Phoenix Art Museum announces recipients of 2021 Arlene and Morton Scult Artist Award, Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards

Dec, 06, 2021

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Phoenix Art Museum announces recipients of 2021 Arlene and Morton Scult Artist Award, Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards

Arizona-based artists Sama Alshaibi, Sam Frésquez and Merryn Omotayo Alaka, Gloria Martinez-Granados, and Chris Vena to exhibit work at Phoenix Art Museum in Fall 2022

PHOENIX (December 6, 2021) – Phoenix Art Museum has named Sama Alshaibi as the recipient of the 2021 Arlene and Morton Scult Artist Award and Gloria Martinez-Granados, Chris Vena, and Sam Frésquez and Merryn Omotayo Alaka as the recipients of the inaugural Sally and Richard Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards. Award recipients, all of whom are based in Arizona, will receive funding to support the creation of new work, which will premiere in solo and group exhibitions at Phoenix Art Museum in Fall 2022.

“The Scult Artist Award and Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards are two significant and competitive recognition opportunities for contemporary artists working in our region and are an essential component of the Museum’s commitment to support and amplify the work of emerging and established artists who continue to influence the art of the greater Southwest,” said Mark Koenig, the Interim Sybil Harrington Director and CEO of Phoenix Art Museum. “We very much look forward to presenting two exciting exhibitions of works by these extraordinary Arizona artists next fall.”

Each year, the Arlene and Morton Scult Artist Award (Scult Artist Award) recognizes a mid-career artist working in Arizona. Eligible candidates are nominated and must demonstrate artistic excellence through their work, be actively engaged in making and exhibiting new work, demonstrate significant growth in their work over their careers, and have been residents of Arizona for a minimum of four consecutive years. A panel of highly qualified jurors, including curators and artists, select the recipient based on the work they are currently producing, in addition to pieces they have created in the past. The award includes a $5,000 prize and a solo exhibition at the Museum the year following the award.

The 2021 Arlene and Morton Scult Artist Award recipient is Sama Alshaibi. Working between photographic imagery, video, and installation, Alshaibi’s projects link themes of dispossession, mobility, peripheries, refuge, ecological entropy, and future and historical imaginings. Her practice interrogates the social codes found in images, texts, and artifacts to question the construction of history and its impact on a speculative future. Shaped by photography’s historic and outsized role in generating the gendered and flattened representations of Middle Eastern and North African people and their spaces, Alshaibi reframes this legacy by presenting the Arab female figure as a complex site that embodies the physical and psychic realms of the individual and community when resources, land, mobility, and political agency are compromised. She activates her own body as a mobile medium in consideration of those who are violated and uprooted into physical and psychological exile or positioned as unwanted, alien, silenced, and disappeared. Her sculptural objects and installations apply spatial voids to evoke the body’s absence, serving as counter-memorials to war, forced migrations, and diaspora. In 2021, Alshaibi was named a Guggenheim Fellow in Photography. Her work has been featured in several biennials, including the Maldives Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale (Italy), the 21st International Art Biennial of Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia, 2020), and the 13th Cairo International Biennale (Egypt, 2019). Her work can be found in several public institutions internationally, including the Center for Creative Photography (Tucson), The Houston Museum of Art (Texas), En Foco (N.Y.), and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Tunis (Tunisia).

In addition to the Scult Artist Award, Phoenix Art Museum presents the Sally and Richard Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards (Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards) annually. The Museum launched in April 2021 the juried grant program, which replaces the former Contemporary Forum Artists’ Grants and acknowledges the support of local donors Sally and Richard Lehmann, with additional support provided by Cattryn Somers and Michael Cafiso. The grant program ensures the Museum’s continued commitment to provide recognition and financial support for emerging, professional, Arizona-based artists. Eligible candidates for the Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards apply through an open call and must be considered emerging artists who are currently working and have resided in Arizona for a minimum of one year, among other requirements. Each recipient receives a $2,000 grant and the opportunity to participate in a group exhibition at Phoenix Art Museum the year following the award. For the 2021 Scult Artist Award and the Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards, Phoenix Art Museum partnered with Artlink, a Phoenix-based arts organization, who hosted the open call and helped promote the awards. The Museum extends a special thanks to Catrina Kahler, president and CEO of Artlink, for her invaluable support.

The Museum has named Gloria Martinez-Granados, Chris Vena, and Sam Frésquez and Merryn Omotayo Alaka as the inaugural cohort of the 2021 Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards. Originally from Guanajuato, Mexico, and now based in Phoenix, Gloria Martinez-Granados migrated at a young age to the United States with her family, and her work reflects her experience growing up and living as an undocumented immigrant, often digitally manipulating personal documents and photos to create prints that serve as a memoir. Chris Vena’s recent work focuses on the loneliness and unease of life during the COVID-19 pandemic, exploring themes of loss, isolation, financial insecurity, and mass death and focusing particularly on reconciling with the recent death of his pets, with whom he isolated throughout most of 2020. Merryn Omotayo Alaka and Sam Frésquez, who will be presenting work jointly as part of the Fall 2022 exhibition, work across media to facilitate conversations around race, gender, and queerness. In their collaborative practice and craft-based processes, they work with pop culture, contemporary trends, and historical references, tracing the historical significance of material culture, including hair, jewelry, and textiles, and examining pre-existing societal hierarchies and racialized and gendered stereotypes to question why their communities have been either undervalued or tokenized in the United States.

The jury for the 2021 Scult Artist Award and the 2021 Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards was assembled by Gilbert Vicario, curator of modern and contemporary art at Phoenix Art Museum, and included Tiffany Fairall, chief curator at Mesa Contemporary Art Museum; Julio César Morales, senior curator at Arizona State University Art Museum; and Morton Scult. In September 2022, Scult Award recipient Alshaibi will present work in a solo exhibition at Phoenix Art Museum, and Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards recipients Martinez-Granados, Vena, and Omotayo Alaka and Frésquez will present work in a group exhibition at the Museum. Details on the exhibitions will be released in summer 2022.

“The 2021 recipients of the Scult Artist Award and the newly named Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards continue to elevate the artistic excellence found in the state of Arizona,” said Gilbert Vicario, curator of modern and contemporary art at Phoenix Art Museum. “We are thrilled to feature this year’s group of winners because of their commitment to their artistic practices, and we look forward to working with them to make their voices resonate well beyond the geographic parameters of the Southwest.”

For more information on the Scult Artist Award and the Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards, contact the Museum’s Communications Office at samantha.andreacchi@phxart.org or 602.257.2115. For high-resolution photography, click here.

About Phoenix Art Museum

Since 1959, Phoenix Art Museum has provided millions of guests with access to world-class art and experiences in an effort to ignite imaginations, create meaningful connections, and serve as a brave space for all people who wish to experience the transformative power of art. Located in Phoenix’s Central Corridor, the Museum is a vibrant destination for the visual arts and the largest art museum in the southwestern United States. Each year, more than 350,000 guests engage with critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions and the Museum’s collection of more than 20,000 works of American and Western American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern and contemporary art, and fashion design. The Museum also presents a comprehensive film program, live performances, and educational programs designed for visitors of all ages, along with vibrant photography exhibitions made possible through the Museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visit phxart.org, or call 602.257.1880.

About Artlink Inc.

Artlink keeps the arts integral to our development by connecting artists, businesses, and the community. Founded as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization by artists in 1989, the Artlink name is a guiding principle for the organization, as it supports stakeholders of the arts and culture community, amplifying its collective strength. Visit artlinkphx.org to sign up for the Artlink newsletter, or connect socially on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.