The XENO PRIZE for Performance Art and Artists’ Books
- Read the Hyperallergic article about the 2023 XENO Prize.
The XENO PRIZE for Performance Art
The 2024 XENO PRIZE for Performance Art recipient will be selected from among proposals for the 2024-25 Franklin Furnace FUND for Performance Art (deadline April 1, 2024), to receive $5000 in support of new work by an early-career LGBTQ+-identifying performance artist working in one of the twenty two United States where, according to the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, laws and policies ban gender-affirming care.
States include: MT, UT, ID, AZ, ND, SD, NE, OK, TX, IA, MO, AR, LA, IN, KY, TN, MS, AL, GA, FL, NC, WV.
The XENO PRIZE for Artists’ Books
The XENO PRIZE for Artists’ Books will be selected from submissions to an Open Call for Proposals issued March 1, 2024 to receive $5000 to publish one artist’s book on the topic of book banning/burning in an edition of at least 100 copies.
For eligibility requirements and the application, please visit our Submittable page. For other questions, please contact proposals@franklinfurnace.org
Alex Mari
https://amberry03.wixsite.com/portfolio
Project Description
Rapture-trap is a social endurance performance within installation that examines the intergenerational resilience of womxn of color. Through imaginative concept, I weave aesthetic symbolism of health into sculptural landscapes. Here the development of form is determined by ability and stamina through resistance presented through an altered athletic, rotating climbing structure. Through endurance and the systematic potential for disrupting form, I present the possibility of breaking epigenetic generational curses.
Biography
Alex Mari (they/she) is a conceptual and durational performance artist from Atlanta. Their current body of work explores how invisibility, voids, and ruptures can stimulate a new and flexible understanding of societal norms. They use a liminal process when re-imagining society through body, narrative, endurance, ritual, objects and tasks, installation, writing, video, and digital ephemera. They received their MFA from SCAD-Atlanta in 2013 and have shown work across Atlanta including MINT Gallery, whitespace, Echo Contemporary, ACA Sculpture Gallery, and Mason Murer Fine Art, among others. They have performed in the Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival and in Yellow Fish Durational Performance Art Festival. They have also performed and shown work nationally and internationally in Seattle, NYC, Berlin, London, Monrovia, Fez, Puri, and most notably at the Shangyuan Art Museum in Beijing. They’ve received awards from the Foundation of Contemporary Arts, Burnaway’s Southern BIPOC Artist Grant, and National Endowment for the Arts Distinguished Fellowship. They recently finished a Fellowship with Emory University’s Arts and Social Justice Fellows Program in 2022. Mari continues her conceptual practice as a 2023-2025 Artist-in-Studio resident with The Creative’s Project in Atlanta and Fall 2023 Boundaries + Borders KODA resident in NYC.
Nick Thornburg
Project Description
“Forbidden Resonance” is the title of my artist’s book proposal for the 2023 XENO Prize for Artists’ Books, developed as a response to the distressing rise of book banning and burning. As an autistic artist, I aim to illuminate the correlation between forbidden and rejected knowledge and the historical suppression of autistic voices. This project intertwines evocative artwork, personal narratives, and testimonies from an autistic perspective. Through wonderfully autistic mixed-media pieces, it strives to reveal the unseen, ignored, and forsaken perspectives of the autistic experience and the immense cost autistic individuals have paid for belonging to this marginalized community. The book will touch on alternative approaches to communication, non-conventional learning styles, and marginalized narratives challenging the mainstream autism discourse, among other topics. By emphasizing forbidden knowledge, “Forbidden Resonance” challenges societal norms and advocates to fully accept neurodiversity, open discourse, and empathy. It aims to expose the consequences of marginalizing autistic voices and ignite conversations about inclusivity and social justice. This project aligns with the XENO Prize’s mission to protect vulnerable artistic forms and challenge cultural bias. It amplifies the resilience and creativity of autistic individuals, reclaiming their narrative and celebrating their contributions to society while challenging the notion that knowledge is something to be feared and suppressed. Through “Forbidden Resonance,” readers will confront discomfort, engage with forbidden truths, and appreciate the richness of the silenced spectrum. This urgent call aims to dismantle barriers and foster a future that embraces an open society, cherishing the profound diversity of human experience.
Artist Bio
Nick Thornburg is a multidisciplinary artist and writer based in Wyoming, After earning Bachelor of Arts degrees in Cinema & Comparative Literature and Theatre Arts from The University of Iowa, Thornburg went on to produce work featured on the independent screen and stage, overseas at the Prague International Theater Design Quadrennial Exhibition, and at various institutions and exhibition spaces in the United States, including the Yellowstone Art Museum, the State Historical Museum of Iowa, the Wyoming State Capitol, and the White House Visitor Center. Thornburg is also the 2018 winner of the Spirit of Wyoming art competition in Jackson, a three-time recipient of Best in Show at The Nicolaysen Art Museum‘s annual art gala, and a recipient of numerous other awards. Thornburg’s work is also part of The Nicolaysen Art Museum’s permanent collection.
COREEN SIMPSON
Coreen Simpson (American, b. 1942, NYC) is a photographer and jewelry designer. She has been honored in both fields throughout her career. In 1978, as Assistant Curator of Photography at The Studio Museum in Harlem, she made dynamic portraits of fellow artists in her small office/studio. Making jewelry supported her art and in 1990 she created her signature collection ‘The Black Cameo® for women of color. It is the first American modern cameo pin honoring the strength, beauty and resiliency of the black woman. Her B-Boy series of hip-hop style landed her ‘impact visuals’ on New York’s Broadway stage for the l996 Tony Award-winning musical, ‘Bring in da Noise, Bring in da Funk’. Ms. Simpson’s images are represented in The National Gallery of Art, Wash. D.C., The Smithsonian Museum of African-American Culture, Wash. D.C., The Library of Congress, Wash. D.C., The Museum of Modern Art, NYC, The Museum-Over-Holland, Amsterdam, Netherlands, The International Center of Photograph (ICP), NYC, Le Musee de la Photographie a’ Charleroi, Belguim and the permanent collections of The Studio Museum in Harlem & The Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture, NYC. among other institutions. She is a fellow of LIGHTWORK (Syracuse University), NYSCA (New York State Council for the Arts), NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts) and Franklin Furnace’s (1983 commission) and the ‘2021 Humanities N.Y. grant “Her Eyes Only. Her documentary photo installation on the conceptual artist, David Hammons, was exhibited this year at the JAM exhibit at The Museum of Modern Art, NYC.
Ms. Simpson studied at F.I.T. and The New School, NYC.