Figurative Painter and daughter of late Dora Akunyili, Njideka Akunyili
Crosby is among the 24 winners of the 2017 MacArthur “Genius”
Fellowship.
Typically awarded to around 20 American artists,
academics, writers, and scientists each year, the grant is given to
“talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and
dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for
self-direction,” according to the foundation.
Each will receive a
$625,000 award from the foundation “as an investment in their
potential,” paid out over five years with no strings attached.
34-year-old
Los Angeles-based Akunyili Crosby was praised by the foundation for her
large-scale works that “express the hybridity characteristics of
transnational experience through choices of subject matter, materials,
and techniques.”
Crosby’s solo exhibition at the Tang Museum in
upstate New York opens this week (October 14–December 31); the Baltimore
Museum will present a suite of new paintings on October 25.
The
American, Berlin-based artist Paglen—who has launched a disc of images
into space and investigated top-secret CIA programs—was lauded for
“documenting the hidden operations of covert government projects and
examining the ways that human rights are threatened in an era of mass
surveillance.”
Chicago-based, New York-born Bey, a major figure
in the history of African-American photography, was described as “a
photographer and educator whose portraits of people, many from
marginalized communities, compel viewers to consider the reality of the
subjects’ own social presence and histories.”
Other fellows this
year include journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, mathematician Emmanuel
Candès, opera director Yuval Sharon, gender bending performer Taylor
Mac, and immigration reform advocate Cristina Jiménez Moreta.Numerous
artists have been awarded MacArthur grants since the “Genius” program
was initiated in 1981, including Bill Viola, David Hammons, Vija
Celmins, Kerry James Marshall , Kara Walker, Mark Bradford, and Carrie
Mae Weems.