Senga Nengudi, David Thomson receive Rauschenberg Centennial Prize

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation has announced the winners of its Rauschenberg Centennial Awards, each receiving an unrestricted grant of $100,000.

The Rauschenberg Centennial Prize is presented in four categories, and the winners are as follows: Senga Nengudi (Art Prize); Senga Nengudi (Art Prize); David Thomson for acting; Chandra McCormick and Keith Calhoun for photography; and Patricia Spears Jones for writing.

The prize was established to celebrate the centenary of the influential post-war artist’s birth in October 2025. Winners were selected from past participants and invitees to the foundation’s Florida Captiva residency program, which was established in 2012 and has hosted more than 500 artists.

Winners were evaluated comprehensively by a panel of external judges in each discipline, “taking into account artistic excellence, the depth and significance of each artist’s work, impact beyond their primary medium, community engagement, and education and mentorship,” according to a press release.

Nengudi is one of the most influential artists of her generation, with a five-decade career spanning sculpture, installation, performance, dance, film and photography. She is best known for her “RSVP” series, soft sculptures from the 1970s in which she filled pantyhose with sand and stretched them into various compositions. Several of her works are on permanent display at Dia Beacon in upstate New York, including her Water Composition. A traveling retrospective of her work was held in Munich, Sao Paulo, Denver and Philadelphia between 2019 and 2021, and she was awarded the 2023 Nasher Sculpture Prize.

“Avant-garde artist Senga Nengudi has been a compass for generations of artists concerned with bridging social, political and philosophical questions,” artist Nyeema Morgan said in a statement. “What it means to exist in one’s own body and the conditions that shape our engagement with each other and the world have been at the core of her nearly fifty-year career. She is committed to taking bold risks in her work, avoiding categorization and prioritizing a spirit of camaraderie through collaboration and teaching.”

Thomson’s practice emphasizes collaboration and extends to multiple disciplines, including music, dance, theater and performance. Thomson has been active since the 1980s and has collaborated on productions with Yvonne Rainer, Ralph Lemon, Matthew Barney, Lee Mingwei, Bill T Jones, Okwui Okpokwasili and Lucinda Childs, among others. He is a founding member of Bebe Miller & Company and has performed with the Trisha Brown Company.

“David Thomson was a distinguished agent in dance and performance who empowered performers and audiences, stages and archives,” Stuart Comer, chief curator of the Department of Media and Performance at the Museum of Modern Art, said in a statement. “He carries with him the full weight of New York’s extraordinary dance history because he performed at the crossroads of a unique, intergenerational network of artists whose work he brought to vivid life. … Thomson frequently demonstrates the urgency of building culture, sustaining community, and creating living archives.”

McCormick and Calhoun were a married couple whose photography spanned more than three decades, focusing primarily on their native Louisiana. Their works were selected for the 2015 Venice Biennale and the 2014 New Orleans Prospect Exhibition.

Photographer An-My Lê said in a statement that their “life’s work has documented not only daily life in Louisiana over the past thirty-five years, but also the criminal and environmental justice system, the enduring legacy of slavery, and the complexities of the African American experience in the American South. Their work reflects a sustained and deep passionate commitment and deserves serious recognition, critical engagement, and long-term preservation.”

Jones is a poet and educator and the author of several books of poetry, including beloved community (2023) and deadly weather (1995). She is co-editor of anthologies such as Ordinary Women: An Anthology of New York Women (1978) and Thoughts: A Poem for Aretha Franklin’s Inauguration Day Hat (2009). In 2015, she was one of 10 poets commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art to create a new work in response to Jacob Lawrence’s “The Immigrant Series.”

“This award honors Patricia Spears Jones’ extraordinary interdisciplinary achievements, including her forward-thinking poetry, ecological stewardship, and community-oriented work at all levels,” Katherine Taft, associate director of the Brick Center for the Arts in Los Angeles, said in a statement.

Courtney J. Martin, executive director of the Rauschenberg Foundation, said in a statement: “The foundation is honored to recognize the work of these individuals in the artist’s centennial year. Each of them has had an extraordinary impact in their respective fields and embodies Rauschenberg’s collaborative spirit, social consciousness and commitment to experimentation.”