The National Sculpture Society awards the 2024 Stanley Bleifeld Memorial Grant to Benjamin Phillips. The Grant is awarded to a sculptor with outstanding ability who has created a body of work inspired by nature which includes works of sculpture in bas-relief and in the round.

NSS Board Member Amy Kann (from PA), and NSS past presidents, Michel Langlais (from FL) and Dan Ostermiller (from CO) served as this year’s jurors. In describing their selection, Kann explains that “Phillip’s body of work has a mature and fully realized sense of who he is as an artist. His confidence in his vision is inspiring.”

Phillips was raised in rural Nova Scotia, and graduated from Acadia University (BA), the University of Victoria (BFA) and Arizona State University (MFA). He feels that his artworks “represent multifaceted subjects, exploring uncertainty and fragility to evoke compassion, curiosity, and reflection.” His goal “is to merge Classical form with timeless human experiences, such as memory, empathy, and change, and to create a lasting resonance with the viewer.” Phillips is a two-time winner of the international Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation artist grant for representational art. He has had artist residencies at Yaddo (Saratoga Springs, NY), Vermont Studio Center (Johnston, VT) and the Ottawa School of Art (Ottawa, ON). In 2022, he had a solo exhibition at the Udinotti Museum of Figurative Art (Paradise Valley, AZ).

Phillips is the sixth recipient of the grant named for sculptor Stanley Bleifeld (1924-2011). Bleifeld served as NSS president from 1991-1994 and received Member Emeritus status in 2010. The $5,000 grant was made possible through a generous donation from his widow, Naomi Bleifeld, and will be awarded annually in perpetuity.