On MTV USA the Masterchef of art: an artists' talent, whoever wins goes on display at the Hirshhorn

Sooner or later it had to happen: even art will have its own Masterchef. It’s happening for now in the United States of America, where a talent show is about to be aired in which seven emerging artists will challenge each other through a series of tests, judged by a panel of experts, to win the top prize: the winner, in fact, will have the opportunity to exhibit his or her work at theHirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, and will get a cash prize. The program is called The Exhibit: Finding the Next Great Artist and will be broadcast starting March 3 on MTV in the U.S. at 9 p.m. Then, starting March 7, it will also be broadcast by Smithsonian Channel.

The program features seven emerging American artists selected in consultation with Hirshhorn curators following a national search. The group consists of Jamaal Barber (Atlanta), Frank Buffalo Hyde (Northfield, Minnesota), Misha Kahn (Brooklyn, New York), Clare Kambhu (Queens, New York), Baseera Khan (Brooklyn), Jillian Mayer (Miami) and Jennifer Warren (Chicago): in the various installments they will have to make works inspired by social themes reflected in the works in the collection of modern and contemporary artists, including Laurie Anderson, Mark Bradford, the Guerrilla Girls, Barbara Kruger, Yayoi Kusama, Kent Monkman, Nam June Paik, Horace Pippin and Alma Thomas.

"The Exhibit: Finding the Next Great Artist exemplifies the Hirshhorn’s radical accessibility to modern and contemporary art," says Melissa Chiu, director of the museum. “The Hirshhorn is free for everyone, but many people cannot travel to Washington. The series will introduce the public, wherever they are, to artistic creation, highlighting the importance of artists in society and stimulating the Hirshhorn’s mission for art for all.”

As the chief judge, Chiu consulted with a rotating panel of art world experts to evaluate the originality and execution of the artists’ works and identify the most successful responses. The series, as mentioned, culminates with one artist receiving an invitation to exhibit an original work at the Hirshhorn and a cash prize provided by the television network. Judges included artists Adam Pendleton and Abigail DeVille, critic Kenny Schachter, sociologist Sarah Thornton, art educator Samuel Hoi, digital art strategist JiaJia Fei, and art collector and Hirshhorn trustee Keith Rivers. Instead, Dometi Pongo of MTV News will host the program.

The competing artists, all over the age of 30, have exhibited before. Jamaal Barber (Richmond, 1980) is an artist, printmaker and educator whose practice examines the ways in which social issues, culture and identity can overlap with Blackness. His work has been exhibited at Norfolk State University, Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, Young Harris College in Madiso, Georgia, and the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, Connecticut. He received a master’s degree in printmaking from Georgia State University in 2021. Frank Buffalo Hyde (Santa Fe, 1974) is an Onondaga/Niimíipuu artist whose paintings examine and elevate an image of contemporary indigenous life through a vibrant pop sensibility and an uncompromising satirical eye. His work has been exhibited in museums including the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe; the CM Russell Museum, Great Falls, Montana; and the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma. His work is in the public collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC; the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts; the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse; the Iroquois Museum, Cobleskill; the Longyear Museum at Colgate University, Hamilton; and the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe.

Misha Kahn (Duluth, 1989) is a New York-based artist and designer who works at the intersection of design and sculpture and is best known for creating whimsical and playful objects made through a variety of materials and a range of processes. He has exhibited at Villa Stuck in Munich (2022), the Dallas Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the ; Museum of Arts and Design in New York City, the Pizzuti Collection in Columbus, and the Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco. His work is in the collections of museums such as the Corning Museum of Glass in New York City, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the Speed Art Museum in Louisville. Baseera Khan (Denton, 1980) is a New York-based performance, sculpture and installation artist whose work explores materials and their economies and the effects of these relationships on labor, family structures, religion and spiritual well-being. He had a solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, 2021-22; he has since exhibited at institutions such as the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Sculpture Center in Queens, New York, and the Aspen Art Museum. Khan’s performance work has been premiered at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her works are in the public collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

An artist and art educator in New York City, Clare Kambhu (New York, 1988) creates paintings that focus on everyday, often overlooked objects, with a recent focus on how these objects might reveal the potential for humanity to break through the constraints of educational institutions. His work has been exhibited at the Bronx Museum in New York, the Katonah Museum of Art in Westchester, New York, Artspace in New Haven, Connecticut, and at the A-Museum of Quickroots in Governors Island, New York. Kambhu holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in studio art and a Master of Arts degree in art education from New York University and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale University School of Art. Jillian Mayer ’s (Miami, 1984) practice explores the intersection of technology and human existence, particularly how people’s participation in a digital landscape reshapes their physical experiences. His art has been shown in international exhibitions at institutions including the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, the Pérez Art Museum in Miami, MoMA PS1 in New York, Kunsthal in Aarhus, Denmark, and the Kunstmuseum Leipzig, Germany. His films have screened at the Sundance Film Festival, the Rotterdam Film Festival, the New York Film Festival and the South by Southwest Film Festival. His work is in the collections of the Pérez Art Museum and the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum in Miami, among others. Mayer holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Florida International University in Miami. Finally, Jennifer Warren (b. 1988; Cleveland, Ohio) is a Chicago-based painter whose work explores themes of nature, beauty and the black body. Largely self-taught, her practice reflects her passion for incorporating new ideas and techniques that aim to convey the lived black experience through intimate, meditative everyday moments. Warren’s work has been exhibited at the Martin Gallery in Chicago and the Sidney Larson Gallery in Columbia, Missouri.

Pictured: Melissa Chiu welcomes artists Clare Kambhu, Jamaal Barber, Jennifer Warren, Baseera Khan, Misha Kahn, and Frank Buffalo Hyde to the Hirshhorn’s collection room during the filming of The Exhibit: Finding the Next Great Artist. Photo: Shannon Finney

On MTV USA the Masterchef of art: an artists' talent, whoever wins goes on display at the Hirshhorn

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