The National Sculpture Society (NSS) awards the 2024 Augusta Savage Grant to Joey Quiñones. The Grant is for excellence in sculpture and is awarded to a talented emerging sculptor who self-identifies as Black or African American. The jury consisted of sculptors Sherwin Banfield and Branley Cadet, along with Tammi Lawson, Curator of the Art & Artifacts Division at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Cadet finds “Quiñones’ lusciously vibrant sculptural compositions to be thoroughly thought-provoking. To my eye, Quiñones is freely playing with the human form as a syntax to explore themes of power, class, race, gender, history, and identity, unbound by the more traditional ways to render the human form sculpturally. Quiñones weaves between traditional sculpting and body casts, while incorporating fabrics and found objects all in service to the fidelity of an impactful final form. The Augusta Savage Grant is a well-deserved acknowledgement of the work they have produced thus far, and hopefully a boost to continue their radiant creations.”

Banfield adds, Joey Quiñones wonderfully blends traditional sculpture with fabric, textiles and select mixed materials. Their unique visual language is rich in design, contrast and placement within and outside the realms of relief and three dimensional art. Aspects of their work may appear found but display a hands of craftsmanship and attention to detail that complement its placed and foundational figurative elements. As an educator and artist who’s work focuses on and brings attention to the intricacies of Afro-Latinx identity throughout the Black diaspora, Joey’s current and future contributions mirror the educational and creative ambitions of the great Augusta Savage, in which I find it fitting that they receive the 2024 NSS Augusta Savage Grant.”

Quiñones has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Iowa and spent seventeen years teaching English at Earlham College (Richmond, IN). They later studied studio art at Indiana University (Bloomington, IN), earning an MFA in 2019. Their career has been rewarding; receiving recognition from Ceramics Monthly, Manifest Gallery and from the James Renwick Alliance for Craft. Alfred University’s Cohen Gallery and DePauw University’s Peeler Art Center hosted solo shows of their work in 2022 and 2023. In 2023, Quiñones was named Artist-in-Residence and Head of the Fiber Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art (Bloomfield Hills, MI).

The Augusta Savage Grant is funded through a generous donation and consists of an unrestricted cash prize of $2500. It will be presented on Saturday, September 21st at The Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, IN. Please join the NSS for the Honors and Awards Dinner and for other events in Indy. Registration Information. Augusta Savage (1892-1962) is one of the most influential African American artists of the 1930s. The NSS celebrates the legacy of this renowned American sculptor and encourages eligible emerging artists to apply in the upcoming year.