After whittling down nearly 4,000 submissions following an open call for local artists, the Brooklyn Museum has announced the 216 participants selected for The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition, opening October 4. A complete list of artists is included at the end of this article.
The museum began fielding artwork submissions in February, referencing its history of supporting and platforming artists in the borough for the last several decades in anticipation of its 200th anniversary. The show will sweep across 15,000 square feet of the museum’s Great Hall, seeking to highlight Brooklyn creativity and diversity by featuring artists who work in every medium imaginable.
Participant Qualeasha Wood, an emerging textile artist, told Hyperallergic that showing her work at the Brooklyn Museum felt special because her family is from the borough, which she doesn’t often get to address in her work.
“The first American ancestor on my dad’s side was born in Brooklyn in 1873, so my family has a very long and storied history in Brooklyn as a space where they put down roots,” Wood said. “It’s where my dad spent a lot of his childhood, and where I spent a lot of time as a kid.”
Wood created a new work for the exhibition titled “Brooklyn Baby,” referencing a Lana Del Rey song of the same name. “All the images of me in the work are from my studio and apartment in Brooklyn, with some background details from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which is where I had my first real date with my fiancé, and even the Winthrop Street stop on the 2 train,” Wood said.
While championing locals, the Brooklyn Museum has also been at the center of controversy in recent years. Throughout 2023, the institution faced criticism for drawn-out negotiations with its unionized employees who threatened to strike. More recently, pro-Palestine protesters have staged frequent actions on its property amid Israel’s ongoing decimation of Gaza following Hamas’s October 7 attack, criticizing the museum board’s ties to military investments. This year, the museum decried the “police brutality” that took place at a May 31 protest, where local activism groups such as the Palestinian-led collective Within Our Lifetime were shoved, tackled, and physically thrown out by the museum’s external security units and the NYPD.
The forthcoming show is in the tradition of similar open-call exhibitions, such as the De Young Open at San Francisco’s de Young Museum. For The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition, an organizing committee made up of artists Jeffrey Gibson, Vik Muniz, Mickalene Thomas, and Fred Tomaselli was in charge of reviewing applicants, inviting others to participate, and curating the show. The exhibition was also coordinated by Brooklyn Museum Deputy Director of Art Sharon Matt Atkins, Senior Exhibitions Project Manager Lauren Bierly, and Special Exhibition Administrator Jennie Tang.
A complete alphabetized list of selected artists appears below.
Evelyn Adams
Destinie Adélakun
Seongmin Ahn
Scott Albrecht
Danielle Alhassid
Jonathan Allen
Kadine Anckle
Kate Bae
Felipe Baeza
Michael Ballou
Yevgeniya Baras
Sarah Bedford
Hannah Beerman
Aisha Tandiwe Bell
Jane Benson
Damien Olsen Berdichevsky
Magda Biernat
Samantha Bittman
Lucas Blalock
Sebastiaan Bremer
Johanna Burke
Stephen Burks
Kimberly Bush
Paul Campbell
Mary Carlson
Jazmine Catasús
Geoffrey Chadsey
Henry Hung Chang
Ruby Chishti
Jasmine Clarke
Jennifer Coates
Wendy Cohen
Karen Cunningham
Jennifer Dalton
Lisa Corinne Davis
Isis Davis-Marks
E. V. Day
Leah DeVun
Lisa di Donato
Nicole Eisenman
Rodney Ewing
Sean Fader
Mohammed Iman Fayaz
Keltie Ferris
Alanna Fields
Jane Fine
Leo Fine
Laurena Finéus
Avram Finkelstein
Tatiana Florival
Amaryllis R. Flowers
France François
Ronen Gamil
Teri Gandy-Richardson
Chitra Ganesh
Scherezade García
Prajwal Godse
Anthony Goicolea
Shosh Goller
Tamara Gonzales
Isamar Gonzalez
Garry Grant
Stanley Greenberg
Katya Grokhovsky
Nancy Grossman
Haoua Habré
George Hagen
Richard Haining
Susan Hamburger
Ilana Harris-Babou
Heather Hart
Elana Herzog
Eric Hibit
Honorroller
Jackie Hoving
Sumin Hwang
James Hyde
Sarra Hussein Idris
Michelle Im
Madjeen Isaac
Yoko Iwanaga
Katherine Jackson
Swati Jain
Lutfi Janania
Gaël Jean-Louis
Ruichao Jiang
Khari Johnson-Ricks
Bo Joseph
Melissa Joseph
Yaz Josiah
Brad Kahlhamer
Sophia Karwowski
Nina Katchadourian
Nathan Kensinger
Jon Kessler
Jarrett Key
Kyung Tae Kim
Yongjae Kim
Matthew Kirk
Sonomi Kobayashi
Tamara Kostianovsky
Fay Ku
Alison Kuo
Gabrielle Lansner
Athena LaTocha
An-My Lê
Emilie Lemakis
Sujin Lim
Emily Loughlin
Lisa Ludwig
Sylvia Maier
Emily Manwaring
Guadalupe Maravilla
Karen Margolis
Chris Martin
Rachel Martin
Mario Martinez
Ingrid Mathurin
Esperanza Mayobre
Josiah McElheny
Frederick Mershimer
Sam Messer
Caleb Miller
Steven Montgomery
Jaye Moon
T. Dylan Moore
Livia Mourão
Donna Moylan
Cheryl Mukherji
Loren Munk
Timothy Paul Myers
Mayumi Nakao
Rita Nannini
Martha Naranjo Sandoval
Narcissister
Susan Newmark
Danielle Noel
Dynasty Ogun
Soull Ogun
Clayton Okaly
Ozodi Onyeabor
Allison Michael Orenstein
Laura Ortman
Yaw Owusu
Tinuade Oyelowo
Christian Padron and Samora Pinderhughes
Norm Paris
Quiana Parks
Cate Pasquarelli
Rhesa Paul
Lindsay Perryman
Jamaal Peterman
Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya
Naudline Pierre
Lin Qiqing
Colin Radcliffe
Erika Ranee
Robert Raphael
Mark Reigelman
Naomi Reis
Resurrect Studio LLC
Vernando Reuben
Erin M. Riley
Pema Rinzin
Ilisa Katz Rissman
Matthew Ritchie
Leslie Roberts
Alex Dolores Salerno
Gwyneth Scally
Hiba Schahbaz
Rick Secen
Michelle Segre
Lauren Seiden
Jonathan Seliger
David Shaw
Bobby Silverman
Kuldeep Singh
Tuesday Smillie
Jane South
Susan Špiranović
Sharon Sprung
Monica Srivastava
Josh Sucher
Takura Suzuki
Assane Sy
Catherine Tafur
Hidemi Takagi
Alison Elizabeth Taylor
Leo Tecosky
Dannielle Tegeder
Mary Temple
Darryl DeAngelo Terrell
Jade Thacker
Zac Thompson
Jim Torok
A. R. Tran
Janaina Tschäpe
Juan Pablo Uribe
William Villalongo
Sophia Wallace
Cyle Warner
Kit Warren
Chris Weller
Michelle Wen
Tabitha Whitley
Tracie Dawn Williams
Oliver Wilson
Qualeasha Wood
Kenny Wu
Akiko Yamamoto
Jason Bard Yarmosky
Betty Yu
Halley Zien
Brenda Zlamany
Balint Zsako
