The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation announced the recipients of its 2019 Biennial Grants this week. Among this year's recipients is alumnus Arcmanoro Niles (BFA '13).

The grants come with an unrestricted $20,000 for each recipient. Past recipients of the prize are a veritable who’s-who of influential contemporary artists. Since its launch in 1980, the biennial grants have doled out more than $9.5 million to 500 contemporary artists around the U.S.

The 2019 grantees are: Carmen Argote, Diedrick Brackens, Alejandro Cesarco, Liz Cohen, Sara Cwynar, Brendan Fernandes, Kahlil Robert Irving, Gelare Khoshgozaran, Fawn Krieger, Deana Lawson, Carolyn Lazard, Arcmanoro Niles, Alison O'Daniel, Tschabalala Self, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Sable Elyse Smith, Patrick Staff, Diamond Stingily, Stephanie Syjuco, and Cosmo Whyte. They were selected from a pool of 110 nominees by a seven-person panel that included Kerry James Marshall and Cindy Sherman, both of whom serve on the foundation’s board.

Arcmanoro Niles is an award-winning painter whose larger than life paintings are simultaneously representational and conceptual. Often using friends and family as his subjects, his work imbues complex, multifaceted narratives onto visually arresting compositions. He credits his time at PAFA with instilling the values and skills that continue to inform his artistic practice and daily life. His work is included in the collections of PAFA, the Hammer Museum, the Dallas Museum of Art, and more.