21c Museum Hotels, a multi-venue contemporary art museum and award-winning hospitality company, and Artadia, a nonprofit grantmaker and nationwide community of visual artists, curators, and patrons, are thrilled to announce that Kathy Liao has been selected as the 2022 21c Kansas City Artadia Awardee.
The 2022 21c Kansas City Artadia Award is generously supported by 21c Museum Hotels, the Artadia Board of Directors, Artadia Council Members, and individual donors across the country.
The Awardee will receive $10,000 in unrestricted funds. In addition to the financial Award of $10,000, all Awardees have access to the ongoing benefits of the Artadia Awards program.
The 2022 21c Kansas City Artadia Award application was open to visual artists working in any visual media, at any stage in their career, living and working within Cass, Clay, Jackson, Johnson, Leavenworth, Miami, Platte, Ray, and Wyandotte Counties.
The decision was reached after an extensive two-tiered jurying process, culminating in virtual studio visits with jurors Daisy Nam, Executive Director and Curator, Ballroom Marfa, and Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi, Curatorial Assistant, Hammer Museum.
Juror Onyewuenyi shared sentiments about the award process, “It’s been a really fortunate experience to get both a bird’s eye view of the Kansas City art community alongside a series of intimate, generative conversations about a few artists’ practice. This variable level of engagement provided a sense of the artistic networks that exist across this Midwest City as well as what sustains the nodes within them.”
Fellow juror Nam remarked on Liao’s work: “I was taken by Liao’s large-scale paintings that unabashedly take up space, not as a means to occupy, but as a way to fully invite viewers into the work. While her works stem from a personal place of familial stories, memories, and experiences, these intimacies can be felt by her viewers. Her use of scale, textures, layers of paint and striking colors, enliven our senses and awaken the stories that lie within each of us.”
Click here to read the full press release or read about it in KC Studios.
Artadia is a nonprofit grantmaking organization and a nationwide community of visual artists, curators, and patrons. Over two decades, Artadia has worked collaboratively to foster a more just arts economy and improve the conditions necessary for artists from all backgrounds to thrive. We elevate artists’ careers at critical moments in their practice through a proven combination of recognition, grantmaking, community support, and advocacy. Since its founding in 1999, Artadia has awarded over $6 million in unrestricted funds to over 360 artists in 8 cities, with partnerships like the 21c Artadia Award allowing an even further reach.
The 2022 21c Kansas City Artadia Award is generously supported by 21c Museum Hotels, the Artadia Board of Directors, Artadia Council Members, and individual donors across the country.
Image Captions: Kathy Liao, Liu Nian, 2021.