CLARKSVILLE, TN — Rising Voices 2: The Bennett Prize for Women Figurative Realist Painters has made its way to the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center’s gallery walls and is open to the public for viewing. The exhibit is organized by the Muskegon Museum of Art and The Pittsburgh Foundation, and is held in conjunction with The Bennett Prize.
The $50,000 Bennett Prize is awarded biennially to a woman fine art painter whose principal artistic focus is figurative painting in a primarily realistic style. The Bennett Prize seeks to encourage the pursuit of figurative realism by women painters and will provide support over two years to a select painter whose work demonstrates excellence in the genre.
The Customs House Museum is the only stop in Tennessee for the traveling exhibition. “We are thrilled to be one of six museums in the country to showcase this fabulous exhibition of talented women figurative artists,” says Exhibits Curator Terri Jordan.
Rising Voices 2 is comprised of paintings by the ten 2021 Bennett Prize finalists, 2021 Prize winner Ayana Ross and 2019 Prize winner Aneka Ingold. Also on display are paintings by the 10 women figurative realist painters named last fall as finalists for the second Bennett Prize.
“Beautiful, amusing, haunting, mystifying, celebratory and surprising, these artworks invite closer examination of the artists’ perspectives and offer the viewers an opportunity to evaluate their own lives, experiences, and perceptions of the work,” said Art Martin, director of collections and exhibitions at the Muskegon Museum of Art.
Rising Voices 2: The Bennett Prize for Women Figurative Realist Painters and Aneka Ingold: Transfiguration are on display at the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center now through April 24.
For more, go to customshousemuseum.org.