In 2016, when collectors Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt and Steven Bennett first conceptualized The Bennett Prize for Female Figurative Realist Painters – a $50,000 prize awarded by a jury to a promising female painter – they discovered that no one was interested in another art prize.
“When we pitched the concept to museums and curators,” says Schmidt, who founded the prize with Bennett in 2019, “the response was gaping indifference. Figurative realism was still considered dead while abstraction, installation art and video were in vogue. Also, female artists hadn’t really hit the radar.
But that was then, and this is now. Today, interest in women’s art has skyrocketed and realism is back, creating a buzz that everyone can hear. The Biennial Bennett Prize and Support rising voices the exhibition are in their third iteration, and its founders are seeing their instincts confirmed.
The Bennett Prize: Rising Voices 3 is on view through September 10 at the Muskegon Museum of Art in Muskegon, Michigan, featuring 30 works by the current 10 finalists for the 2023 Bennett Prize. Alongside this exhibition is The lessons that I leave you, a solo show by Ayana Ross of Georgia, who won the 2021 Bennett Prize. Ross says her show will “depict the divine in everyday moments.” Both exhibits will travel the country, visiting New York, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Tennessee
Schmidt says the current awards show “ranges from hard realism to soft impressionism.” Juror artist Zoey Frank adds, “It’s exciting to see the artists in this exhibition working at the limits of what representation can be…” Echoing this point, juror Joseph Rosa observes that “the vast range of aesthetics in this work is fantastic”.
Among the objectives of the founders is the desire to promote the work of all finalists and to stimulate interest in figurative art among collectors, galleries and museums. As a result, the previous 18 finalists and two winners have seen demand for their work increase significantly and their selling prices have increased by nearly half. These women exhibited in 24 personal exhibitions and 67 collective exhibitions. Their work has been published in over 50 feature articles and more than half have been featured in galleries.
“We got a front row seat at the release party for a whole new group of female painters,” Bennett says happily.
For more details on the Bennett Prize, visit thebennettprize.org.
To learn more about the Rising Voices 3 traveling exhibition, visit muskegonartmuseum.org.
Interested in becoming a host venue? Visit muskegonartmuseum.org/bennett-prize-prospectus.
The Pittsburgh Foundation and the Muskegon Museum of Art are proud partners of the Bennett Prize®.
