Paula Wilson Wins Washington University in St. Louis’s 2021 Stone & DeGuire Contemporary Art Award

Cartoonist Lauren Weinstein and multimedia artist Paula Wilson have won the 2021 Stone & DeGuire Contemporary Art Awards.

Presented by the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, the Stone & DeGuire awards are open to all alumni of the Sam Fox School’s Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts programs (with the exception of full-time Sam Fox School faculty). Recipients are chosen by a jury of faculty and alumni. Each winner receives $25,000 to advance their studio practice.

The Stone & DeGuire Contemporary Art Award is named for the artist duo Nancy Stone DeGuire (1947-2013) and Lawrence R. DeGuire Jr. (1947-2006). The pair met as Washington University undergraduates and, beginning in the early 1970s, exhibited widely along the West Coast.

Weinstein (BFA ’97) is an acclaimed cartoonist and graphic journalist, known for addressing universal human issues such as mortality, time and motherhood. The Stone & DeGuire Award will support the creation of a new graphic novel — “The Gift of Time” — inspired by ​Town Clock, CDC​, a New Jersey nonprofit that provides survivors of domestic abuse with affordable, permanent housing plus supportive services.

Wilson (BFA ’98) is known for extravagant paintings, prints, videos and installations that often depict interactions between monumental figures and highly detailed scenes of the natural environment, exploring issues of myth, race and sexuality. The Stone & DeGuire Award will support a new body of work centering on the sacred datura, a flowering plant with medicinal and hallucinogenic effects.

Read the full story and artist biographies on the Sam Fox School site.