The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation has announced the recipients of its 2019 Biennial Grants. These unrestricted grants of $20,000 each have been awarded to 20 artists working in painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video, craft, and new media. (See list below of recipients.) The purpose of the funds is to give artists the opportunity to produce new work and push the boundaries of their creativity. Recipients were chosen from a pool of 110 nominees proposed anonymously by national nominators  ̶  artists, critics, museum professionals, and Foundation trustees. A seven-member jury selected winners for their talent and individual artistic strength. In 2020, the Foundation will publish a full-color catalogue documenting the work of grant recipients. This catalogue will also be made available on the Foundation’s website, www.louiscomforttiffanyfoundation.org.

Established in 1918 by Louis Comfort Tiffany, son of Tiffany & Company founder Charles Louis Tiffany, the Foundation remains one of the largest single sources of unrestricted monetary grants to artists working in America today. The Foundation originally operated Laurelton Hall—Tiffany’s estate at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island—as a summer residency for its fellows and craftspeople. Since 1980, when the biennial competition began, a total of $9,534,000 in awards has been distributed to 500 artists nationwide, extending the commitment of its founder “to help young artists of our country… and to assist them in establishing themselves in the art world.”

Award winner and Foundation Trustee, Kerry James Marshall, summarized his experience: “Few events are more exciting and encouraging than being nominated to compete for prizes you can't apply for. It is the kind of endorsement that gets the wind at your back, and since my 1993 Tiffany grant, it's been full speed ahead. It has also been an honor to join the Tiffany board and serve with famous artists I used to only read about. I was so fortunate to be an awardee. We are so lucky there is the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation.”

The awards are funded exclusively by the Foundation’s endowment which continues to grow through dedicated fundraising. The Foundation is directed by a board consisting of Angela Westwater (President), Andrew Foote (Treasurer), Vaughn C. Williams (Secretary), William Bailey, Phong Bui, Alison de Lima Greene, Lyle Ashton Harris, Gerhardt Knodel, Charles LeDray, Kerry James Marshall, Scott Rothkopf, Robert F. Shapiro, Cindy Sherman, Paul J. Smith, Robert Storr, and Sarah Sze.

RECIPIENTS OF THE LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY FOUNDATION

2019 BIENNIAL GRANTS

Carmen Argote                         Long Beach, CA 

Diedrick Brackens                     Los Angeles, CA

Alejandro Cesarco                     Queens, NY 

Liz Cohen                                 Phoenix, AZ

Sara Cwynar                             Brooklyn, NY

Brendan Fernandes                    Chicago, IL

Kahlil Robert Irving                  St Louis, MO

Gelare Khoshgozaran                Los Angeles, CA

Fawn Krieger                            Queens, NY

Deana Lawson                          Brooklyn, NY

Carolyn Lazard                         Plymouth Meeting, PA 

Arcmanoro Niles                       Brooklyn, NY

Alison O'Daniel                        Alameda, CA 

Tschabalala Self                        New York, NY 

Paul Mpagi Sepuya                   Los Angeles, CA

Sable Elyse Smith                     Richmond, VA 

Patrick Staff                              Los Angeles, CA 

Diamond Stingily                      Brooklyn, NY

Stephanie Syjuco                       Oakland, CA

Cosmo Whyte                           Atlanta, GA

Biennial Competition Jury:

Tyler Cann, Pizzuti Family Curator of Contemporary Art & Head of Exhibitions, Columbus Museum of Art

Anne Ellegood, Executive Director, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

Alison de Lima Greene, Isabel Brown Wilson Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Kerry James Marshall, artist

Cindy Sherman, artist

Amanda Sroka, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art

Robert Storr, curator, artist, critic, writer