Adam Pendleton & Fred Wilson Recognized by the American Academy of Arts and Letters

The American Academy of Arts and Letters announces the eleven recipients of its 2024 Awards in Art, totaling $125,000 in prizes to honor both established and emerging artists. Since 1942, art awards have been selected annually by Academy members to recognize and support fellow artists. The Academy’s 300 members nominate candidates for the awards, and a rotating committee of artists select the winners. This year, the art award committee members were Mel Chin, Charles Gaines, Ann Hamilton, Joan Jonas, and Amy Sillman.

Each year, the award committee selects five artists to receive the Arts and Letters Award, the Academy’s most prestigious award, to honor and encourage their creative work. The 2024 Arts and Letters Award recipients are: An-My Lê, Dara Birnbaum, Edgar Heap of Birds, Walid Raad, and Fred Wilson. Since 2013, Arts and Letters has granted the annual Jacob Lawrence Award and the Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Award to recognize extraordinary achievement in the visual arts. This year, the award committee grants the Jacob Lawrence Award to Pepón Osorio and the Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Award to Sharon Hayes.

The 2024 awards also include the Award of Merit Medal, which is accompanied by $25,000 and given annually since 1942, in rotation, to outstanding American painters, short story writers, sculptors, novelists, poets, and playwrights. This year, the Award of Merit Medal in Painting is granted to Matt Connors.

In addition, Arts and Letters recognizes three young artists for their outstanding achievements: Gala Porras-Kim receives the biannual Willard L. Metcalf Award honoring a young artist of great promise; Jordan Casteel receives the John Koch Award honoring a young artist making figurative work; and Adam Pendleton receives the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award, which has been awarded annually to a young painter of distinction since 1960.

(opens in a new window) To learn more about this year's inductees, visit artsandletters.org.