Kandace Collins knew she was on to something unique when she poured wax into various molds of her left hand. Yet she was also open to the idea that she might be headed toward an artistic dead end.

"If you're really stubborn, you might end up doing something you really shouldn't be doing," the Ashland, Ore.,-based artist said.

Then her father took a look at her finished work. "Critical Mass," as the artist titled it, consists of 400 translucent wax hands from Collins' personal mold, all laid wrist-down on the gallery floor. The work looked stark. It looked alien. And it was impossible to walk around without a long, hard look.

In short, an ideal way to manifest Collins' theme of responding to repression. "That which is ignored," she said in her artist's statement, "is now confronted."

Her father approved. "He thought this work would take me far," Collins said.

As it turned out, that assessment matched well with the opinions of judges for the International Sculpture Center's annual student awards. Collins, along with 10 other winners, was slated for the center's 2009 international Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award.

Traveling from Hamilton, N.J.'s Grounds for Sculpture gallery, all 11 winning pieces will be exhibited at the Salt Lake Art Center through May 22 as part of the center's first national tour of contest winners. Titled "Launch-11," the exhibition is a rare chance to see the early works of sculptors as they're being catapulted onto the international art scene.

First launched in 1994, the center's competition traditionally selects some 20 winners from an international field of art schools that routinely submit works from more than 450 students. Although past submissions come from as far afield as Israel, Australia and Pakistan, the 2009 crop of winners all hail from the United States.

That only 11 winners were selected from a field of 471 last year by a three-judge panel demonstrates how discerning the contest is, said Johannah Hutchison, executive director at the center. "A good number of winners get picked up by New York galleries straight away every year," she said. "Many go on to get tenured teaching positions."

For now, Collins is tickled just to be counted a winner, and plans on traveling to Salt Lake City to see her work on exhibition at the Salt Lake Art Center.

"It's a big deal for me," the 28-year-old Collins said. "I'm from a small Oregon town, I'm the first winner of this competition from my school [Southern Oregon University], and I'm still just an undergraduate student."

Matthew Boonstra, a winner who earned his MFA in sculpture from Michigan State University, also took a thematic tack with his entry, titled "Manufacturing Sympathies."

Boonstra placed magnets on the armature of human figures, then covered them with iron chips left over from nearby automobile factories. A human figure made of motor oil lies horizontally in the background, one foot on the ground. The brooding affect of the work speaks to the social isolation people feel in times of economic decline. That sentiment is a backdrop in Michigan, where the decline of the auto industry reverberates through families and whole communities.

More than half the members of his Michigan family once worked in the auto industry. In preparation for creating his sculpture, he interviewed family members as well as others with ties to assembly plants and other facets of the trade.

"There are a number of ways to talk about the emotional anguish these people go through," Boonstra said from his East Lansing home. "I felt obligated to talk about these things, even if I'd never worked with iron chips or magnet before."

Neither Collins nor Boonstra expressed misgivings that their winning work has led to a Salt Lake City exhibition, as opposed to more traditional art bastions such as New York City or Toronto. "Salt Lake City's just fine with me. There's no need to be picky," Boonstra said.

bfulton@sltrib.com