The American Academy in Rome has awarded its 2024–25 Rome Prizes to 31 American artists and scholars, including six visual artists. The winning artists include video and performance artist Lex Brown; photographers Matthew Connors, Nona Faustine, and Richard Mosse; and installation artists Devon Dikeou and Sheila Pepe.
This year, a record-breaking 1,106 Americans applied for the annual prize, which has an average acceptance rate of 2.6 percent. Winners are invited to live for five to ten months at the Academy’s 11-acre campus in Rome, with a supplementary stipend and workspace. Today, the recipients will be honored at a prize ceremony and concert in New York.
“The Rome Prize winners represent a bridge between the United States and Italy, but also between a present of potential and a future of achievement,” said Peter N. Miller, the president of the American Academy in Rome. This year’s visual arts winners were selected by artists Patricia Cronin, James Casebere, E. V. Day, Abigail DeVille, Gary Simmons, and curator Catherine J. Morris.
Lex Brown is inspired by poetry and science fiction to confront the dark realities of the Information Age. A lecturer in visual arts at Princeton University, the 35-year-old artist addresses themes of self-reflection and political discourse through her provocative video and performance works. Meanwhile, Matthew Connors, a professor of photography at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, is recognized for his experimental approach to documentary photography.
Irish conceptual photographer Richard Mosse uses his medium to address sociopolitical and environmental turmoil, challenging the notion of the “documentary image.” Brooklyn-based photographer Nona Faustine focuses on urgent contemporary issues, such as identity, representation, and racial and gender stereotypes, and is currently the subject of a solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum.
Devon Dikeou, the editor of the long-running art publication zingmagazine, is celebrated for her conceptual, site-specific work, in which she reclaims regular objects for immersive installation projects. Similarly, surreal artist and feminist activist Sheila Pepe is known for site-specific installations created from domestic and industrial materials. These works, which the artist describes as “improvisational crochet,” are web-like installations that range from gallery-sized pieces to smaller designs that fit in the crevices of a room.
Notable prior recipients of the Rome Prize include James Casebere, Autumn Knight, and Todd Gray.
