Crystal Bridges Selects Texas Artists for ‘State of the Art 2020’ Exhibition; Announces New Fellowship

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas has announced 60 artists  selected for State of the Art 2020, a national survey exhibition of contemporary artists that will feature more than 100 works of art at the museum and its new satellite contemporary art space, which is called The Momentary. The show opens on February 22, 2020, and will feature works by seven Texas-based artists including Frances Bagley, JooYoung Choi, Jenelle Esparza, Joey Fauerso, Mari Hernandez, Letitia Huckaby,  and Kris Pierce. (Also on the list: Anthony Sonnenberg, a Texan who is currently based in Fayetteville, AR.)

Most of the works, created in the last three years, will include sculpture, photography, video, performance, and mixed media in response to the histories of the region and the interior architecture of both spaces. Some artists will create site-specific works for the exhibition.

The Crystal Bridges curatorial team that made the selections include Lauren Haynes, Curator of Visual Arts at the Momentary and Curator of Contemporary Art at Crystal Bridges; Alejo Benedetti, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art; and Allison Glenn, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at Crystal Bridges. The curators conducted nationwide studio visits in order to make their selections.

Says Haynes: “State of the Art 2020 fits our vision for the Momentary and builds on some of what we’ve already done at Crystal Bridges — presenting contemporary artists who are making work that raise topics and important questions about this moment in time. As we traveled the US talking with artists, connections between their work and ideas began to emerge, which drove the selection of themes.”

Works in State of the Art 2020  will be organized thematically in sections including World-Building: creating real and fictional spaces; Sense of Place: investigating ideas of home, family, immigration, and more; Mapping: connections to and relationships with landscapes and power, and Temporality: the concept of time and how we perceive it.

In a separate announcement, Crystal Bridges announced its Tyson Scholar Fellowship Residency Program, which invites applicants to address a variety of topics with an interdisciplinary focus including art history, architecture, American studies, visual and material studies, craft Indigenous art, Latin American art, contemporary art, and more.

The residency program, opened to Ph.D. scholars (or equivalent experience) as well as to Ph.D. candidates, will select candidates based on applicants’ potential to advance understanding of American art and to intersect meaningfully with Crystal Bridges’ collection, architecture, or landscape. Stipends ranging from $15,000 to $30,000 per semester (depending on duration of residency) will be provided, in addition to funds for relocation.

The application deadline for the residency that takes place between August 2020 and mid-May 2021 is January 15, 2020. For more information,  please go here.

To see the complete list of State of the Art 2020 artists, please go here.