Jennie C. Jones and Gala Porras-Kim have been announced as the 2024 recipients of the Heinz Award for the Arts . The unrestricted $250,000 cash prize, given annually since 1993 by the Pittsburgh-based Heinz Family Foundation to honor individuals making major contributions in the arts, is one of the world’s largest.
Past awardees include ceramicist Roberto Lugo, filmmaker Cauleen Smith, Conceptual artist Sanford Biggers, cartoonist Roz Chast, Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Rita Dove, and interdisciplinary artist Ralph Lemon. The Cincinnati-born Jones, who lives and works in Hudson, New York, is celebrated for her work responding to both the legacies of modernism and Minimalism and to African American literary and musical traditions, with jazz as a particular focus. Her explorations of these themes center around painting, sculpture, and assemblage, and frequently incorporate sound and the apparatus of musicmaking.
Jones was recently awarded the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Rooftop Commission : Her installation there next summer is expected to comprise sculptures that can work as instruments. “Jennie’s work defies established genres, interlacing elements of sound, space, color and objects in ways that are profoundly moving,” said foundation chairperson Teresa Heinz in a statement. “Her layered works are immersive, inviting us to reflect and ponder while experiencing moments of subtle beauty and meaning.
” Porras-Kim, who was born in Bogotá and lives and works in Lo.