Pineapples, Coconuts, and More Art Awards

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Organizations including United States Artists and Creative Capital announced millions of dollars in grants this week. Plus: a baby rave!

Art Movements, published every Thursday afternoon, is a roundup of must-know news, appointments, awards, and other happenings in today’s chaotic art world.

Move Over, Golden Lion

If, like me, you’d rather be in Puerto Rico slathering mashed banana on your semi-nude body than braving the forthcoming cold front in New York City, just know you’re not alone. “TROPICALIZE ME!” (2025), pictured above, was performed by Matthieu Laurette at the 3rd Gran Bienal Tropical in December, where the artist took home one of five “Golden Coconuts” along with Poncili Creación, Ángela María Domínguez, Miguel González, and Aldo Álvarez Tostado. Three artists — Sofía Gallisá Muriente, Edgardo Larregui, and Karmadavis — secured the biennial’s highest prize: the “Golden Pineapple,” of course.

Fruit hierarchies aside, this was a big week for art prizes and distinctions. United States Artists (USA) announced the winners of its cushy $50K unrestricted prize, and Creative Capital revealed the recipients of its coveted unrestricted project funding grant as well as a new award, the State of the Art Prize, which grants $10K to 53 individual artists.

• Artadia gave its 2025 SEEN Award to Bay Area sculptor Michelle Yi Martin.
• David Batchelor, Will Boone, Deondre Davis, SoiL Thornton, Gillian Walsh, and Sarah Zapata will be the 2026 artists-in-residence at the Chinati Foundation.
• Pioneer Works in Brooklyn named its 26 2026 Visual Arts and Music Residents.
• The Joan Mitchell Foundation announced the 31 visual artists selected for residencies at its Center in New Orleans this year.
• Three independent artists’ book publishers — Cahiers Manufactoriel, Gato Negro Ediciones, and Khajistan Press — received the Printed Matter Publisher Work Grant, supported by the Wagner Foundation.

What Else Happened?

• Caroline Culp is the new curator of American Art at the Chrysler Museum of Art.
• The Fashion Institute of Technology welcomed Jason S. Schupbach as its seventh president.
• The Park Avenue Armory appointed Deborah Warner as artistic director.
• Mariah Keller was named executive director of Wrightwood 659 in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.
• Felix Art Fair published the exhibitor list for its upcoming eighth edition, taking place again at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles this February.
• … and it has some healthy competition, from yet another art fair launching in LA this season. ENZO will take over a 1920s warehouse in the Echo Park neighborhood with 10 emerging galleries from NYC’s Chinatown and the Lower East Side.

Wildcard

Electronic music is for babies! A rave for infants, parents, and caregivers at a San Francisco museum last month was so popular that the institution will host a second iteration. The Asian Art Museum’s Baby Rave, scheduled for Sunday, January 25, will feature music below 85 decibels to protect the gentle ears of our little ones, who are as yet unscarred by the sight of the bathroom floor at Berghain. The popular program is part of Rave Into the Future: Art in Motion, an exhibition that celebrates the joys of dance culture through works by artists of West Asian heritage.