Atlanta artists Jiha Moon and Cosmo Whyte are the winners of $10,000 grants from the New York-based organization Artadia.
The winners were selected by Daniel Fuller, curator of Atlanta Contemporary, and Katherine Jentleson, curator of folk and self-taught art at the High Museum of Art.
Moon and Whyte, along with three other finalists — Kelly Kristin Jones, T. Lang, Zipporah Thompson — were selected from 188 submissions from Metro Atlanta artists by Jentleson, along with Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, curator at Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros; and Jamillah James, curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (formerly the Santa Monica Museum of Art).
This is the fourth round of grants to Atlanta artists, the last being in 2014, when Robbie Land received $20,000 and the three finalists (Paul Stephen Benjamin, Lauri Stallings, Bethany Collins) each received $8,000.
Though the amount awarded this year is smaller, Artadia will now be giving grants to two Atlanta artists each year, reflecting an overall increase in support.
In a press statement, Jentleson said: “Jiha Moon does maximalism in the best way, saturating her painting and ceramics with signs and symbols that go in many exciting directions. The source she draws on, from Southern face jugs to Korean norigae are so diverse, allowing for work that is both humorously and seriously engaged in confrontations with the absurdity of our globalized, hyper-technologized society and the many cultural misunderstandings it nurtures.”
Fuller said: “Cosmo Whyte carries memories of home with him wherever he goes. In our studio visit, we spoke of how a place is depicted so faraway in proximity, however so near to your heart. His work unpacks the complexities of growing up within colonialism and maintaining identity. It is both highly personal and specific to each of us.”
BURNAWAY visited Whyte’s studio just before the opening of ATLBNL in August, and Moon spoke to artist Erin Jane Nelson for BURNAWAY earlier that same month.
