Milwaukee filmmaker and artist Alyssa Borkowski – aka NeatCoolFun – is one of the semi-finalists in Pabst’s 10th Edition Art Can Contest.
Borkowski, who is a full-time painter who also writes, directs and edits short films, is in the top 25 of the contest, which received nearly 7,000 entries from more than 120 countries.
In honor of the landmark anniversary of the contest, Pabst is boosting the total prize money to $100,000, giving $10,000 to each of 10 winners.
Over the course of the contest, Pabst has given more than $150,000 to artists and had this art adorn more than 400 million cans of PBR.
You can see the submissions and vote for your favorite at pabstblueribbon.com/art.
The shortlist was selected by a judge that includes last year’s winner, Ashley Dreyfus, the 2019 winner Tenbeetee Solomon, aka Trap Bob, Traphouse artist Andy Arrangoiz and Rosemary Pinkham, art director at Juxtapoz Magazine.
Voting to narrow the shortlist down from 25 to 10 runs through Feb. 18 and the winning designs will be announced on Feb. 23.
The winning designs will appear on more than 140 million cans of Pabst this year.
Here are the top 25 Finalists:
Austin, TX Bleak Teeth Rodriguez
Asheville, NC Hannah Bunzey
Boston, MA Caroline Mallon
Canada Faith Garay
Canada Brandon Lepine
Chicago, IL Jeremiah Shalo
Columbus, OH Paul Giovis
Dayton, FL Eli Flannagan
Detroit, MI Guillermo Gonzalez
Houston, TX Charles Murphy
Kansas City, MO Frank Norton
Kansas City, MO Ben Walters
Finland Tommy Tarvonen
Lexington, KY Hayli Strickland
Los Angeles, CA Kim Asuncion
Los Angeles, CA Zoe Cain
Miami, FL Max Marin
Milwaukee, WI Alyssa Borkowski
Oakland, CA Emma Atterbury
Philadelphia, PT Valeriya Volkova
Philippines Paul Perelta
San Clemente CA Dylan Odbert
Salt Lake City, UT Katie Mansfield
Seattle, WA Andrew Martinez
Vietnam Toma Nguyen
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
