A First All-Women Jury Chooses the Winner of Bennett Prize

The Bennett Prize, the most important artwork award supplied to ladies working within the area of figurative portray, introduced its successful artist at the moment in an exhibition unveiled on the Muskegon Museum of Artwork, in western Michigan.

Dallas-based Amy Werntz — additionally a finalist for the second Bennett Prize in 2021— took residence the highest honor, becoming a member of earlier winners Ayana Ross, Shiqing Deng, and Aneka Ingold. Her strikingly lifelike work depict aged individuals, largely ladies, in on a regular basis situations: consuming at a diner, procuring, sitting at a café, or bundled towards the weather.

“You’re introduced into an intimate second with them… I really feel that it validates the aged,” says Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt, an artwork collector who co-founded The Bennett Prize alongside along with her husband, Steven Alan Bennett.

For the primary time in The Prize’s historical past, the winner was decided by an all-female jury.  Schmidt was joined by Margaret Bowland, painter and school member on the New York Academy of Artwork; Angela Fraleigh, painter and professor at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Penn.; and Gloria Groom, Winton Inexperienced curator of Nineteenth-century European portray and sculpture on the Artwork Institute of Chicago.

The jury was additionally struck by Werntz’s private assertion, through which she wrote that she meant to make use of the prize cash to fund a brand new portray sequence which shifts the viewer’s perspective from that of an interlocutor to an observer.

“Actually, individuals can do no matter they need with the cash. However she had thought of how her portray model would evolve,” Schmidt says.

The Prize entails $50,000 and a solo present that may journey together with work from all of the finalists for the fifth Bennett Prize, slated for 2027. Likewise, Deng, the winner of the earlier Bennett Prize, may have her work proven alongside this yr’s 10 finalists in a touring exhibition. After displaying on the Muskegon Museum of Artwork from Might 15 to Aug. 24, the exhibition will journey to the Arnot Artwork Museum (Elmira, New York), the Customs Home Museum and Cultural Middle (Clarksville, Tenn.), the Bo Bartlett Middle (Columbus, Ga.) and Studio Incamminati (Philadelphia).

Nicole Santiago, of Williamsburg, Va., gained $10,000 because the runner-up. The judges had been impressed by the dense environments that make up her work — figures in dimly lit areas crowded by issues, like celebration decorations, soiled laundry, bottles and cans, and iPads and iPhones.

“I’m at all times wanting on the development of a portray — I’m fascinated by the compositional construction, the way it holds collectively, or doesn’t,” Fraleigh says. “I at all times speak to my college students about how you need to totally prepare dinner the cake earlier than you set the icing on it.”

Pedagogy typically is essential to this yr’s Bennett Prize panel. Fraleigh and Bowland each train artwork college students; Schmidt is a retired trainer. All three agree that, in 2025, it’s not sufficient to study to color — artists should aggressively promote themselves in a capricious and trend-obsessed market. That’s traditionally been tougher for girls.

“I’d hoped a lot that, by the point my college students got here alongside, all of the issues that occurred to me weren’t there. And I’ve discovered that to not be true in any respect. My feminine college students will stand again and don’t imagine they’re an important particular person within the room. My male college students do,” Bowland says. “So, God bless the Bennetts. I imply, there are only a few individuals who have the ability to maneuver that needle.”

Bowland’s work had been a few of the first to develop into half of what’s now The Bennett Art Collection of Figurative Realists, focusing, just like the competitors, on feminine figurative artists. Fraleigh’s work can also be represented in The Assortment after the artist despatched Schmidt and her husband a catalog within the mail, out of the blue. The Bennetts weren’t simply impressed by Fraleigh’s work however by her initiative and gumption.

“In our case, that was very efficient,” she remembers.

To handle the challenges of self-promotion and navigating a brutal market, all 10 Bennett finalists attend 4 group periods with knowledgeable coach to deal with the ins and outs of the artwork market. As a part of the first-place prize, the winner can also be supplied with non-public session from the coach, ought to they want it.

As an added bonus, due to the character of The Prize, the Bennett finalists even have a built-in community of peer artists to seek the advice of and commiserate with. Schmidt has heard that “little subgroups” of finalists are likely to communicate.

“The Prize is meant to be formative, not simply, ‘Right here’s cash; good luck.’ We’re making an attempt to assist individuals develop their careers,” Schmidt says.

In 2018, Schmidt and Bennett endowed The Bennett Prize on the Pittsburgh Basis with $3 million. The primary Bennett Prize competitors occurred the next yr. Held each different yr, the competitors seeks to spice up the careers of ladies painters who haven’t but achieved full skilled recognition. In complete, the Prize’s finalists and three winners to date have gained 19 further awards and been featured in over 50 nationwide publications. Many have develop into represented by galleries, participated in residencies, and offered items to museums and different everlasting collections.

After Thursday’s announcement, Werntz’s work, in addition to that of her fellow finalists, shall be displayed within the Muskegon Museum of Artwork’s new Bennett Schmidt Pavilion. The pavilion, which opened in February, doubles the museum’s footprint and carries a dedication to displaying the works of feminine artists throughout mediums. The pavilion is presently displaying greater than 60 items from The Bennett Assortment; finally, the museum will develop into the everlasting steward of some 150 work from The Assortment.

By way of The Prize and the brand new pavilion, Schmidt and Bennett’s affect will proceed to ripple throughout generations of ladies artists. It actually altered the course of Bowland’s personal profession.

“Having the Bennetts champion my work was one of many largest information of my life. After they did, many different individuals got here on board,” Bowland says. “The truth that they stayed by me by way of thick and skinny has meant all the pieces to me.”

For full particulars on find out how to apply for The Bennett Prize, please go to: thebennettprize.org.