Arts and Letters

The Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts is an annual event for members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters to honor contemporary artists who they believe are making some of today’s most important and timely work.

The Invitational is an exhibition without a theme or a single author, yet certain tendencies emerge in this year’s installment. In many cases, the finished works destabilize, even disregard, old disciplinary questions rooted in hierarchy—is it a painting or a sculpture; art or craft? Instead, they opt for plenitude, for and, and, and. Objects in the exhibition extend the art historical archive to include artifacts of incarceration, migration, and climate emergency. They heighten our attention to color and scale. Artists employ a range of techniques (marbling, weaving, glazing, animation, found-object manipulation, collage, dark room processing, and more) often in “wrong” or unconventional ways. We witness art’s capacity for surprise and experience the enduring pleasure of material experimentation.

Exhibiting artists were nominated by members of Arts and letters and selected by a committee of visual artist members. Works in the exhibition are eligible for merit awards and purchase prizes, two important ways in which the Academy upholds its mission to foster and sustain interest in American art. Since the purchase program began, the Academy has placed over 1,400 works of art in museums across the United States.

Exhibiting artists

Candida Alvarez, Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio, Andrea Belag, Ellen Berkenblit, Garrett Bradley, Kerstin Brätsch, Cynthia Daignault, Carl D’Alvia, Thomas Eggerer, Hadi Fallahpisheh, Keltie Ferris, Judy Fox, Joanne Greenbaum, Rachel Harrison, Tishan Hsu, Jacqueline Humphries, Suzanne Jackson, Tomashi Jackson, Elisabeth Kley, Pam Lins, Rodney McMillian, Laura Newman, Janice Nowinski, Eileen Quinlan, Matt Saunders, Anna Sew Hoy, Arlene Shechet, Arthur Simms, Michael Smith, Shinique Smith, Martine Syms, Kennedy Yanko