Two-time Sacatar Fellow Pat Oleszko (2008, 2017) has won the Whitney Museum’s 2026 Bucksbaum Award. The award is given biennially to an American artist participating in the Whitney Biennial and deemed by the jurors to have the “potential to make a lasting impact on the history of American art”. The award is one of the most important in contemporary art, and includes a prize of $100,000, the largest of its kind for an individual artist.
In addition to the award, Pat Oleszko has also had a recent career retrospective — “Pat Oleszko: Fool Disclosure” at the SculptureCenter, in New York, which was on view between January and April of this year.
Photo credit: Mitch Loch
About her 2017 residency at Sacatar, Pat said: “Of course, I didn’t embark on the project I came [to Sacatar] with, how boring is that… No, the circumstances always upend the process (…) and I went with inspiration, perspiration, and presentation.” Also during that residency, Pat celebrated her 70th birthday by swimming two miles across the Baía de Todos os Santos, from Sacatar to Ilha do Medo!
Pat’s unmistakable inflatable sculptures are sharp with humor and subversiveness. Sacatar’s team is thrilled to see her work celebrated and recognized in this way!
Click the image above to watch Pat Oleszko’s “odds at sea ~ bahian odyssey,” a performance and film she created during her time at Sacatar.
See more of Pat Oleszko‘s work: https://www.patoleszko.com/
See more of Joseph Cavalieri‘s work: https://www.cavaglass.org/
