This year, the Vilcek Foundation chose to double the prizes it awards in the arts and humanities, expanding its support of immigrant art professionals into two categories: Visual Arts and Curatorial Work.
Receiving a total of $250,000 in awards, the four winners of the 2025 Vilcek Prizes in Visual Arts use sculpture, installation, and performance to address themes of grief, trauma, and liberation.
Guadalupe Maravilla, 2025 Vilcek Prize in Visual Arts
Born in El Salvador, Guadalupe Maravilla is known for his sculptures, installations, and performances that draw on his experiences coming to the US as an undocumented, unaccompanied child at age eight and battling cancer at 36. His artworks explore migration, transcendence, and the human condition.
Selva Aparicio, Creative Promise Prize in Visual Arts
Originally from Spain, Selva Aparicio is a sculptor and installation artist who uses organic materials and ritualistic imagery to address environmental degradation, social justice, and the human experience of loss.
Felipe Baeza, Creative Promise Prize in Visual Arts
Originally from Mexico, Felipe Baeza is a visual artist known for his studio practice and poetic style that engages multiple mediums and traditions to explore spirituality, otherness, and regeneration.
Jeffrey Meris, Creative Promise Prize in Visual Arts
Born in Haiti and raised in the Bahamas, Jeffrey Meris is an artist who engages materiality, installation, and performance to explore the power of ecology and embodiment to liberate and heal from individual and historical trauma.
To learn more, visit vilcek.org.
