WHEN:
The 2024 SECA Art Award exhibition will be presented in SFMOMA’s Art of California galleries on Floor 2 from December 14, 2024–May 26, 2025. The exhibition comprises new work made by 2024 SECA Art Award recipients Rose D’Amato, Angela Hennessy and Rupy C. Tut, who will each have a gallery dedicated to their work.
CURATORS:
The 2024 SECA Art Award exhibition at SFMOMA is curated by Maria Castro, associate curator of painting and sculpture, and Shana Lopes, assistant curator of photography.
HOW:
SFMOMA will offer free admission for all to visit the 2024 SECA Art Award exhibition, with no ticket required.
PUBLICATION:
The exhibition is accompanied by a publication edited by Maria Castro and Shana Lopes that includes texts on the three 2024 SECA Art Award winners, and contributions by DL Alvarez, Naz Cuguoğlu and Jacqueline Francis.
ABOUT SECA:
Since 1967, the SECA (Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art) Art Award has honored Bay Area artists with an exhibition at SFMOMA and an accompanying publication. The award honors Bay Area artists whose work has not, at the time of nomination, been accorded substantial recognition from a major institution. Recipients of the SECA Art Award are chosen by SFMOMA curators after a series of studio visits attended by SECA members.
ABOUT THE 2024 SECA ART AWARD RECIPIENTS:
Rose D’Amato (b. 1991, Whittier, California) is a pinstriper and painter who lives and works in San Francisco. As a second-generation sign maker, she is drawn to decorative folk arts, hand lettering, and the iconic imagery tied to her upbringing and direct experience pinstriping and lettering on lowriders. She is motivated by her intention to learn and implement techniques of handmade modes of production and, by doing so, to explore her artistic lineage. She earned a BFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2016. D’Amato later apprenticed and worked at New Bohemia Signs, and she continues to work independently as a painter. She has been an adjunct professor of hand lettering at California College of the Arts since 2019, and she was the 2023–24 recipient of the Headlands Center for the Arts Tournesol Award. Recent projects include exhibitions at Gallery 16 and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.
Angela Hennessy (b. 1971, Monterey, California) is an Oakland-based artist who constructs sculptures and installations through the gestures of domestic labor—washing, wrapping, stitching, knotting, brushing and braiding. Hennessy holds an MFA from California College of the Arts, where she teaches courses on contemporary narratives of death. She is a survivor of gun violence and has also served as a hospice volunteer and death doula. Hennessy is on the advisory board of Seattle-based Recompose. Her work has been part of exhibitions at the McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, the Museum of the African Diaspora, the Oakland Museum of California and pt.2 Gallery, and is in the collections of the de Young Museum and the Crocker Art Museum. Her audio guides, meditations and poems have been featured at SFMOMA, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and SOMArts. Hennessy has received awards from San Francisco Artadia, the Svane Family Foundation, the Joan Mitchell Foundation and the Fleishhacker Foundation.
Rupy C. Tut (b. 1985, Chandigarh, India) preserves and reimagines the tradition of Indian painting through her depictions of women, landscapes and ancestral figures. Her process is grounded in the labor of making, from grinding and mixing mineral pigments to applying layers of colors to hemp paper or linen canvas using fine-tip brushes. Tut studied calligraphy and traditional Indian painting at the Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts in London in 2016. She previously received a BS from UCLA and an MPH from Loma Linda University. She has had solo exhibitions at the ICA San Francisco, Jessica Silverman Gallery, Triton Museum of Art and Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives. Tut’s work is in the permanent collection of the Crocker Art Museum, the de Young Museum, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the Eiteljorg Museum. She lives and works in Oakland.
SUPPORT:
Major support for the 2024 SECA Art Award is provided by Charles and Ivette Esserman. Significant support is provided by Maria Manetti Shrem and Jan Shrem, and Carlie Wilmans. Meaningful support is provided by Ethan Beard and Wayee Chu, and Roselyne Chroman Swig. Additional support is provided by Joachim and Nancy Hellman Bechtle, and the James C. Hormel and Michael P. Nguyen Endowment Fund.
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Images:
Rupy C. Tut, The Dreamweaver, 2024; courtesy the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco; photo: Phillip Maisel
Rose D’Amato; photo: Samantha Tyler Cooper
Angela Hennessy; photo: Airyka Rockefeller
Rupy C. Tut; photo: Samantha Tyler Cooper