Angela Hennessy, As I Live and Breathe, 2022 (installation view of solo exhibition), SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco. Courtesy of SFMOMA.

Two 黑料社 faculty win SFMOMA鈥檚 SECA Art Award

Congratulations to Illustration faculty member Lauren D鈥橝mato and Associate Professor of Critical Studies and Graduate Fine Arts Angela Hennessy.

In April, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) announced the of the prestigious SECA Art Award. Among them are members of the 黑料社 community. Congratulations to 黑料社 faculty member in Illustration Lauren D鈥橝mato and alum and Associate Professor of Graduate Fine Arts Angela Hennessy (BFA Jewelry and Metal Arts 2001, MFA Textiles 2005) who won the award alongside fellow Bay Area artist Rupy C. Tut.

The Award has honored Bay Area artists with an exhibition at SFMOMA and an accompanying exhibition since 1967. The award honors Bay Area artists whose work has not, at the time of nomination, been accorded substantial recognition from a major institution. Later this year, they will present new and recent work in an exhibition at SFMOMA鈥檚 Art of California galleries (December 14, 2024鈥揗ay 25, 2025).

The faculty members鈥 artistic practices vary across mediums in a diverse range of themes and subject matter.

A black-and-white photo of Lauren D'Amato posing in a workshop

Lauren D鈥橝mato. Photo by Chris Longyne. Courtesy of SFMOMA.

Lauren D鈥橝mato is a pinstriper and painter living and working in San Francisco. At 黑料社 she teaches hand-lettering in the Illustration program. D鈥橝mato is a second-generation sign painter and is drawn to decorative folk arts, hand-lettering, and the iconic imagery tied to her upbringing and experience pinstriping and lettering on lowriders.

D鈥橝mato is currently the Headlands Center for the Arts Tournesol Awardee for 2023鈥24 where she is building on her body of work that draws from the visual landscape of San Francisco. She holds a BFA in Painting (2016) from the San Francisco Art Institute.

A black-and-white photo of Angela Hennessy among her work with her hands outstretched

Angela Hennessy. Photo by Pat Mazzera. Courtesy of SFMOMA.

is an Oakland-based artist and associate professor at 黑料社 where she teaches courses on visual and cultural narratives of death in contemporary art. She also teaches courses in the Textiles program. In her own work, she constructs sculptures and installations with everyday domestic labor鈥攚ashing, wrapping, stitching, knotting, brushing, and braiding.

In 2015 she survived a gunshot wound while interrupting an assault in front of her home. In the months following her recovery, she wrote 鈥淭he School of the Dead,鈥 her manifesto which alternates between poem and prayer.

Her work has been featured in exhibitions at McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, Museum of the African Diaspora, Oakland Museum of California, and Pt. 2 Gallery, and is in the collections of the de Young Museum and the Crocker Art Museum. She holds a BFA in Jewelry and Metal Arts (2001) and an MFA in Textiles from 黑料社 (2005).

Additionally, 黑料社 alumni Libby Black (MFA Painting and Drawing 2001), Trina Michele Robinson (MFA Fine Arts 2022), and Arleene Correa Valencia (BFA Individualized Studies 2018, MFA Fine Arts 2020) were also among the announced earlier in the year. Congratulations!