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. 

Nikita Gale is the recipient of the 2024 Bucksbaum Award. Gale was selected from the seventy-one intergenerational artists and collectives working across disciplines and mediums in Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing. Gale’s 2024 Biennial artwork, TEMPO RUBATO (STOLEN TIME), features a modified player piano that has been programmed to silently play a series of performances by various pop musicians, exploring the space between a score and its performance. In this installation, Gale underscores the uncanny absence of the body by silencing the instrument’s musical functions and leaving only the sound and image of its mechanisms, which have been amplified through a custom-built sound and lighting system. The work examines how labor, performance, authorship, legibility, and sensing are beholden to their technological contexts. 

Nikita Gale Receives the Whitney's 2024 Bucksbaum Award
A wooden grand piano with its lid partially open, placed in a dimly lit room with a dark background.
A wooden grand piano with its lid partially open, placed in a dimly lit room with a dark background.

Award Recipients

A grand piano illuminated by a spotlight in a dark room, casting a shadow on the floor.
A grand piano illuminated by a spotlight in a dark room, casting a shadow on the floor.

Installation view of Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better than the Real Thing (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, March 20–August 11, 2024). Nikita Gale, TEMPO RUBATO (STOLEN TIME), 2023–24. Photograph by Audrey Wang

2024
Nikita Gale

Born 1983, Anchorage, AK, on Dënéndeh and Dena’ina Ełnena lands
Lives in Los Angeles, CA, on Tongva and Gabrieleno lands

Jurors
Erin Christovale
David Getsy
Stamatina Gregory
Chrissie Iles
Meg Onli
Scott Rothkopf

An abstract painting comprised of multicolored shapes.
An abstract painting comprised of multicolored shapes.

Ralph Lemon, Untitled, 2021. Oil and acrylic on paper, 26 × 40 in. (66.1 × 101.6 cm). Image courtesy the artist

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

A video still of a person dressed in white in a forest kicking down a tree.
A video still of a person dressed in white in a forest kicking down a tree.

Tiona Nekkia McClodden, I prayed to the wrong god for you., 2019. Multichannel video installation, color, sound; six handcarved tools in vitrine. Image courtesy the artist and Company Gallery, New York

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

Grid-like structure of objects hung on wall with framed document and liquor bottle
Grid-like structure of objects hung on wall with framed document and liquor bottle

Pope.L aka William Pope.L, Claim (Whitney Version)(detail-interior), 2017. 2017 Whitney Biennial (March 17–June 11, 2017) Acrylic paint, graphite pencil, pushpins, wood, framed document, fortified wine and bologna with black-and-white portraits. 15 x 16 ¾ x 16 ¾ feet. Collection of the artist; courtesy Mitchell-Innes & Nash, N.Y. Photograph Bill Orcutt

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

Zoe Leonard's camera obscura installation in the 2014 Biennial
Zoe Leonard's camera obscura installation in the 2014 Biennial

Zoe Leonard, 945 Madison Avenue, 2014 (installation view, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York). Collection of the artist; courtesy the artist, Galerie Gisela Capitain, Murray Guy, and Galleria Raffaella Cortese. Photograph by Bill Jacobson Studio, New York

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

A dancer running, performing a Sarah Michelson dance
A dancer running, performing a Sarah Michelson dance

Sarah Michelson (b. 1964), 4, at the Whitney Museum of American Art, January 2014. Photograph © Paula Court

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

Words printed on the museum glass advertising that the museum is open continuously for three days
Words printed on the museum glass advertising that the museum is open continuously for three days

Michael Asher, (no title), 2010 (installation view, 2010, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, May 26–May 28, 2010). Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins

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

Visitors watching an Omer Fast video in a dark room
Visitors watching an Omer Fast video in a dark room

Installation view of Omer Fast: Nostalgia (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, December 10, 2009–February 14, 2010). © Omer Fast. Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins

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

A Mark Bradford painting in the lobby gallery
A Mark Bradford painting in the lobby gallery

Mark Bradford, Bread and Circuses, 2007 (installation view, Neither New Nor Correct: New Work by Mark Bradford, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 14–November 25, 2007). © Mark Bradford. Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins

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

Six prints by Raymond Pettibon
Six prints by Raymond Pettibon

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (Fellow Earthlings: We), 2005 (Installation view, Raymond Pettibon, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 8, 2005–February 19, 2006). Pen and ink on paper. Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins

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

An immersive video installation by Irit Batsry
An immersive video installation by Irit Batsry

Installation view of Irit Batsry: Set (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, December 13, 2003–February 22, 2004). © Irit Batsry. Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins

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

A projector close to a wall, casting a tiny image of a basketball player
A projector close to a wall, casting a tiny image of a basketball player

Paul Pfeiffer, Fragment of a Crucifixion (After Francis Bacon), 1999. Videotape, VHS player, projector and metal armature, 20 x 5 x 20 in. (50.8 x 12.7 x 50.8 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from Melva Bucksbaum and the Film and Video Committee  2000.150. © Paul Pfeiffer. Photograph by Jerry L. Thompson

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.