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Peter Burr, Sunshine Monument

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Bucksbaum Award

Established in 2000 by longtime Whitney trustee Melva Bucksbaum and her family, the Bucksbaum Award is given in each Biennial year in recognition of an artist, chosen from those included in the Biennial, whose work demonstrates a singular combination of talent and imagination. The selected artist is considered by the jurors to have the potential to make a lasting impact on the history of American art, based on the excellence of their past work, as well as of their present work in the Biennial. The award is accompanied by a check for $100,000. 

Ralph Lemon is the recipient of the 2022 Bucksbaum Award. Lemon was chosen from among the sixty-three intergenerational artists and collectives working across disciplines and media in the 2022 Whitney Biennial. Themes in Lemon’s work range from elaborate visual meditations on the nature of the artistic process itself to experiments refracting Black American culture, symbols, icons, music, and joy.


Award Recipients

2022
Ralph Lemon

Born 1952, Cincinnati, OH
Lives in Brooklyn, NY

Jurors
David Breslin
Huey Copeland
Adrienne Edwards
Meg Onli
Scott Rothkopf
Adam D. Weinberg

2019
Tiona Nekkia McClodden

Born 1981, Blytheville, AR
Lives and works in Philadelphia, PA

Jurors
David Breslin
Ryan N. Dennis
Rujeko Hockley
René Morales
Jane Panetta
Scott Rothkopf
Lumi Tan

2017
Pope.L

Born 1955, Newark, NJ
Lives and works in Chicago, IL

Jurors
Naomi Beckwith
Johanna Burton
Mary Ceruti
Christopher Y. Lew
Mia Locks
Scott Rothkopf
Adam D. Weinberg

2014
Zoe Leonard

Born 1961, Liberty, NY
Lives and works in New York, NY

Jurors
Michelle Kuo
Stuart Comer
Donna De Salvo
Anthony Elms
Michelle Grabner
Jay Sanders
Nancy Spector
Elisabeth Sussman
Adam D. Weinberg

2012
Sarah Michelson

Born 1964, Manchester, England
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY

Jurors
Christophe Cherix
Donna De Salvo
Lia Gangitano
Branden Joseph
Jay Sanders
Elisabeth Sussman
Adam D. Weinberg

View Sarah Michelson’s Bucksbaum Award exhibition, 4

2010
Michael Asher

Born 1943, Los Angeles, CA
Died 2012, Los Angeles, CA

Jurors
Francesco Bonami
Donna De Salvo
Hou Hanru
Gary Carrion-Murayari
Yasmil Raymond
James Rondeau
Adam D. Weinberg

2008
Omer Fast

Born 1972, Jerusalem
Lives and works in Berlin

Jurors
Donna De Salvo
Anne Ellegood
Lauri Firstenberg
Henriette Huldisch
Shamim M. Momin
Franklin Sirmans
Adam D. Weinberg

View Omer Fast’s Bucksbaum Award exhibition, Nostalgia

2006
Mark Bradford

Born 1961, Los Angeles, CA
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

Jurors
Francesco Bonami
Donna De Salvo
Russell Ferguson
Chrissie Iles
Eungie Joo
Philippe Vergne
Adam D. Weinberg

View Mark Bradford’s Bucksbaum Award exhibition, Neither New Nor Correct: New Work by Mark Bradford

2004
Raymond Pettibon

Born 1957, Tuscon, AZ
Lives and works in Hermosa Beach, CA

Jurors
Elizabeth N. Armstrong
Richard Flood
Paul Ha
Chrissie Iles
Shamim M. Momin
Debra Singer
Adam D. Weinberg

2002
Irit Batsry

Born 1957, Ramat Gan, Israel
Lives and works in New York, NY

Jurors
Maxwell L. Anderson
Olukemi Ilesanmi
Linda Norden
Ann Philbin
Lawrence R. Rinder

2000
Paul Pfeiffer

Born 1966, Honolulu, HI
Lives and works in New York, NY

Jurors
Maxwell L. Anderson
Mary L. Beebe
Linda Pace
Lawrence R. Rinder
Hamza Walker


A Decade in Conversation: A Ten-Year Celebration of the Bucksbaum Award, 2000–2010
By Chrissie Iles, Christiane Paul, Carter E. Foster, and Tina Kukielski

Featuring conversations with Paul Pfeiffer, Irit Batsry, Raymond Pettibon, Mark Bradford, and Omer Fast, A Decade in Conversation presents fascinating details about the ways the first five Bucksbaum Award winners are shaping contemporary art today.

The excerpt available here includes interviews with Bradford and Fast, as well as a foreword by Adam D. Weinberg, and a statement from Melva Bucksbaum.