The Joan Mitchell Foundation announced today the twenty-five recipients of its 2018 Painters and Sculptors Grants, which honor underrecognized artists whose works have significantly contributed to artistic discourse. Each artist will be given $25,000 in unrestricted funds. According to the foundation, more than 70 percent of the grantees identify as female and approximately 80 percent as non-white. This year’s cohort also ranges from twenty-eight to fifty-nine years in age.

“Joan Mitchell recognized the essential need to support artists in the process of creating,” said Christa Blatchford, CEO of the foundation. Blatchford added that artists at all stages of their careers face a slew of challenges. The Painters and Sculptors Grants initiative was conceived as a way to provide artists with the financial backing, time, and freedom they need to work on their art. 

To be eligible for a grant, artists are nominated by arts professionals from throughout the United States and are then chosen through an anonymous multiphase jurying process. In addition to the financial support, recipients of the Painters and Sculptors Grants become eligible to apply for residencies at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans.

The 2018 grant recipients are:

Felipe Baeza, Brooklyn, New York

Cindy Cheng, Baltimore, Maryland

Yanira Collado, North Miami, Florida

Elisabeth Condon, New York, New York

David Antonio Cruz, Brooklyn, New York

Elliot Doughtie, Baltimore, Maryland

Addoley Dzegede, Portland, Oregon

Krista Franklin, Chicago, Illinois

Doreen Garner, Brooklyn, New York

EJ Hill, Los Angeles, California

Lisa Jarrett, Portland, Oregon

Elizabeth Malaska, Portland, Oregon

Joiri Minaya, Bronx, New York

Maia Cruz Palileo, Brooklyn, New York

Wendy Red Star, Portland, Oregon

Naomi Reis, Brooklyn, New York

Jamea Richmond-Edwards, Silver Spring, Maryland

Kenny Rivero, New York, New York

Lauren Roche, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Evelyn Rydz, Boston, Massachusetts

Blair Saxon-Hill, Portland, Oregon

Nyugen E. Smith, Jersey City, New Jersey

Juana Valdes, Miami, FL and Amherst, Massachusetts

Jose Villalobos, San Antonio, Texas

Brittney Leeanne Williams, Chicago, Illinois