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Cosmo Whyte: 2016 Atlanta Artadia Awardee

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Image: Cosmo Whyte, Stranger than the Village, 2015, 35” x 26” 

Cosmo Whyte (MFA 15) was recently named one of two Awardees for the 2016 Atlanta Artadia Awards. Along with awardee Jiha Moon, Cosmo Whyte will receive $10,000 in unrestricted funds as well as access to the ongoing benefits of the Artadia Awards program. 

This is Artadia’s fourth year providing unrestricted Awards to artists in Atlanta. Applications for the Awards were open to any visual artist living in the Greater Atlanta area for over two years, working in all media and at any stage of their career.

In the first round of evaluations, Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, Curator of Contemporary Art, Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Jamillah James, Curator, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and Katherine Jentleson, Merrie and Dan Boone Curator of Folk and Self-Taught Art, High Museum of Art, selected five Finalists from 188 submissions. Finalists included Kelly Kristin Jones, T. Lang, Jiha Moon, Zipporah Thompson, and Cosmo Whyte. Daniel Fuller, Curator, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, joined Jentleson for the second round of evaluations. The jurors conducted studio visits with each of the five Finalists to determine the Awardees.

The 2016 Awardees represent the diverse arts community that is flourishing in Atlanta. Daniel Fuller, Curator, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, spoke to the ways in which immigration informs the themes and imagery in Whyte’s work: Cosmo Whyte carries memories of home with him wherever he goes. In our studio visit we spoke of how a place is depicted so far away in proximity, however so near to your heart. His work unpacks the complexities of growing up within colonialism and maintaining identity. It is both highly personal and specific to each of us.” 

Katherine Jentleson addressed the artist’s multifaceted approach to his practice: Cosmo Whyte’s work is powerfully resonant with the legacy of colonialism and the present urgency of forced migration. His work engages these issues through both the direct confrontation of his interdisciplinary practice and the subtle parsing of his drawings.”

The 2016 Atlanta Artadia Awards are made possible thanks to The LUBO Fund, MailChimp, Tim & Lauren Schrager Family Foundation, Artadia’s Board of Directors, Council members, and many generous individual donors in Atlanta and throughout the United States.