The Big Show 2023 Juried by Dr. Kanitra Fletcher

June 2, 2023 – August 12, 2023 John M. O’Quinn & Cecily E. Horton Galleries
Images courtesy of Ronald L. Jones

About the Exhibition

The Big Show is an ambitious open-call juried competition of artists practicing within a 100-mile radius of Lawndale that reflects our commitment to supporting local and regional artists at various stages in their career. This year, juror Dr. Kanitra Fletcher selected 113 works by 112 artists from over 400 entries.

“It is an honor to be the juror of The Big Show 2023. The entries represented the extraordinary range and richness of creative expression in Houston, making my task as difficult as it was inspiring. Thank you to all of the artists and Lawndale for the opportunity to share this year’s presentation with the city!” – Dr. Fletcher

About the Juror

The juror for The Big Show 2023 is Dr. Kanitra Fletcher.

Raised in Houston, Dr. Fletcher worked at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston prior to her current role as Associate Curator of African American and Afro-Diasporic Art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. While in Houston, she oversaw the presentation of major traveling exhibitions such as Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power and Odyssey: Jack Whitten Sculpture and recently organized the U.S. tour of Afro-Atlantic Histories. Dr. Fletcher’s previous museum experience includes the Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Museum of Modern Art, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art. Since 2013, Dr. Fletcher has curated the video art program for Landmarks, the public art program of the University of Texas at Austin. She received a PhD in History of Art from Cornell University.

Awardees

A special thanks to our Presenting Sponsors of The Big Show:

John Bradshaw, Jr. • Sara and Bill Morgan • Scott Sparvero

For their support of our awards. This year the juror divided $5,000 equally between eight artists. The artists and works selected are:

Christopher Blay, Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me / Sunset Series (After Ruscha) #2; Brittani Broussard, Emergence!; Sherry Tseng Hill, Fragmentation and Repair; Narvell Neves, Young, Gifted and Black; Lay-Ing Oji, Into the Heart; Tommy Taylor, Our Soaps; Jean Shon, Wallpaper (1887 Frank Sr. and Flavilla Bell House); and Becki Van Compernolle, Hong Kong.

Kaima Akarue, Tyler Allen, Ammar Alobaidi, Kristen Anton, Shawn Artis, Miguel Avila, Melissa Aytenfisu, Curt Baldwin, Francesca Bayegan, Hannah Bender, Layla Bispo, Christoper Blay, Ashley Blazer, Lesley Bodzy, Gail Borden, Brittani Broussard, Valerie Burkes, Celia Butler, Glen Carpenter, Angel Castelán, Claire Chauvin, Angela Chen, Sheng Kuan Chung, Pete Coleman, Meg Cook, Crystal Coulter, Austin Cullen, Charlie Don’t, Fatima Donaldson, Kathy Drago, Nicole Durham, Abbie Edmonson, Karen Eisele, Marc Furi, Carol Gerhardt, Vanessa Godden, Michael Godoy, David Gray, Alvin Griffin, Morgan Grigsby, Peter Gynd, Sibylle Hagmann, Eric Hartley, Peter Healy, Guadalupe Hernandez, Sherry Tseng Hill, Michael Horvath, Tina Hsu, Taylor Hummel, Aisha Imdad, Cedric Ingram, Maggie Jensen, Heather L. Johnson, Jeanne Jones, Cynthia Kagay, Linda Simien Kelly, Charlie King, Cindee Travis Klement, Daniela Koontz, Maryam Lavaf, Tiffany Heng-Hui Lee, C.M. Lewis, Wyatt Little, Melody Locke, Kevin Lopez, Sarah Luna, Elias Lytton, Anne Mabry, Katia Machado, Gabriel Martinez, Deangelo McMahon, Matt Messinger, Austin Miller, Paige Moore, Shavon Morris, Deborah Morris, Zack Murray, Narvell Neves, Lay-Ing Oji, Carolina Otero, Anthony Pabillano, Bruce Park, Jin Park, Graciela Paz, Hugo Perez, Naomi Peterson, Caroline Philippone, André Ramos-Woodard, Trish Ramsay, Ellen Ray, Winifred Riser, Hilda Rueda, Radu Runcanu, Caroline Ryan, Wolfgang Schindler, Tina Schwartz, Jean Shon, Sajeela Siddiq, Luc Sokolowski, William Soller, Rose Stern, Mich Stevenson, Kamila Szczesna, Leili Tavallaei, Tommy Taylor, Patricia Taylor, Becki van Compernolle, Nina Wang, Syalisa Winata, Carolina Yanez, Bibi Zambrano, and Peso Zapata

Support

Presenting Sponsors
John Bradshaw, Jr. • Sara and Bill Morgan • Scott Sparvero

Sponsors
Mara and Erick Calderon • Jereann Chaney • Alexa Clements • Piper and Adam Faust • Mary Catherine and Bailey Jones • Ryan and Emily LeVasseur • Meghan Miller and Jeff Marin • Adrienne Moeller • Teresa Porter • Aaron Reimer • Stephanie Roman • Joey and Nicole Romano • Jessica and Blake Seff

Patrons
Anne Lamkin Kinder • Jeryn and Walter Mayer • H. Russell Pitman

Friends
Katharine Barthelme • Harry Bowles • Wayne Gilbert • Kerry Inman • Sheryl Kolasinski • Calia Pettigrew

Additionally, The Big Show 2023’s media sponsor is Glasstire

To learn more about supporting The Big Show, please email [email protected].