VIA Art Fund

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06/13/2026

VIA Art Fund is thrilled to celebrate our recent Artistic Production Grant Awardees, starting with Diana Al-Hadid’s (Diana Al-Hadid) monumental Corinthian column, “Self-Evident.” Opening in Richmond in 2028, the work will rise from the rooftop of at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University (ICA at VCU) (Institute for Contemporary Art) and channel history into the future.

Al-Hadid’s larger-than-life classical column will be cracked, fragmented, and dispersed through the ICA at VCU’s Steven Holl-designed Markel Center, a modernist shell of glass and zinc. Al-Hadid will reimagine the ancient form as a vessel for femininity, presenting a ruin without nostalgia and a monument still in the process of becoming. “Self-Evident” is part of “Broad Signals,” a public art commissioning series at the ICA at VCU that invites artists to respond and transform its architecture and surrounding landscape into a site that is alive and experimental.

🖼️: Diana Al-Hadid, “Self-Evident,” artist sketch, 2026. Courtesy the artist and ICA at VCU.

06/11/2026

VIA Art Fund is thrilled to announce our recent cycle of grant recipients in Artistic Production:

1. Diana Al-Hadid (Diana Al-Hadid): “Self-Evident” presented by ICA at VCU (Institute for Contemporary Art), Richmond, VA ($95,000 Production | Exhibition grant)

2. Jordan Ann Craig (Jordan): “Sharpe Tongue” presented by Memphis Art Museum (Memphis Brooks Museum of Art), Memphis, TN ($75,000 Production | Exhibition grant)

3. Lavar Munroe (Lavar Munroe): “However Long the Night, the Dawn Will Break,” The Bahamas Pavilion (The Bahamas in Venice Committee), 61st Venice Bienniale, Venice, Italy ($95,000 Artist-Direct Production | Exhibition grant)

4. Ronald Rael: “LIMINAL” presented by the Harwood Museum of Art (Harwood Museum), Taos, NM ($50,000 Production | Exhibition grant)

5. Kiyan Williams (Kiyan Williams): “Entanglements,” Boston, MA ($75,000 Artist-Direct Production | Exhibition grant)

VIA’s Artistic Production Grants are awarded twice annually to individual artists, nonprofit organizations, and institutions to support new commissions that take place outside museum or gallery walls, within the public realm, or in non-traditional exhibition environments. These grants are awarded to projects that best exemplify our three core values of Artistic Production, Thought Leadership, and Public Engagement.

We look forward to introducing and sharing more information on each of our Grantees and their projects in the coming days and weeks!

06/02/2026

2025 VIA Grantee Precious Okoyomon () currently has work on view in both the exhibition “New Humans: Memories of the Future” at the recently reopened New Museum and the 2026 Whitney Biennial.

At the New Museum (), Okoyomon’s work “When the Lambs Rise Up Against the Bird of Prey” features a swaying animatronic figure with an ever-moving gaze. “Everything wants to kill you and you should be afraid,” Okoyomon’s installation in the Whitney Biennial (), features more than 50 hybridized creatures crafted from taxidermied wings and salvaged stuffed animals suspended from the ceiling’s rafters.

Okoyomon’s work considers the natural world, histories of migration and racialization, and the pure pleasures of everyday life, with much of their work exploring violence and healing. We look forward to sharing additional details of the artist’s VIA-supported Courtyard Commission at MoMA PS1 (), opening later this summer!

📸: Precious Okoyomon, When the Lambs Rise Up Against the Bird of Prey, 2024. Photo Dario Lasagni / Courtesy New Museum / Collection Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo

Precious Okoyomon with their installation Everything wants to kill you and you should be afraid (2026), now on view in the Whitney Biennial. Photo Christopher Garcia Valle for ArtNews.

05/26/2026

Congratulations to 2021 VIA Curatorial Fellow Wassan Al-Khudhairi () for being appointed Artistic Director for the 2027 edition of Art Basel Qatar! Art Basel Qatar () returns to Msheireb Downtown Doha from January 28–30, 2027, with Preview Days on January 26–27, exploring the curatorial theme between / بين — exploring the “between” as a space for encounter, exchange, and possibility.

📸: Jim Lafferty ()

05/21/2026

“Seven Magic Mountains” by artist Ugo Rondinone () turns 10! Presented by Art Production Fund () and the Nevada Museum of Art (), this VIA-supported commission is installed along a stretch of Interstate 15 just south of Las Vegas and builds upon the art historical tradition of Earthwork projects in the area, while expanding possibilities for Land Art in the twenty-first century. Rondinone’s artificial man-made stone forms offer a contemporary critique of the simulacra of destinations such as Las Vegas, while inviting meditation on collective desire and our notions of the real.

