Awards
Artist Award for a Distinguished Body of Work
The Artist Award for a Distinguished Body of Work, first presented in 1988, is a peer award given to an artist for exceptional work through exhibitions, presentations, or performances. This award is presented to a living artist of national or international stature and must tie him or her to an exceptional recent exhibition; the 2013 award year is September 1, 2011–August 31, 2012.
2012 Winner
Installation view of Adrian Piper’s Past Time: Selected Works 1973–1995
Since the late 1960s, the provocative and often challenging work of Adrian Piper has profoundly influenced the language and form of Conceptual art. Her 2010 exhibition Past Time: Selected Works 1973–1995, presented at Elizabeth Dee Gallery in New York, showcased several bodies of work that dealt with dissent in varying forms and represented a period of time widely considered as her most influential. Piper’s artistic practice flirts with the syntax of Minimalism and infuses it with explicitly political content, addressing issues of race, gender, and identity politics. Additionally, her work has been shaped by studies in philosophy, a subject on which she has lectured since earning a doctorate in the discipline thirty years ago. A keen interlocutor of mass culture, Piper has produced art and writing that makes us question our constantly shifting contemporary social landscape.
Past Winners
In the twenty-two years since the Artist Award for a Distinguished Body of Work was first presented, the majority of recipients have been women. Four of the first five—Elizabeth Murray, Howardena Pindell, Rachel Rosenthal, and Ann Hamilton—are women, as are six recent winners, which include Betye Saar, Yoko Ono, Mary Heilmann, Lynda Benglis, and Adrian Piper. Other recipients of the award include Bruce Nauman, Nam June Paik, and Fred Wilson.
Read a list of all winners of the Artist Award for a Distinguished Body of Work from 1988 to the present.
Award Nominations
CAA will be accepting nominations for the 2014 Artist Award for a Distinguished Body of Work in spring 2013.
