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1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art

Society 1858 Prize for contemporary Southern Art: 2024 Winner Demond Melancon

Prize Overview

The Gibbes Museum and Society 1858's Prize for Contemporary Southern Art is awarded to an artist whose work contributes to a new understanding of art in the South. Presented annually, the Prize recognizes the highest level of artistic achievement and welcomes applications from artist working across any media. Artists from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia are encouraged and eligible to apply. Previous winners have subsequently received awards from the Joan Mitchell Fellowship, the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. Additionally, winning artists' work has been received into the permanent collections of The National Gallery of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Gibbes Museum of Art. The extraordinary multi-disciplinary artist, Demond Melancon, was the recipient of the 2024 Prize, receiving a cash award of $10,000 and whose work will be on display at the Gibbes for a full year, beginning February 2025.

In addition to the monetary award, artwork will be chosen by the Gibbes Curatorial Team, in collaboration with the artist, for display in the Mary Jackson Modern and Contemporary Galleries for the duration of the year following the winner’s announcement. Applications are accepted exclusively through this website.

Society 1858

The 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art is presented by Society 1858, a member auxiliary group of the Gibbes Museum of Art. This group of dynamic young professionals supports the Gibbes Museum with social and educational programs tailored for up-and-coming art patrons. To learn more about membership in Society 1858, please click here.

Contact Information

For general questions about the 1858 prize, please contact Jordan Sprueill, Associate Curator of Contemporary Initiatives and Visiting Artists at [email protected].

WINNERS & FINALISTS

  2024   2023   2022   2021   2020   2019   2018   2017   2016   2015   2014   2012   2011   2010   2009   2008



2024
Demond Melancon

Demond Melancon

Winner

Melancon pioneered an emerging contemporary art practice using the same beading techniques he’s been refining over the past 30 years in the Black Masking Culture.

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Ato Ribeiro

Ato Ribeiro

Finalist

Ribeiro's patchworked wooden mosaics become a call and response echoing through time, rooted in fabric and wood.

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Carlie Trosclair

Carlie Trosclair

Finalist

Approached through a lens of reordering and discovery, Trosclair’s work explores the liminal space between development and deconstruction.

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2023
Sherrill Roland

Sherrill Roland

Winner

Roland has an interdisciplinary practice that deals with concepts of innocence, identity, and community, reimagining their social and political implications.

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Carlie Trosclair

Carlie Trosclair

Finalist

Approached through a lens of reordering and discovery, Trosclair's work explores the liminal space between development and deconstruction.

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Hiromi Moneyhun

Hiromi Moneyhun

Finalist

With no formal art training, Hiromi Moneyhun has evolved a unique, homegrown artistic voice that combines traditional and modern Japanese art forms.

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2022
Raheleh Filsoofi

Raheleh Filsoofi

Winner

Raheleh Filsoofi is a collector of soil and sound, an itinerant artist, feminist curator, and community service advocate.

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Sherrill Roland

Sherrill Roland

Finalist

Roland has an interdisciplinary practice that deals with concepts of innocence, identity, and community, reimagining their social and political implications.

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T.J. Dedeaux-Norris

T.J. Dedeaux-Norris

Finalist

Dedeaux-Norris is a mixed-media artist who employs painting, fiber, performance, video, and music to explore the somatic impacts of racial, gender, and class.

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2021
Stephanie J. Woods

Stephanie J. Woods

Winner

Stephanie J. Woods’ body of work examines performative behavior and the cognitive effects of forced cultural assimilation through multimedia works.

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Adebunmi Gbadebo

Adebunmi Gbadebo

Finalist

Adebunmi Gbadebo creates sculptures, prints and paper using Black hair sourced from the diaspora, along with historical and cultural imbued materials.

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Edison Peñafiel

Edison Peñafiel

Finalist

Edison Peñafiel's singular style integrates video and multimedia installation to create surreal echoes of our world, environments that translate experience.

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2020
Stephen L. Hayes, Jr.

Stephen L. Hayes, Jr.

Winner

A North Carolina-based artist, Hayes makes works - woodcuts, sculptures, and installations from found materials that draw on social and economic themes.

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Jennifer Shaw

Jennifer Shaw

Finalist

Louisiana-based artist Jennifer Shaw's work is based on both a world observed, and a world constructed, often focusing on the sphere of her immediate surroundings.

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Namwon Choi

Namwon Choi

Finalist

Georgia-based artist Namwon Choi's drawings and paintings capture the spatial and temporal condition of in-betweenness.

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2019
Donté K. Hayes

Donté K. Hayes

Winner

Georgia-based ceramicist, Donté K. Hayes explores themes in Afrofuturism, an imagined future which critiques historical and cultural events.

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Damian Stamer

Damian Stamer

Finalist

North Carolina-based painter, Damian Stamer captures the impermanence of structures that stand as remnants of American industries.

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Herb Parker

Herb Parker

Finalist

South Carolina-based artist Herb Parker creates nature-based installations which enhance the viewer's perception of the environment.

