Deborah Roberts, My body, your rules, 2018, mixed media collage on canvas. Copyright Deborah Roberts. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.
It was announced this week that Texas artist Deborah Roberts has been named as a recipient of the 2018 Anonymous Was a Woman grant. The award, which takes its name from Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own and comes with a $25,000 unrestricted grant for each artist, is given annually to female artists over the age of 40 in recognition of their career, their growth, and their potential.
The Anonymous Was a Woman grant program has been in operation since 1996, and for years was run anonymously. But just this year, artist Susan Unterberg outed herself as its founder. In a statement, she explained her impetus behind the award:
“I founded Anonymous Was a Woman to fill a void that I witnessed myself: support for women artists in the middle stages of their careers. I am thrilled to continue this mission by recognizing this year’s group of remarkable women at a moment that there is heightened discussion about the vitality of women’s voices.”
Over the past 23 years, Anonymous Was a Woman has awarded more than $5.8 million to 230 artists, including a 2003 award to Texas painter Melissa Miller. In 2017, the program’s ten awardees included Amy Sherald, the artist responsible for painting Michelle Obama’s portrait for the National Portrait Gallery; and Jennie C. Jones, an artist whose work was the subject of a 2016 solo exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.
Texas artist Deborah Roberts is joined on the 2018 grantee list by nine other artists, including Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, whose work has been featured prominently this year in Austin.
Roberts told Glasstire of her win: “This is an wonderful award and I’m humble to be included with this list of amazing artists.” A full list of 2018 Anonymous Was a Woman grantees is below.
Dotty Attie
Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons
Patty Chang
Beverly Fishman
Kate Gilmore
Heather Hart
Deborah Roberts
Rocío Rodríguez
Michèle Stephenson
Betty Tompkins
