The San Francisco Museum of Modern art has announced the names of 16 finalists for their 2024 SECA Art Award. For those unfamiliar with the Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art (a membership group within the museum), its biennial award process culminates in an SFMOMA exhibition for a handful of Bay Area artists who haven’t previously received “substantial recognition” from a major institution.
This is a fuzzy definition, since many of these names will be familiar to those who follow the Museum of the African Diaspora’s Emerging Artists Program, have visited Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ Bay Area Now 9 or, um, frequent any of the ICAs around the region. Quibbles aside, advancing to this stage of the awards cycle is a true accomplishment — a big congratulations to everyone listed below!
The 2024 SECA finalists:
Michael Arcega
Miguel Arzabe
Libby Black
Lauren D’Amato
Oliver Dicicco
Paz G.
Nimah Gobir
Jamil Hellu
Angela Hennessy
Rhonda Holberton
Camille Holvoet
Ahn Lee
Meryl Pataky
Trina Michelle Robinson
Rupy C. Tut
Arleene Correa Valencia
As usual, the assembled list of artists represent a range of generations, mediums and subject matter. This year’s finalists work in sound art, ceramics, photography, performance and installation — and neon! — to name just a few of the more categorizable practices.
SFMOMA curators Maria Castro and Shana Lopes will conduct studio visits with the artists in February and March and ultimately select a handful of locals (2022’s SECA show included five artists) for a December 2024 exhibition. The SECA show will run through May 2025, and will include a publication edited by the two curators.