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Martha Clippenger

Martha Clippenger

Finalist

North Carolina-based artist, Martha Clippenger work blurs the lines between painting and sculpture, fine art and folk, craft and design.

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Michi Meko

Michi Meko

Finalist

Michi Meko's paintings and sculptures focus on the African American experience of navigating public spaces while remaining buoyant within them.

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Stephanie Patton

Stephanie Patton

Finalist

Louisiana-based artist Stephanie Patton employs humor in her multi-media works, often using it as a device to bring attention to critical issues.

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2018
Leo Twiggs

Leo Twiggs

Winner

A native of St. Stephen, South Carolina, Leo Twiggs works in batik, exploring family history, cultural heritage, and how the past is manifest in contemporary life.

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Birney Imes

Birney Imes

Finalist

For more than 30 years, photographer Birney Imes has captured the people, places, and culture of his native Mississippi.

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María Magdalena Campos-Pons

María Magdalena Campos-Pons

Finalist

A native of Cuba, María Magdalena Campos-Pons’s artistic practice combines diverse media including photography, performance, painting, sculpture, film, and video.

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Stephen L. Hayes, Jr.

Stephen L. Hayes, Jr.

Finalist

Stephen Hayes explores the history of race relations in America through a variety of media, including sculpture, fiber, video, blacksmithing, and installation work.

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Susan Worsham

Susan Worsham

Finalist

Photographer Susan Worsham was born in Richmond, Virginia. Her recent work focuses on her family.

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2017
Bo Bartlett

Bo Bartlett

Winner

Born in Columbus, Georgia, Bartlett is acclaimed for his large-scale paintings that explore American life and cultural heritage.

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Beverly McIver

Beverly McIver

Finalist

North Carolina painter, Beverly McIver uses bold color and gesture to create portraits that examine racial, gender, social, and occupational identity.

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Ebony G. Patterson

Ebony G. Patterson

Finalist

Ebony G. Patterson investigates identity in contemporary society, particularly ideas concerning visibility and invisibility of those who are deemed disenfranchised.

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Paul Stephen Benjamin

Paul Stephen Benjamin

Finalist

Paul Stephen Benjamin is a multidisciplinary artist who creates multi-layered works that incorporate history, text, and popular culture.

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Suzanne Jackson

Suzanne Jackson

Finalist

Suzanne Jackson combines painting, collage, and sculpture techniques to create large-scale abstract work exploring the spirit of the American cultural legacies.

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2016
Alicia Henry

Alicia Henry

Winner

Alicia Henry explores social relationships through depictions of the human figure shown in isolation and also figures interacting with one another.

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Jiha Moon

Jiha Moon

Finalist

Jiha Moon's work combines diverse cultural influences, including Asian landscape painting, calligraphy, and imagery from Western popular culture.

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José Bedia

José Bedia

Finalist

José Bedia creates paintings, sculpture, and mixed-media installations.

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Michelle Erickson

Michelle Erickson

Finalist

Michelle Erickson’s work draws compelling comparisons between the past and present-day social issues.

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Stacey Kirby

Stacey Kirby

Finalist

Stacey Kirby creates performances set within site-specific installations activated by viewer participation.

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Toyin Ojih Odutola

Toyin Ojih Odutola

Finalist

Toyin Ojih Odutola’s portraits explore skin as a topography revealing time, place, memory, and an ever-changing identity.

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2015
Deborah Luster

Deborah Luster

Winner

Deborah Luster's photographs are powerful and haunting. Her recent body of work captures desolate landscapes in New Orleans where murders have occurred.

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Aldwyth

Aldwyth

Finalist

Aldwyth creates intricate collages and assemblages, often monumental in scale, from found objects, appropriated images, text, and other elements.

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Andrea Keys Connell

Andrea Keys Connell

Finalist

Sculptor Andrea Keys Connell creates figurative works that challenge conventional notions of monuments, statuary, and figurines.

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Ebony G. Patterson

Ebony G. Patterson

Finalist

Ebony G. Patterson investigates the complex relationships between gender, politics, beauty, race, and ritual in contemporary Jamaican culture.

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George Jenne

George Jenne

Finalist

George Jenne is a video artist who combines moving images with the spoken word to create uniquely narrative films.

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Kevin Jerome Everson

Kevin Jerome Everson

Finalist

Kevin Jerome Everson’s films utilize both scripted and documentary footage to examine the everyday lives of working class African Americans.

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2014
Sonya Clark

Sonya Clark

Winner

Sonya Clark uses objects such as cloth, hair, and combs to give voice to the complexity of American identity and history.

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André Leon Gray

André Leon Gray

Finalist

André Leon Gray works in a variety of media to examine the impact of history and memory on present day power structures and social hierarchies.

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Damian Stamer

Damian Stamer

Finalist

Painter Damian Stamer depicts barns, abandoned buildings, and other vernacular structures of the rural south.

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Jackson Martin

Jackson Martin

Finalist

Jackson Martin’s artistic practice entails an interdisciplinary approach to sculpture, installation, and photography.

