United States Artist (USA) has announced their 2021 USA Fellows. Across ten disciplines ranging from architecture and design to film, writing, and music, sixty artists were inducted, making it the largest fellowship cohort the organization has awarded during its 15-year history.
"The USA Fellowship is the organization's flagship program and is central to its mission of believing in artists and their essential role in society. In many ways, 2020 has shown the resilience and necessity of that mission and the organization. As a founding partner of Artist Relief, United States Artists helped to distribute over $20 million in direct funding to nearly 4,000 artists in need [...] To make its work possible, United States Artists actively fundraises each year and is supported by a broad range of philanthropic foundations, companies, and individuals committed to cultivating contemporary culture across the country" shares the organization.
Each fellow will receive unrestricted $50,000 cash awards that allow the recipients to choose how to utilize the funding best.
Below are this year's Architecture & Design category winners, samples of their work statements they've shared with the USA Fellowship.
"My work is inspired by the observations found in popular culture: sandwiches, color blocking, dollhouse, malls, gable roofs, best culture, and fake materials. While strolling through the mall is less possible at the moment, there is an abundance of visual imagery found online by browsing real estate photographs, Tik Tok accounts, virtual galleries, and e-commerce sites. I'm now creating my own cabinet of curiosities, storing away ideas for the next project."
"I am currently engaged in work that presents different "futures" for people of color and those marginalized through institutional planning and paternalistic infrastructure. As my career has progressed, it has become clear to me that 'we,' people of color in the US, are not represented in the future, that we exist only in the past. We need new, powerful expressions of the everyday and the mundane where we are present and prosperous."
"I like to walk around my neighborhood in Crown Heights and the bordering Bed-Stuy and Fort Greene neighborhoods, taking photos of empty lots, alleyways, and rooftops. I then create photomontages of a speculative Brooklyn Afro/Eco/Agro Futurist world."
To view the complete list of USA 2021 Fellows click here.
1 Comment
Great Work! Should have been recognized way before this; virtue signaling; little too late but all the best.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.