The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (CAM) and the Gateway Foundation present the Great Rivers Biennial 2024 (GRB) featuring new works by St. Louis-based artists Saj Issa, Basil Kincaid and Ronald Young. The Great Rivers Biennial Art Award is a collaborative initiative established in 2003 between CAM and the Gateway Foundation. Every two years, the program grants emerging and mid-career artists working in the greater St. Louis metropolitan region with a significant honorarium and a major exhibition opportunity.
This initiative, now in its 11th edition, has recognized the standout creative voices of 33 local artists and contributed to the larger cultural ecosystem supporting artists in our region. Great Rivers Biennial 2024: Saj Issa, Basil Kincaid, Ronald Young will be on view from September 6, 2024–February 9, 2025. The three award winners were unanimously chosen in summer 2023 by a distinguished panel of independent jurors: Rita Gonzalez, Terri and Michael Smooke Curator and Department Head of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Jamillah James, Manilow Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; and Caroline Kent, a Chicago-based artist and Assistant Professor of Painting at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University. The jurors made the selection after visiting the studios of ten semifinalist artists who were chosen from a pool of 96 applicants. The jurors will return to St. Louis to celebrate the opening of the exhibition and participate in a panel discussion with the awardees on September 7, 2024 at 11:00 am, which is free and open to the public.
The Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis is a proud supporter of CAM.
Great Rivers Biennial 2024 Exhibition | September 6, 2024 – February 9, 2025
Saj Issa is a Palestinian-American artist who draws on her experience living between St. Louis and Ramallah. Her multidisciplinary practice extends across painting, sculpture, ceramics, and video to consider the Palestinian landscape through environmental, historical, and contemporary lenses. Issa’s body of work reflects changing notions of belonging and a sense of home, while honoring Palestine’s culture and flora.
Basil Kincaid’s impressively-scaled patchwork quilts unite vibrant compositions with elaborate embroidery, appliqué, and beading. He incorporates fabrics gifted to him by friends and family with textiles sourced in St. Louis and Ghana—including handwoven Ashanti Kente. This exhibition also features Kincaid’s abstract works, which pay homage to undersung African American quilters, influential artists including Alma Thomas and Paul Klee, as well as Color Field painting.
Ronald Young celebrates the hard-won beauty of uninhabited sites throughout St. Louis. Through his work, Young elevates salvaged materials including weathered domestic hardware, nails, and disintegrating wooden molding into compelling, multilayered sculptures. He shows us that even in the midst of crisis—or perhaps because of it—it is possible to find moments of beauty and reckoning. Great Rivers Biennial 2024 is organized for the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis by Dean Daderko, Ferring Foundation Chief Curator, and Misa Jeffereis, Associate Curator, with support from Grace Early, Exhibitions Assistant.
Photo credit: Izaiah Johnson, featuring (from left to right) Basil Kincaid, Ronald Young, and Saj Issa.
Follow Us On Social Media