NEW YORK, NY – Artadia is pleased to announce the recipients of the fifth annual New York Artadia Awards: Alexandra Bell (b. 1983, Chicago) and Joiri Minaya (b. 1990, New York). Awardees receive $10,000 in unrestricted funds, as well as access to the ongoing benefits of the Artadia Awards program. Applications were open to any visual artist living within New York City’s five boroughs for over two years, working in any medium and at any stage of their career. As arts communities are deeply impacted by COVID-19, Artadia believes its mission to support artists has become more critical than ever before.
The decision followed an extensive jury process, culminating in a virtual studio visit between shortlisted finalists and jurists Legacy Russell, Associate Curator of Exhibitions, The Studio Museum in Harlem and Kelly Taxter, Barnett and Annalee Newman Curator of Contemporary Art, The Jewish Museum.
On receiving the 2020 New York Artadia Award, Alexandra states, “I’m excited to join Artadia’s network of notable Awardee artists and am grateful for the recognition. The Award is an incredible vote of confidence in my work; the support will allow me to continue to develop my practice.” Of the Awards process, Joiri says, “I really admire the work of the other four Artadia Finalists, so it was truly an honor to have shared that platform with them. Having been selected as an Awardee is thrilling, not only for the recognition and support, but for the impact it will have in my practice.”
Of Bell’s work, Legacy notes, “Alexandra Bell’s work explores news and reportage as an exercise of faction, fiction, and faith-building, a simultaneously generative and destructive tool that provides us with language to pinpoint things whilst simultaneously inculcating individual bias and the complexity of our worldviews.”
Speaking on Minaya’s practice, Kelly states, “Minaya’s work around the notion of “tropical identity” elicits a palpable tension between critique and seduction. Her wildly decorated, alluring environments and images carry a biting commentary on the ways in which privilege injures ecology and the body, while at the same time, it slyly purges those impositions.”
Artadia’s Executive Director Carolyn Ramo states, “during such deeply challenging times, we believe it’s paramount to continue our support of artists – which has always been directed towards promoting and sustaining an infrastructure through which artists can thrive. We know artists are especially threatened during this time, and so we are committed to remaining proactive in this work, regardless the circumstances. Adapting to the current climate, we held our jury studio visits for the New York Awardees virtually; in order to keep our Awards cycles on schedule, we will continue to modify our program around accommodating current social distancing restrictions.’
Awardees were selected from a shortlist of five finalists: American Artist, Alexandra Bell, Tommy Kha, Joiri Minaya, and Tammy Nguyen. The finalists were chosen by Susan Cross, Senior Curator of Visual Art, MASS MoCA, Legacy Russell and Akili Tommasino, Associate Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston.
The 2020 New York Artadia Awards are generously supported by the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, the Artadia Board of Directors, Artadia New York Council Members, and individual donors across the country.
About the Finalists
Alexandra Bell (b. 1983, Chicago) is a multidisciplinary artist who investigates the complexities of narrative, information consumption, and perception. Utilizing various media, she deconstructs language and imagery to explore the tension between marginal experiences and dominant histories. Through investigative research, she considers the ways media frameworks construct memory and inform discursive practices around race, politics, and culture.
Bell’s work has been exhibited at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, Charlie James Gallery, MoMA PS1, We Buy Gold, Koenig & Clinton Gallery, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, Atlanta Contemporary, Pomona College Museum of Art, Spencer Museum of Art, and Usdan Gallery at Bennington College. She received the 2018 International Center of Photography Infinity Award in the applied category and is a 2018 Soros Equality Fellow. She is a 2020 Pioneer Works resident.
Bell holds a B.A. in interdisciplinary studies in the humanities from the University of Chicago and an M.S. journalism from Columbia University. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Joiri Minaya (b. 1990, New York) is a Dominican-United Statesian multi-disciplinary artist whose work investigates the female body within constructions of identity, multicultural social spaces and hierarchies. Minaya’s work is a reassertion of Self, an exercise of unlearning, decolonizing and exorcizing imposed histories, cultures and ideas. Reconciling the experience of having grown up in the Dominican Republic with living and navigating the U.S. / global North, Minaya uses gaps, disconnections and misinterpretations as ground for creativity.
Minaya has exhibited internationally across the Caribbean and the U.S. She attended the ENAV (Santo Domingo), the Altos de Chavon School and Parsons/New School. Minaya is a grantee from the Nancy Graves Foundation, the Rema Hort Mann Foundation (Emerging Artist Grant), the Joan Mitchell Foundation (Emerging Artist and Painters and Sculptors Grants), the Great prize and the Audience Award XXV Concurso de Arte Eduardo León Jimenes, among others.
About Artadia
Artadia is a national non-profit organization that awards artists with unrestricted grants followed by a lifetime of program opportunities. This is Artadia’s fifth Award cycle in New York. The application was open to all visual artists living within New York’s five boroughs for over two years, working in any media, and at any stage of their career. Finalists and Artadia Award recipients are selected through Artadia’s rigorous, two-tier jury review process. In the first round of review, jurors evaluated all submissions and collaboratively determined the five Finalists. Artadia is unique in that it allows any artist to apply, engages nationally recognized artists and curators to review work, and culminates in direct grants. Since 1999, Artadia has awarded over $5 million to more than 340 artists in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco.
