Photography courtesy of CAM / Dusty Kessler
Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis
Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
Saj Issa, Basil Kincaid, and Ronald Young were recently named the winners of the 2024 Great Rivers Biennial Arts Award Program. This annual initiative between the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (CAM) and the Gateway Foundation recognizes and celebrates artistic talent in the St. Louis region. This year, the three winners were selected from a pool of 96 applicants. Awardees will receive $20,000 and will have an exhibit at CAM. Here’s a closer look at the three winners.
Saj Issa. Photo courtesy the artist.
Saj Issa’s upbringing between St. Louis and Palestine informs her work, which looks at themes of identity, displacement, and social issues. She specifically examines parallels between the East and West. Of winning the Great Rivers Biennial, Issa says, “It means a great deal for me to have this opportunity to exhibit at a museum I grew up visiting and learning from at the start of my art career. I'm truly honored to be included in the dialogue of contemporary art in an institutional setting, especially it being in my hometown.”
Issa looks forward to using this as an opportunity to push herself to experiment more in her practice. “I appreciate the light CAM shines on an artist's practice that is typically on the outskirts or corners of their studios as opposed to the forefront. I feel like an exhibition is necessary to really get an understanding of my practice rather than a single work.”
Basil Kincaid. Photo courtesy Basil Kincaid Studio.
Basil Kincaid was in high school when the Great Rivers Biennial first began, and he knew then that he wanted to one day win this preeminent award. “It’s a chance for me to reverberate the love that my St. Louis friends and family and wonderful strangers have poured into me throughout my time here–what the city has helped me blossom into,” he says. The win feels especially significant, as this was Kincaid’s third time applying. “ I applied in 2017, then again in 2019, and now to win in 2023 is a testament to discipline, perseverance, and a commitment to growth as an artist and person.”
Kincaid opened a studio in Ghana in 2020 and has been exploring new fabrics and techniques since then. “I’m looking forward to letting St. Louis pronounce itself a bit more in my work,” he says. “I always feel inspired by the city, and I love bouncing ideas with the artists and thinkers here. Seeing St. Louis through this fresh lens of discovery has me really inspired and ready to work in a different way.”
Ron Young. Photo courtesy of the artist.
For Ronald Young, the Great Rivers Biennial represents the pinnacle of artistic achievement in the St. Louis area. This is the third time he has applied. “I never got discouraged (much), I just stuck to my goal of creating work that is authentic to my studio practice of using the materials from my immediate environment,” he says. “I proved to myself that hard work and perseverance pay off.”
A retired art teacher with more than 33 years of experience and an MFA from the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Art at Washington University, Young incorporates objects he finds in his regular surroundings–aged doors, tools, chains, ropes, and bricks–into his work. His pieces celebrate the resourcefulness and resilience of African Americans. He plans to approach next year with an open mind to the existence of limitless possibilities and is especially looking forward to working with both Saj Issa and Basil Kincaid and the CAM curators.
The 2024 GRB exhibit will be on display at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis from September 6, 2024 to February 9, 2025.
