Lauren Rosati

As a juror of the Hopper Prize, I deeply valued the opportunity to conduct hundreds of virtual “studio visits” with contemporary artists worldwide whose work I might not have seen otherwise. The impressive pool of applicants this year hail from diverse international communities and represent a wide range of material approaches, formal concerns, and conceptual interests. Within this multiplicity, broad themes emerge. A great number of projects advance incisive explorations of gender, the body, and the self, while others illustrate the loneliness and isolation that can accompany contemporary life. Vivid, sometimes riotous, color suffuses many of these works, hinting at a sense of optimism. Formal experimentation also abounds, with photography masquerading as painting, painting as drawing, and so on. Crisply rendered representational paintings, many of them figurative; photographic series of sparsely populated landscapes; irreverent wall-based sculptures – these were among the strongest works submitted this year.

When selecting the grantees and shortlisted artists, I looked for a singular vision, technical command, the ability to produce a cohesive body of work, and a strong artist statement. Alex Bex presents a gripping narrative photo essay of ranchers in rural Texas, where guns and horses are central to daily life. With washed colors and a keen attention to the quality of light, his accomplished photographs explore the figure of the cowboy as both a symbol of masculinity and a metaphor for America itself. Liam Fallon’s painted sculptures queer the idea of the monument. They are punctured, tied together, bent, or broken open, even as they are made to resemble durable materials like brick and wood. And Paree Rohera upends the traditions of South Asian miniature painting, using caricature to comment on self-image and the conventions of beauty in a way that is resolutely contemporary. These artists, though varied in style, medium, and technique, are unified in their striking depictions of contemporary life, its conditions, and its cultures. I congratulate them, and the shortlisted artists, for their exceptional work.