Driskell Prize

David C. Driskell Prize Dinner

Save-The-Date: Friday, April 26, 2019
High Museum of Art
Black Tie

2018 David C. Driskell Prize Winner
The 2018 Driskell Prize recipient is artist Amy Sherald. A Georgia native now based in Baltimore, Sherald is acclaimed for her profoundly creative and distinctive portraits of African-American subjects. In 2017, she received the commission to paint former first lady Michelle Obama’s official portrait for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.
Read more about Amy Sherald

Honorary Chair
Billye Suber Aaron

Co-Chairs
Jerome Dobson
Brooke Jackson Edmond

Advisory Council
Spring Asher
Curley Dossman
Sally McDaniel
Wanda Rodwell
D. Jack Sawyer, Jr.
M. Alexis Scott

For more information and tickers, please email Rhonda Matheison or call 404-733-4403.

For media inquiries, please call Marci Davis at 404-733-4585.

• 2018 Driskell Prize Winner: Amy Sherald,

  

  2018 Driskell Prize Winner: Amy Sherald

  Artist Amy Sherald has been named the 2018 David C. Driskell Prize recipient.

• 2017 Driskell Prize Winner: Naima J. Keith,

  

  2017 Driskell Prize Winner: Naima J. Keith

  Naima J. Keith, the deputy director of exhibitions and programs at the California African American Museum (CAAM), has been named the 2017 David C. Driskell Prize recipient.

• 2016 Driskell Prize Winner: Mark Bradford,

  

  2016 Driskell Prize Winner: Mark Bradford

  Mark Bradford, known for his monumental, abstract collage works, has been named the 2016 David C. Driskell Prize recipient.

• 2015 Driskell Prize Winner: Kirsten Pai Buick,

  

  2015 Driskell Prize Winner: Kirsten Pai Buick

  Kirsten Pai Buick, an associate professor of art history at the University of New Mexico, has been named the 2015 David C. Driskell Prize recipient.

• 2014 Driskell Prize Winner: Lyle Ashton Harris,

  

  2014 Driskell Prize Winner: Lyle Ashton Harris

  Lyle Ashton Harris, who has cultivated a diverse artistic practice ranging from photographic media and collage to installation and performance, has been named the 2014 David C. Driskell Prize recipient.

• 2013 Driskell Prize Winner: Andrea Barnwell Brownlee, PhD,

  

  2013 Driskell Prize Winner: Andrea Barnwell Brownlee, PhD

  Andrea Barnwell Brownlee, PhD, widely recognized for her leadership, ambitious vision, and the significant exhibition agenda she established at Spelman College, has been named as the recipient of the 2013 David C. Driskell Prize.

• 2012 Driskell Prize Winner: Rashid Johnson,

  

  2012 Driskell Prize Winner: Rashid Johnson

  Rashid Johnson, an artist based in New York, has been named as the recipient of the 2012 David C. Driskell Prize.

• 2011 Driskell Prize Winner: Valerie Cassel Oliver,

  

  2011 Driskell Prize Winner: Valerie Cassel Oliver

  Valerie Cassel Oliver, senior curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, has been named as the recipient of the 2011 David C. Driskell Prize.

• 2010 Driskell Prize Winner: Renee Stout,

  

  2010 Driskell Prize Winner: Renee Stout

  Renee Stout, a Washington, D.C.-based artist who works in a variety of media from sculpture to printmaking, has been named as the recipient of the 2010 David C. Driskell Prize.

• 2009 Driskell Prize Winner: Krista A. Thompson,

  

  2009 Driskell Prize Winner: Krista A. Thompson

  The High Museum of Art has named scholar Krista A. Thompson, Assistant Professor of African Diaspora and African Art at Northwestern University and independent curator, as the 2009 recipient of the David C. Driskell Prize.

• 2008 Driskell Prize Winner: Xaviera Simmons,

  

  2008 Driskell Prize Winner: Xaviera Simmons

  Brooklyn-based artist Xaviera Simmons combines 21st-century media and traditional art forms, encompassing photography, performance, video and installation.

• 2007 Driskell Prize Winner: Franklin Sirmans,

  

  2007 Driskell Prize Winner: Franklin Sirmans

  Franklin Sirmans is the director of the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM).

David C. Driskell is a practicing artist and scholar whose work on the African Diaspora spans more than four decades. The High Museum of Art’s relationship with Driskell began in 2000, when the Museum presented the concurrent exhibitions “To Conserve a Legacy” and “Narratives of African American Art and Identity: The David C. Driskell Collection,” which examined African American art in the broad historical context of modern and contemporary art.

Born in 1931 in Eatonton, Georgia, Driskell is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard University in 1955 and his Master of Fine Arts degree from Catholic University in 1962. He also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine in 1953 and studied art history in The Hague, Netherlands, in 1964.