Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Prize Winner: Bethany Collins

Bethany Collins is the recipient of the 2023 Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Prize, awarded biannually by SAM since 2009 to an early career Black artist—defined loosely as an artist in the first decade of their career.

Collins’s conceptually driven work uses language as both subject and medium to explore the nuances and intersections of language, racial identity, and American history. The artist’s work was featured at SAM previously in Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle (2021) and will present new work in this 2024 solo show.

Funding for the prize and exhibition is provided by the Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Endowment and the Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation.

Image: The Odyssey: 1862 / 1837, 2024, Bethany Collins, graphite on Somerset paper in 2 parts, overall 46 1/2 x 69 x 1 3/4 in., Courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York; PATRON Gallery, Chicago, © 2024 Bethany Collins.