Art News

Steven Alan Bennett and Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt in front of a painting by Michelle Jader.

The Bennett Prize
The call for entries for The Bennett Prize opens April 16. Founded by renowned art collectors and philanthropists Steven Alan Bennett and Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt, The Bennett Prize puts talented women artists front and center, “celebrating women in all their complexity, power and vulnerability.” The winner is awarded $50,000 to create her own solo exhibition of figurative realist paintings, which then travels the country. The call for entries closes October 16 and announcements for the 2021 finalists will take place in late November/early December.

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Dawoud Bey, Amishi, Chicago, IL, 1993. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Ralph M. Parsons Fund. © Dawoud Bey.

An American Project
An exhibition currently on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art features the illuminating photography of Dawoud Bey. Since the beginning of his career, Bey has used his camera to depict communities and histories that have largely remained underrepresented or unseen. Co-organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, this full-scale retrospective explores the artist’s four-decade career capturing African American subjects and history. An American Project includes early portraits of Harlem residents, large-scale color Polaroids as well as a series of collaborative word and image portraits of high school students, among other series.

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Yoshitomo Nara, Miss Spring, 2012, acrylic on canvas, 893/8 x 715/8". Collection of the Yokohama Museum of Art. © Yoshitomo Nara 2012. Photo by Keizo Kioku. Courtesy the artist.

Yoshitomo Nara exhibition
An exhibition is being held at Los Angeles County Museum of Art for Yoshitomo Nara, one of the most revered Japanese artists of his generation. Depictions of raw encounters with his inner self, Nara creates stylized figures and portraits, taking inspiration from parts of his childhood, places he’s traveled, music, literature and more. The exhibition showcases album covers Nara began collecting in his adolescence, as well as paintings, drawings, sculpture, ceramics and an installation that re-creates his drawing studio. Additionally, on view for the first time are conceptual sketches by the artist that shed light on his creative process. The show runs from April 5 to August 23.

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Eric Joyner, Portrait of the Artist, oil

Machine Man Memories
The sci-fi surrealist paintings of artist and illustrator Eric Joyner are on view at Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles through April 11. Machine Man Memories presents the latest series of whimsical creations by Joyner, whose work has been licensed from the likes of Disney, Warner Brothers and the HBO show Silicon Valley. The artist’s work is marked by a sense of playfulness and imagination, with robots, sea monsters and various recognizable characters from popular culture like Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. A total of 18 new oil paintings will be featured.

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Artist Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson

Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson Residency
Columbus Museum of Art, in partnership with the Greater Columbus Arts Council, has appointed three national jurors to the selection jury for the inaugural Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson Residency. Multifaceted artist Faith Ringgold, best known for her narrative quilts; professor, painter and printmaker Curlee Raven Holton; and Kellie Jones, professor in art history and archaeology in the Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia University have been named to the seven-person jury for determining the recipient of the 2020 Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson Residency. Launched this past December, the residency is open to all African American professional visual artists living in the United States. Invited artists have the opportunity to stay in the late Robinson’s restored Shepard community home in Columbus, Ohio, while devoting time to creating art within the artist’s home studio. The inaugural 90-day residency runs from August 17 to November 15 and includes a $2,500 award and stipend of up to $5,500.

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Hank Willis Thomas, Guernica, 2016, mixed media including sport jerseys. Private Collection. © Hank Willis Thomas. Image courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.All Things Being Equal
The Crystal Bridges Museum of Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, presents an exhibition of the diverse works of conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas. Running through April 20, Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal… highlights 90-plus artworks including photographs, sculptures, mixed media and his popular Branded series. This is the first comprehensive survey of the award-winning artist’s career of examining pop culture and his exploration of art as a method of raising awareness for social justice and civil rights. —