American artists Jennifer Packer and Marie Watt were named as winners of this year’s Heinz Art Awards on Tuesday.
The award, in its 30th year, was allocated by the Pittsburgh-based Heinz Family Foundation and offers a cash prize of $250,000 per winner. Six recipients are named each year, and two of the two categories (Arts, Acnice and The Remights) have the intention to “celebrate the vision and spirit that produces lasting good achievements.”
The two honorary artists have different approaches. The New York-based packer is known for her jewel-color paintings, and its theme hints at a huge inner world. Her acclaimed 2021 solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum centers on black characters, which divide between images and abstractions.
“Stories telling is the center of how we understand ourselves and everything else,” Packer said in a statement. “Most stories, regardless of their meaning, are preserved only in the body or in language, and when the body is lost, they disappear. I care a lot of things very much, and certainly few people will try to curb them in ways I know I should have.”
Artist Marie Watt. Photo: Joshua Franzos
Joshua Franzos
Watt is a citizen of the Seneca Nation (part of the Haudenosaunee alliance), a German Scots’ descent. Her practice weaves prints, textiles and sculptures together to examine cultural heritage, a place where early feminist Haudenosaunee teaching and indigenous traditions in contemporary communities. Her sculptural series, “Blanket Story,” includes huge towering buildings donated by local communities to artists, each with a message that explains the importance of these objects to their original owners.
“I think the blankets are living objects. Many blankets, especially wool blankets and quilts. It has been passed down for generations,” Watt said in a statement. “We are received by blankets in this world, and from many ways, we are constantly printed on the blankets – worn areas, colored debris and patched parts are like beauty marks and part of the history of objects.”
