Editor’s note: This press release was provided by the Pelham Art Center. The Pelham Examiner publishes press releases in the form received as a service to the community.
PELHAM, NY — Pelham Art Center is thrilled to announce ransome as the 13th Biennial Alexander Rutsch Award Winner. ransome was selected for the 2025 Alexander Rutsch Award from 560 total applicants nationwide. The exhibition will be on view from May 29 through July 13, 2025.
ransome’s artwork centers on his African American lineage, which is traced back to sharecroppers of the American South who migrated to Northern cities along the East Coast. His pictorial narratives are personal, yet the symbols he uses are universal and interplay with larger social, racial, ancestral, economic, and political histories that inform our nation to this day.
The nine 2025 Alexander Rutsch Award finalists include: Pia De Girolamo, Sherry Mayo, Jeffrey Morabito, Jing Quin, Matt Rosenbaum, Jodi Steifel, Jingqi Steinhiser, Sandra Taggart and Bradley Wood. These talented artists represent a wide range of original perspectives and approaches to their work.The judging panel for the 13th Biennial Rutsch Award was composed of Rutsch family members, Pelham Art Center staff and guest juror Erika Ranee.
The Rutsch family states: “We are both honored and excited to present the 13th annual Alexander Rutsch Award at the Pelham Art Center this year. This year’s finalists were a magnificent group of accomplished painters with an inspiring and diverse range of vision. We look forward to sharing the 2025 winner, ransome, whose deeply personal exploration of identity and heritage also addresses broader societal themes. We look forward to sharing this powerful work with the community. Our sincere thanks to guest juror Erika Ranee for her invaluable insight and contributions to the selection process.”
ransome states, “I am beyond honored to be this year’s recipient of the 13th Alexander Rutsch Award and Exhibition for Painting 2025. I share Rutsch’s interest in line, abstraction and his unwavering belief in painting. His enduring support for painters has helped to foster a thriving arts community of which I am privileged to now be a part of.”
An Opening Reception will take place on Thursday, May 29 from 6-8PM for ransome’s solo exhibition, So Fresh and So Clean: The New Negro.
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Pelham Art Center is a non-profit educational and cultural institution committed to providing public access to see, study and experience the arts, foster lifelong arts appreciation and thereby strengthen the community. The Art Center was founded in 1970 and now serves more than 16,000 people each year. These events and programs are made possible, in part, by ArtsWestchester with funds from Westchester County Government. Pelham Art Center also receives funding from: New York State Council on the Arts, A State Agency, and Pelham Community Members and Annual Fund Donors.