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Jason Mitcham

Jason Mitcham

Finalist

Artist Jason Mitcham combines painting and stop-motion animation to investigate suburbia, modern ruins, and temporality within the landscape.

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Jim Arendt

Jim Arendt

Finalist

Jim Arendt creates narrative paintings, sculpture, and installations that investigate how individual lives are affected by transitions in economic structures.

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Stacy Lynn Waddell

Stacy Lynn Waddell

Finalist

Stacy Lynn Waddell creates work that explores American history, culture, and the ways individual consciousness is formed through generations.

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2012
John Westmark

John Westmark

Winner

John Westmark is a painter whose large-scale works incorporate store-bought paper sewing patterns collaged directly on the surface.

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Aldwyth

Aldwyth

Finalist

Aldwyth creates intricate collages and assemblages, often monumental in scale, from found objects, appropriated images, text, and other elements.

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Bob Trotman

Bob Trotman

Finalist

Often posed in unexpected ways, Trotman’s figures convey the humor, anxiety, and even absurdity of life as an office professional.

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Brian Dettmer

Brian Dettmer

Finalist

Brian Dettmer is known for his detailed and innovative sculptures created from books and other forms of antiquated media.

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Young Kim

Young Kim

Finalist

Young Kim creates site-specific installations from salt and earth that are inherently fragile and temporal, symbolic of our own existence on earth.

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2011
Patrick Dougherty

Patrick Dougherty

Winner

Patrick Dougherty is a sculptor who works with twigs and branches to create site-specific installations.

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Bo Bartlett

Bo Bartlett

Finalist

Bo Bartlett is acclaimed for his large-scale paintings that explore American life and cultural heritage.

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Deborah Luster

Deborah Luster

Finalist

Deborah Luster's photographs are powerful and haunting. Her recent body of work captures desolate landscapes in New Orleans where murders have occurred.

READ MORE
Elliott Hundley

Elliott Hundley

Finalist

Elliott Hundley creates paintings, sculptures, and assemblages with richly-layered surfaces.

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Jiha Moon

Jiha Moon

Finalist

Jiha Moon's work combines diverse cultural influences, including Asian landscape painting, calligraphy, and imagery from Western popular culture.

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Pinky Bass

Pinky Bass

Finalist

Pinky Bass works with pinhole photography, embracing the imperfections and unusual perspective of the medium.

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2010
Radcliffe Bailey

Radcliffe Bailey

Winner

Radcliffe Bailey is best known for his mixed media works and site-specific installations that explore his personal background and the history of African Americans.

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Aldwyth

Aldwyth

Finalist

Aldwyth creates intricate collages and assemblages, often monumental in scale, from found objects, appropriated images, text, and other elements.

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Joyce Scott

Joyce Scott

Finalist

Joyce Scott addresses issues of gender, race, and class struggles through a variety of techniques including weaving, quilting, beadwork, and glasswork.

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Sally Mann

Sally Mann

Finalist

Sally Mann is best known for her intimate photographs of her family and her unique portrayal of the southern landscape.

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William Christenberry

William Christenberry

Finalist

William Christenberry has used his drawing, painting, sculpture, and photography as a means to document his home state of Alabama.

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Willie Birch

Willie Birch

Finalist

Willie Birch is a painter, sculptor, and draftsman whose work draws upon African American culture and tradition in his native New Orleans.

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2009
Stephen Marc

Stephen Marc

Winner

Stephen Marc is a photographer who creates digitally-manipulated montages that explore his Southern roots and interpret American history.

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Edward Rice

Edward Rice

Finalist

Edward Rice is a painter best known for his stark depictions of architectural details.

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Kathryn Refi

Kathryn Refi

Finalist

Kathryn Refi is a conceptual artist who collects data from daily life as a means to study the world in an objective manner.

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Lonnie Holley

Lonnie Holley

Finalist

Lonnie Holley creates found object assemblages and acrylic paintings with intensely personal meanings.

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Mike Smith

Mike Smith

Finalist

For nearly thirty years, Mike Smith has photographed the rural landscape of East Tennessee.

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Ross McElwee

Ross McElwee

Finalist

A filmmaker from Charlotte, North Carolina, Ross McElwee has made seven feature-length documentaries and several shorter films.

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2008
Jeff Whetstone

Jeff Whetstone

Winner

Jeff Whetstone was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee and has been photographing and writing about the relationship between humans and their environment since 1990.

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Henri Schindler

Henri Schindler

Finalist

Henri Schindler is an acknowledged authority on Mardi Gras history.

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Jose Alvarez

Jose Alvarez

Finalist

Jose Alvarez incorporates unique media into his work including feathers, porcupine quills, and crystals.

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Radcliffe Bailey

Radcliffe Bailey

Finalist

Radcliffe Bailey is best known for his mixed media works and site-specific installations that explore his personal background and the history of African Americans.

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William Christenberry

William Christenberry

Finalist

William Christenberry has used his drawing, painting, sculpture, and photography as a means to document his home state of Alabama.

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