Artist Award Roundup: Tuan Andrew Nguyen Wins Joan Miró Prize, South Arts Names Fellows, and More

Spring has been the season for congratulations as numerous artists learned this month that they had snagged residencies, prizes, and fellowships.

At a press conference today, the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona was announced that Tuan Andrew Nguyen had won its Joan Miró Prize, a prestigious award that has previously gone to artists like Olafur Eliasson, Pipilotti Rist, and Mona Hatoum. With the support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Nguyen will receive a money award of €50,000 (around $53,000) and will also have a solo show at the Fundació Joan Miró in 2024. Nguyen makes video and sculpture works that delve into memory, colonialism, and religion, often focusing on monuments and architecture as the visual anchor to the past.

Last week, at the annual Guggenheim’s Young Collector’s Council party, the winner of the inaugural LG Guggenheim Award was announced: Stephanie Dinkins. Dinkins will receive an unrestricted prize of $100,000, honoring her cutting edge work in technology-based art. Currently the Yayoi Kusama Professor of Art at Stony Brook University, Dinkins has established herself as a leading figure in the utilization of AI in art, with projects like Bina48, a robotic-bust that communicates using AI-enabled speech.

Guggenheim isn’t the only institution spotlighting artists working with tech. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced the Knight Arts + Tech Fellowship fellows earlier this May, which awards artists with $50,000 in unrestricted funding. The winners this year are: American Artist, Kara Güt, Leo Castañeda, Marlena Myles, and The Institute of Queer Ecology.

South Arts in Atlanta has awarded nine fellowships to artists from each of the US’s nine southern states. As part of its flagship Southern Prize & State Fellowship, each artist will receive $5,000 and an opportunity to win the Southern Prize, which comes with a $25,000 prize. The inaugural fellows are Kelly Bryant (based in Alabama), Chris Friday (Florida), Victoria Dugger (Georgia), Rachel Moser (Kentucky), Carlie Trosclair (Louisiana), Alexis McGrigg (Mississippi), Nadia Meadows (North Carolina), Michael Webster (South Carolina), and Beizar Aradini (Tennessee).

Meanwhile, the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation announced its second round of winners of Awards in Crafts. The awardees this year are the multimedia artist Adebunmi Gbadebo; furniture maker, artist, and educator Aspen Golann; multidisciplinary artist Shane R. Hendren; timber framer Blain Snipstal; and glassblower Leo Tecosky. Each artists will receive an unrestricted prize of $100,000, which is being administered by United States Artists, a national organization based in Chicago.

Another United States Artists–administered award is the 2023 Berresford Prize, which sees $50,000 going to a cultural practitioner who has dedicated themselves to the well-being of artists. This year’s recipient is Maori Karmael Holmes, founder and chief executive and artistic officer of BlackStar Projects, which focuses on supporting the work of Black, Brown, and Indigenous artists in film and media.

In more crafts news, fashion brand Loewe named the winner of its annual Loewe Foundation Craft Prize, which comes with a €50,000 prize. Out of 30 finalists, all of whose work is currently being exhibited at the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, ceramicist Eriko Inazaki came out on top. The jury also named two special mentions: sculptor Dominique Zinkpè and basket maker Moe Watanabe.

Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, a multidisciplinary artist who was born in Chihuahua Mexico, grew up in the El Paso–Juárez–Southern New Mexico region, and now lives nomadically, is the winner of the third edition of Toby’s Prize, awarded by the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. The prize comes with $25,000 unrestricted cash award, a $25,000 to fund the production of new artwork, a solo exhibition at the museum along with a catalogue. The past recipient of this prize was Sondra Perry.

Haitian photographer Daveed Baptiste recently won the 2023 Ashley Longshore Excellence in the Arts Award, which is given out by Miami-based foundation YoungArts. Awarded in memory of photographer Alix Edmonson Martinez, Baptiste will receive a $25,000 unrestricted prize.

In more regional prizes, the arts nonprofit Artadia has announced the winners of its prize for New York–based artists: Simon Benjamin, Lizania Cruz, and Diane Severin Nguyen. Each artist, as with all Artadia awards, will receive $15,000. The organization also partners with the Louisville-based 21c Museum Hotels for the 21c Artadia Award, which goes to one artist living and working in the communities where 21c Museum Hotels are located. This year, the winner will be an artist located in what is referred to as the “Research Triangle,” a metropolitan region in North Carolina that includes the cities of Raleigh and Durham. Applications are open June 15–July 15, and the winner will be announced in August.