📸: Gianfranco Gorgoni (), courtesy of Art Production Fund

05/20/2026

REMINDER: VIA Art Fund is accepting LOIs for our Fall 2026 Artistic Production Grants! Tomorrow, May 21 is the deadline to submit a Letter of Inquiry.

VIA Artistic Production grants are awarded to artists, nonprofit organizations, and institutions to support new artistic commissions outside museum or gallery walls, within the public realm, or in non-traditional exhibition environments. Individual artists or producing organizations seeking funding must have a confirmed exhibition venue or presenting partner. Artistic Production funding ranges from $25,000 to $100,000 per project. Artistic Production Grants are awarded to projects that best exemplify our core values of Artistic Production, Thought Leadership, and Public Engagement. To find out more, please visit the link in our bio to review our LOI Guidelines, take the eligibility quiz, and submit!

05/18/2026

Last week, VIA Partners were treated to a special day during Frieze Week in New York City! We began with a visit to the Gochman Family Collection (), where we were treated to a tour by new Director Laura Phipps () and Curator Moonoka Begay () and saw work on view by multiple VIA Grantees. Following the curatorial tour, Partners walked to lunch nearby with VIA Grantee Kara Walker () to toast to her VIA-Supported commission, “Unmanned Drone,” that was recently on view in Los Angeles as a part of the MONUMENTS exhibition at and acquired by in February!

05/11/2026

VIA Art Fund is thrilled to celebrate the opening of The Bahamas Pavillon () as part of the 61st edition of the Venice Biennale, featuring the work of Lavar Munroe (.munroe.studio), a recent VIA Artistic Production Grant Awardee.

“In Another Man’s Yard,” on view through November 2026, features the VIA-supported project “However Long the Night, the Dawn Will Break,” 2026, a site-specific installation by Lavar Munroe made using salvaged Junkanoo costumes, used Bahamian newspapers and mixed media, and items from the studio of the late artist John Beadle. The project has already garnered praise from The Art Newspaper, ARTnews, The New York Times, and Artsy, which ranked The Bahamas Pavilion among the top 10 national pavilions of this year’s Venice Biennale. Congratulations, Lavar! VIA is delighted to support this important work!

🖼️: Dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist, the Estate of John Beadle and The Bahamas Pavilion, Photo Larkin Durey.

04/29/2026

Congratulations to 2020 VIA Grantee Tuan Andrew Nguyen (.andrew.nguyen)! “The Light That Shines Through The Universe” was just unveiled as the fifth High Line () Plinth commission on view through Fall 2027 over the intersection of 10th Avenue and 30th Streets.

Paying poignant homage to the 6th-century Bamiyan Buddhas of central Afghanistan, Nguyen reimagines one of the pair of ancient, colossal statues that were tragically destroyed by the Taliban in an act of iconoclasm 25 years ago. A monument to cultural loss and enduring spirit, this work takes its name from the larger of the two, which the locals had nicknamed Salsal, meaning “the light shines through the universe.” Carved in Vietnam, the work is not an exact replica of Salsal, but rather an echo, intended to invoke the memory of these lost cultural treasures.

Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s artistic practice is rooted in memory, history, and the enduring impact of conflict and violence, particularly in his native Vietnam. In his sculptures and videos, Nguyen presents marginalized or forgotten narratives, giving voice to those whose experiences have been overlooked. Lacuna, or empty space, is a profound throughline—whether it be empty spaces left in the landscape, in bodies, in memories, or in a culture, due to the destruction that comes from war, colonization, and environmental catastrophe. The resulting work serves as a platform for dialogue and potential repair, examining the spiritual, cultural, and physical residue left by war.

04/27/2026

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s () VIA-supported Commission “Undercurrents” is now open!

This immersive and interactive installation commissioned by Buffalo Bayou Partnership () transforms the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern () into an echoing chamber of sound, illumination, and memory, revealing how communication travels across time, space, and human relationships.

On view until January 24, 2027, “Undercurrents” invites visitors to speak, listen, and reflect as voices are carried through a glowing network of light, creating a living, ever-changing environment shaped by those who enter.
Original works by Houston poets Nick Flynn, Aris Kian, and Martha Serpas also shape the work, their language forming a resonant soundscape that moves in sync with pulses of light across a mile-long network of LED lines. As words echo through the space, these readings create a reflective, immersive experience rooted in rhythm, memory, and voice.

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