BRIC Announces 2020 Colene Brown Art Prize Recipients

BRIC has announced the 2020 recipients of the Colene Brown Art Prize, an unrestricted $100,000 grant awarded in amounts of $10,000 each to ten New York-based visual artists. The 2020 Colene Brown Art Prize recipients are: Caitlin Cherry (born in Chicago, IL; based in New York, NY), Zachary Fabri (born Miami, FL; based in Brooklyn, NY), Scherezade Garcia (born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; based in Brooklyn, NY), Nate Lewis (born in Beaver Falls, PA; based in New York, NY and Washington, D.C.), Joiri Minaya (born in New York, NY; based in New York, NY), Kambui Olujimi (born in Brooklyn, NY; based in Queens, NY), Erwin Redl (born in Gföhl, Austria; based in New York, NY and Bowling Green, OH), Christophe Roberts (born in Chicago, IL; based in Brooklyn, NY), Naomi Safran-Hon (born in Oxford, UK; based in New York, NY), and Michelle Segre (born in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel; based in New York, NY).

"Through this award, we are able to advance opportunities for brilliant visual artists, supporting them while they continue to create exceptional and necessary work," said BRIC President, Kristina Newman-Scott. "We are honored to again be entrusted with the distribution of the Colene Brown Art Prize, which is so well aligned with our mission of incubating artists, and by Deborah Brown's continued generosity."

Now in its second year, the award is underwritten by artist and former BRIC Board Member Deborah Brown and her sister Ellen Brown in memory of their late mother, Colene Brown, and is funded through the Harold and Colene Brown Family Foundation. To facilitate the award, ten leading New York City-based curators, critics, and artists each nominated five artists of exceptional merit that have yet to receive substantial institutional support. Eligible artists for consideration could be at any stage of their career. A selection committee within BRIC chose the final ten recipients of the award. The 2020 recipients will be celebrated with a virtual exhibition in BRIC's virtual gallery in December. Details and dates to be announced.

This year's recipients were selected from a pool of 50 nominations by a multidisciplinary cohort, including Gina Beavers, Artist; Rashida Bumbray, Director of Culture and Art, the Open Society Foundations; Andrianna Campbell-LaFleur, Curator and Art Historian; Chitra Ganesh, Artist; Marcela Guerrero, Assistant Curator, Whitney Museum of American Art; Miguel Luciano, Artist; Brooke Kamin Rapaport, Deputy Director and Martin Friedman Chief Curator at Madison Square Park Conservancy; Seph Rodney, Critic; Yvonne Force Villareal, Art Production Fund, Co-Founder and Culture Corps, Founding Partner; and Nicholas Weist, Founding Director, Shandaken Projects.

Last year's inaugural cohort of Colene Brown Art Prize recipients included Manuel Acevedo, Nicole Awai, Xenobia Bailey, Nona Faustine, Alicia Grullón, Baseera Khan, Heidi Lau, Christopher Myers, Judith Simonian, and Kennedy Yanko.

Created in 1981, BRIC's multi-faceted contemporary art program presents rigorously curated exhibitions and programs focusing on emerging and mid-career artists whose work captures a rich cross-section of ideas, voices, and artistic media that reflect Brooklyn's diversity. Adding to its already robust contemporary art offerings, which includes residency programs, critically-acclaimed biennial exhibitions, and youth education initiatives, the Colene Brown Art Prize is a major contribution to the organization's commitment to the artistic community of New York.

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