Maya Brooks

First, thank you to the Hopper Prize for this wonderful opportunity to select artists for the most recent awards cycle. Across this group of artists, I experienced a range of figurative and abstract paintings, photography, and sculpture. Overall, the artists throughout this process exemplified multiple worldviews and the breadth of contemporary arts.

In selecting the prizes, I looked for a few criteria, including narrative, cohesion, and technical skill. My selection process included viewing the individual work samples to evaluate each piece for the finer details. Then, I assessed everything as a collective to see if I could determine any connections between the works. I did this in two phases – a first and second round of selections that resonated with at least one of the elements I considered. Organizing the selections this way ensured that I took my time between viewing each artist’s portfolio and could state exactly why I chose them for further evaluation.

Throughout my evaluation, I gravitated toward works featuring strong examples of portraiture, which feels like a response to contemporary trends in figurative work where contemporary artists continuously innovate their portrayal of people. This is true, especially for women and artists of color responding to erasure or marginalization by reframing constructions of identity across time. However, my shortlist also contained strong examples of contemporary innovations of still life and genre paintings that pushed the boundaries of everyday subjects.

The top artists I chose to receive monetary grants demonstrated excellence in narrative and technical skills while aligning with my previous comments about contemporary art direction.
All three artists played with perspective, whether physical or temporal. They used perspective as a tool to shift the focus of their work — subjects are not just seen as “flat” characters on a canvas, there is a sense of storytelling happening that makes me return to each person’s work .

Looking at the three grant recipients specifically, I first chose Nicole Economides due to how dream-like her works felt, especially her first two portfolio examples. I felt like I stepped into her mind’s eye in a sense. For Liza Jo Ellers, I appreciated that they took pop art and confronting the patriarchal gaze a step further by using a technical element to create a censor. As an institutional curator, I questioned the practicality of having to wet the piece to create that functionality, but that is a bit of the fun. It’s inviting and a bit dangerous. It’s exciting to think about interaction this way. Lastly, for our top prize I chose Suzanne Clements, who impressed me with the composition of their work. I have always loved distortion as a visual device because of its ability to affect emotion in the viewer. Clements’s work is very effective, as they consider the human ego.

Overall, all the artists who submitted work for this award should be proud. Again, I am so thankful to have been a part of this selection process and to get to know so many wonderful creatives.