Winner: María Magdalena Campos-Pons, for “Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons: Behold” at the Brooklyn Museum (September 15, 2023–January 14, 2024)

Honorable Mention: Judith F. Baca, for “Painting in the River of Angels: Judy Baca and the Great Wall” at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (October 26, 2023–July 21, 2024)

Judith F. Baca’s biggest work to date, both in size and ambition, is The Great Wall of Los Angeles (1974­–ongoing), a sprawling mural situated along the Tujunga Wash, a concerted area where the Los Angeles River once ran, that maps the history of both California and the United States, with women, queer people, and people of color put front and center. Overseen by the Social and Public Art Resource Center, which Baca cofounded in the 1970s, she worked with a team of at-risk youths over the course of several summers to paint the mural’s imageries which highlight historical events like the arrival of the Spanish from an Indigenous point of view and the arrival to LA of various immigrant groups to the deportation of Mexican Americans and the internment of Japanese Americans. It is located far beyond the walls of any institution.

Between 2023 and 2024, LACMA temporarily became something like a studio to Baca and her collaborators, who continued painting new portions of The Great Wall within the galleries for all to see. (The Mellon Foundation recently gave SPARC $5 million to extend The Great Wall’s imagery into the present and to converse the existing panels.) A painting of the 1961 Freedom Riders was produced here. The exhibition offered proof that Baca had helped create a crucial component of LA’s visual culture, even when mainstream institutions have been slow to offer support to achieve her artistic vision. This exhibition is one step forward in acknowledging her impact on art history.

Nominees: Charles Gaines, Joan Jonas, Kay WalkingStick