The National Sculpture Society (NSS) awards the 2023 Augusta Savage Grant to Sherwin Banfield. This is the inaugural year for the Grant, which is for excellence in sculpture and is awarded to a talented emerging sculptor who self-identifies as Black or African American. NSS Fellows Richard Blake (from PA), Amy Kann (from PA) and Basil Watson (from GA) served as the 2023 jurors.

The jury unanimously recognized the depths and merits of Banfield’s modeling skills and the unique artistic voice expressed in his public commissions. Watson shares his thoughts on Banfield’s selection.  He says, “I am honored to be one of the jurors for the NSS Augusta Savage Grant and pleased to present the award to the very talented and focused sculptor, Sherwin Banfield.

Sherwin demonstrates a dedication to the skills required to master figurative sculpture as well as a keen interest in contemporary design. His fusion of traditional figurative sculpture with more contemporary conceptual elements push boundaries and stretch traditions. His work exemplifies the vigor and energy of youth with the passion to explore, and promises the depth and wisdom of maturity as his voice is clearly evolving out of his lived experiences as a person of color.

I am pleased to see the Augusta Savage Grant earned by someone who shows the capability to continue her legacy as a Master Sculptor.”

Banfield is a Queens, NY based mixed-media artist. Recent projects, which he refers to as Sustainable Sonic Sculpture, combine lighting, sound and solar power with traditional sculpture. His public sculpture, ‘Going back to the Meadows,’ fused the identity of Queens Hip-Hop Legend LL Cool J with his musical legacy into a sonic monument. Banfield feels that his work “is a reflection of the shapes, lines, designs and proportions of the beauty within all things visual and tangible, distilled through my visual and textured filter, manifested in sculpture and the visual arts.”

Banfield holds a BFA with honors from Parsons School of Design and studied figurative sculpture at the Art Students League of New York with Barney Hodes. He is a recipient of the Downtown Brooklyn + Dumbo Art Fund Grant, the NYC Art in the Parks: Alliance for FMCP Grant, the Socrates Annual Emerging Artist Fellowship, the Fantasy Fund Fellowship at Modern Art Foundry and the Art Students League of New York’s Model to Monument Fellowship.  In 2023, Banfield is the AnkhLave Public Artist-In-Residence and so will be part of the “Branching Out: Trees as Community Hosts” Exhibition at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (June 17 – October 24, 2023).

The Augusta Savage Grant is funded through a generous donation and consists of an unrestricted cash prize of $2500. 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.