Fifteen ladies artists aged between 42 and 89 who’ve made “significant contributions” to their inventive disciplines had been awarded $50,000 every — no strings hooked up — as a part of up to date photographer Susan Unterberg’s Nameless Was A Girl grant, the group introduced at present, November 20. An entire checklist of grantees might be discovered on the finish of this text.
Named after a line in Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Personal (1929), the Nameless Was A Girl prize is open to women-identifying artists 40 years of age or older. This yr’s grant doubles the $25,000 award of earlier years, bringing the whole quantity awarded to $750,000.
Whereas there aren’t any restrictions on how the artists can use the cash, the group mentioned the grant is meant to offer artists with the liberty to develop and develop their inventive visions at a “critical junction” of their careers.
Erica Baum’s “Fritillaries” (2021) (picture courtesy BUREAU, New York)
Takako Yamaguchi’s “Buckle” (2024) (© Takako Yamaguchi; picture courtesy the artist and Ortuzar Initiatives, New York)
Unterberg launched the grant in 1996 in response to the Nationwide Endowment of the Arts ending its monetary assist of particular person artists two years earlier, based on the group’s web site. In keeping with the grant’s title, the acclaimed photographer remained nameless for over 20 years till she determined to disclose her title to turn into a “more effective advocate for women artists” in 2018, as she mentioned in a press release. Beforehand, solely 10 artists acquired the award every year, however in 2021, that quantity elevated to fifteen.
Winners of the 2024 prize work in a broad vary of inventive disciplines together with curation, images, fiber arts, arts activism, and pedagogy. The cohort was chosen from a pool of nominations from nameless arts professionals.
Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter, “Consecration to Mary” (2021), giclée print
Among the many 2024 grantees is New York-based artist Erica Baum, whose works mix textual content and pictures to create poetic pictures that draw consideration to language and its meanings. Additionally receiving the prize is Philadelphia-based multidisciplinary artist and former Proper of Return Fellow Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter, whose solo exhibition Ain’t I a Girl, that includes a movie of the identical title, was on view on the Brooklyn Museum final yr.
Different winners embrace Rashida Bumbray, a choreographer and curator tracing the lineage of Black ladies dancers; Argentinian-born printmaker, multi-media artist, and former Guggenheim Fellow Liliana Porter; Japanese-born summary painter Takako Yamaguchi; and New York-based multi-media artist Jen Liu, whose works tackles techno and biopolitics.
Nameless Was A Girl can also be conducting a survey of girls visible artists to evaluate the problems that affect them. The group mentioned in a press release that the info could be publicly distributed with the intent that artists use it for their very own activism, significantly because it pertains to their relationship with arts establishments.
A nonetheless from Jen Liu’s The Land on the Backside of the Sea (2023)
Under is the complete checklist of award recipients:
Erica Baum, 63Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter, 42 Mary Lee Bendolph, 89Natalie Bookchin, 62Rashida Bumbray, 46Mary Ellen Carroll, 62Robin Hill, 69 Joyce Kozloff, 81Jen Liu, 48 Gladys Nilsson, 84 Liz Phillips, 73Liliana Porter, 83Shirley Tse, 56 Takako Yamaguchi, 72Constantina Zavitsanos, 47
Liliana Porter, “Untitled” (1973)
