takamori’s subjects are frequently mythical and classical figures, and he also depicts ordinary people - from his village in Japan and from his more recent life in the United States. For the artist, his figures represent the perspectives that form identities, be it time, culture or race.

The works on display by the six other nominees explore a range of themes. Doug Jeck’s stoneware statue named “Cain and Abel” mimics classical marble sculptures. But instead of embodying the beauty and idealism of those classical works, the subject of “Cain and Abel” seems vulnerable, even somewhat anxious. The artist described his statue as the remnants of the heroicized past confronted by the complexities of the anti-heroic present.

Artist Denzil Hurley approaches his work as a study of the creation of art rather than the ending result. His painting titled “Glyph-D-2” is on display at the museum and is a black image with grids of painted white marks. But he does not intend for the viewer to interpret his image; instead, he hopes his audience looks at the work for its aesthetic properties.

Also on display at the museum are works by the other nominees, Catherine Cook, Peter Olsen, John Taylor and Robert Yoder, as well as a piece by Ned Behnke.

The exhibit will be on display through Aug. 24. For more information on the exhibit and on the Tacoma Art Museum, visit www.tacomaartmuseum.org or call (253) 272-4258.