A virtual bulletin board gathering cultural happenings that may be of interest to our readers.
JENNIE C. JONES AND GALA PORRAS-KIM WIN 2024 HEINZ AWARDS
Jennie C. Jones and Gala Porras-Kim have been announced as the 2024 recipients of the Heinz Award for the Arts. The unrestricted $250,000 cash prize, given annually since 1993 by the Pittsburgh-based Heinz Family Foundation to honor individuals making major contributions in the arts, is one of the world’s largest. While many programs recognize scientific, artistic or intellectual achievement, the Heinz Awards honor individuals whose work and accomplishments are producing an impact that endures. Individual artists must have compiled a body of work that displays artistic excellence and is a reflection or expression of, or that in some way, enhances the human experience.
Both artists have recently exhibited at the Wallach. A sound piece by Jennie C. Jones was included in the Uptown Triennial 2020, and a painting by Gala Porras-Kim was included in A Speculative Impulse: Art Transgressing the Archive.
BEAU MCCALL: BUTTONS ON!
March 30, 2024–February 2, 2025
Fuller Craft Museum
455 Oak Street
Brockton, MA 02301
Buttons On! marks the first-ever retrospective for creative artist Beau McCall. Proclaimed by American Craft magazine as “The Button Man,” McCall creates wearable and visual art by hand-sewing clothing buttons onto mostly upcycled fabrics, materials, and objects. Buttons On! showcases pieces from McCall’s nearly forty-year career, the debut of several new works, and select archival material. Organized into several themes, the exhibition explores McCall’s mastery of the button and commentary on topics such as pop culture and social justice.
Buttons On! is guest curated by Souleo, who curated the Uptown 2023 Triennial at the Wallach. Artwork by Beau McCall was included in Uptown 2023.
JEFFREY GIBSON TO REPRESENT UNITED STATES AT 60TH VENICE BIENNALE IN 2024
Portland Art Museum in Oregon and SITE Santa Fe in New Mexico, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, announced that Jeffrey Gibson will represent the United States at La Biennale di Venezia, the 60th International Art Exhibition. Celebrated for an artistic practice that combines American, Indigenous, and Queer histories with influences from music and pop culture, Gibson creates a dynamic visual language that reflects the inherent diversity and hybridity of American culture. Using abundant color, complex pattern, and text, he invites deep reflection on identity, inspires empathy, and advocates for a widening of access to democracy and freedom for all. On view April 20 through November 24, 2024 in Venice, Italy, the Biennale provides international audiences with the first major opportunity to experience Gibson’s work outside of the United States.
Gibson’s 2020 painting I’ve Got You Under My Skin was on view at the Wallach as part of the Uptown Triennial 2023.