This story was originally published by ArtsATL.
Since 1999, the national arts funding nonprofit Artadia has been awarding unrestricted grants to visual artists in seven cities chosen for their high concentration of creative workers: Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area and Atlanta. More than $6 million has been distributed in 25 years.
On Tuesday, Artadia announced three artists who have been added to the roster of Atlanta recipients this year: Aineki Traverso, Ariel Dannielle and Sergio Suárez. All were vetted through a two-tiered judging process that included submission review and virtual studio visits, winnowed down from almost 200 applications. Other finalists were Reuben Bloom, Jeremy Bolen and Quintavius Oliver.
Awards from Brooklyn, New York-based Artadia not only provide artists with funds they may use in any way they wish, they also provide artists with that most elusive of art-world currency: recognition. Being an Atlanta awardee puts these artists in the company of bona fide art-world celebrities such as Bethany Collins, Danielle Deadwyler, Fahamu Pecou and Angela West. There is no surefire ticket to success in the art world, but nearly all prior winners have seen their profiles rise in the wake of the Artadia award.
Here are the 2024 awarded artists, their work and some of what the final-round jurors had to say about it.
Aineki Traverso
Credit: Photo by Walker Banson
Credit: Photo by Walker Banson
“I am blown away with the work that she is doing to not only create deeply personal paintings that capture vignettes of her life but that also reshape how one experiences painting itself. Through her different approaches to display and site specificity, she creates new avenues for contemplation and interpretation that I am really excited to see.”
— Lauren Cross (juror), Gail-Oxford Associate Curator of American Decorative Arts, the Huntington (San Marino, California)
Credit: Photo by Walker Banson
Credit: Photo by Walker Banson
Ariel Dannielle
Credit: Photo courtesy of Ariel Dannielle
Credit: Photo courtesy of Ariel Dannielle
“Dannielle paints her lived experiences, exploring Black womanhood through a lens that she has titled ‘Beauty in the Mundane,’ but there is nothing dull about her highly textured and vibrant painted surfaces, which offer a joyful and playful panacea for today’s moment.”
— Monica Obniski (juror), Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, High Museum of Art
Credit: Photo courtesy of Ariel Dannielle
Credit: Photo courtesy of Ariel Dannielle
Sergio Suárez
Credit: Photo courtesy of Artadia
Credit: Photo courtesy of Artadia
“Suárez’s work is deeply thought-provoking and expansive. The way he translates such complex themes across material and form is impressive. I enjoyed the various dimensions of his work and his desire to keep experimenting.”
— Lauren Cross (juror), Gail-Oxford Associate Curator of American Decorative Arts, the Huntington
Credit: Photo by Colin Conces
Credit: Photo by Colin Conces
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
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