Sarah Sze Takes Home ICA Boston’s First Award for Women Artists

Sarah Sze b. 1969, United States Follow +

American artist Sarah Sze said it’s a ‘huge honour’ to win the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston’s inaugural Meraki Artist Award for women contemporary artists.

Conceived to reflect the museum’s commitment to exhibiting and collecting work by women, the 100,000 USD annual prize is funded by collector Fotene Demoulas, who pledged her support for the next ten years.

The Greek-American patron said she is humbled to collaborate with the ICA to highlight the ‘passion and presence’ women visual artists bring to their practice.

Sze’s work ‘inspires [people] to see the world in new ways’, Demoulas said.

Sze, meanwhile, said she is inspired by ‘the dedication to love, care, and art’ the award stands for. (Meraki in Greek refers to acting with love.)

ICA Boston director Jill Medvedow said Sze’s work showcases an ‘open spirit’ and ‘artistic expansiveness’ that aligns with the award’s generosity.

Sze, who is mainly known for work in sculpture, video, and installation that investigates themes of information, technology, entropy, and time, represented the United States at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013.

Speaking to Ocula in 2020, the artist described her interest in the nature of digital media: ‘What the digital does in many ways, ultimately, is it creates a kind of longing.’

Sze’s work was featured in the 1999 Carnegie International and the 2000 Whitney Biennial. In 2023, an exhibition of her work opened at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Her first solo show in Asia is set to open at Gagosian Hong Kong next week. —[O]

Main image: Sarah Sze (2021). Courtesy ICA Boston. Photo: Deborah Feingold.