Alison Saar, a Los Angeles-based artist known for sculptures exploring Black American experience through historic and symbolic imagery, has won the 20th edition of the David C. Driskell Prize from the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. The annual prize, which alternates between honoring an artist and a curator, comes with $50,000 and was announced during a reception at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York on 9 May. Saar succeeds 2024 winner Naomi Beckwith, and past honorees include Ebony G. Patterson, Amy Sherald, Mark Bradford, and Rashid Johnson.
The Driskell Prize is significant because it provides both financial support and validation for African American artists and curators at a time when civil rights milestones are being threatened. Saar's work, including her 1993 sculpture "Tobacco Demon" held by the High Museum, exemplifies the prize's mission to empower Black artists to create courageous work that challenges mainstream institutional limitations. The prize also supports the High Museum's acquisition fund, which has added 52 works by African American artists to its permanent collection.