The Gift of Time

For the past two years, a selection of Ayana Ross’ work has been touring the country in an exhibition of works by the 10 finalists of the 2021 Bennett Prize, an award granted every two years to the most promising woman artist working in contemporary realism today

- AYANA ROSS

Ross, who won the $50,000 prize, has spent the last two years creating a body of work that will be the centerpiece of the exhibition of the 2023 finalists, the winner of which will be announced May 18 at the opening reception at Michigan’s Muskegon Museum of Art.

Ross’ paintings contain volumes. They address complex issues of race, humanity, connection and the passing down of knowledge through the generations, but her work can also be appreciated simply for their aesthetic beauty and the tender moments of everyday life they often depict.

Ross followed her dream of becoming a fashion designer to New York City where she worked in the industry for a year. Witnessing the 9/11 attacks affected her deeply, and ultimately, she returned home to Georgia and eventually moved to North Carolina. It was there, in 2005, while teaching elementary school, that she took her first intensive oil painting class.

“Art had never left me. I was always doing it. But like many artists, early on we dabble in a number of things. I continued to dabble in oils until it became more than a dabble—until it became the thing I wanted to spend the rest of my life getting better at,” she says.

It was a subtle progression that really gained momentum when she returned to Georgia in 2013, a newly divorced, single mother of four, to be closer to family.

“Painting became something I had to do, needed to do, to save my mind and spirit,” says Ross, who worked as an art teacher and held several side jobs. “The paintings took over one room at a time; the dining room, the living room.” Then people started asking about her work.