Guggenheim gives $50,000 to winner of inaugral ‘Jack Galef Visual Arts Award’
The Guggenheim in New York has unveiled artist Catherine Telford Keogh as the inaugural winner of the ‘Jack Galef Visual Arts Award’.
In addition to being awarded the prestigious award from the world-famous museum, Telford Keogh has also been awarded $50,000, which the Jack Galef Estate has donated.
According to the Guggenheim, the ‘Jack Galef Visual Arts Award’ is devised to be a recognition of “outstanding achievement and originality in contemporary visual art”.
Meanwhile, Mariët Westermann, director and CEO of the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, said of the award, “The creation of the Jack Galef Visual Arts Award is a meaningful investment in artistic innovation. We are grateful to the late Jack Galef and his estate for this important contribution to contemporary art and to those who move it in new directions.”
Westermann added of Telford Keogh, “Catherine Telford Keogh exemplifies the originality and depth this award seeks to champion, and we are proud to celebrate her as its first honoree.”
Telford Keogh was born in Toronto in 1986 and is now based in Brooklyn. She initially gained a degree in studio art and gender studies at the University of Waterloo, before studying Sculpture and Women, Gender, and Sexuality studies at Yale University.
In a statement, she said of the honour, “I am honored to be the inaugural recipient of the Jack Galef Visual Arts Award. To be the first artist recognized by this award carries a weight I don’t take lightly. I am grateful to Jack Galef for his commitment to supporting artists at earlier stages of visibility, and for the encouragement this provides to continue working.”
The Canadian artist also explained how the $50,000 will aid her career, noting, “This support will enable me to deepen collaborations and pursue the slow, uncertain research that has always grounded my practice.”
The ‘Jack Galef Visual Arts Award’ is set to be given out every two years by the Guggenheim, with the next winner to be crowned in 2027.
It is a replacement, of sorts, for the similarly biannual ‘Hugo Boss Prize‘, which was discontinued by the Guggenheim in 2022. It ran between 1996 and 2020, with artists receiving $100,000 in addition to the ‘Hugo Boss Prize’.
