Staff Reports | Community Updates
Phoenix Art Museum has announced the recipients of its 2026 Arizona Artist Awards, recognizing four artists working in photography, multimedia, installation, sculpture and interdisciplinary practices.
Alanna Airitam was selected for the 2026 Scult Family Artist Award, while Memo Gutierrez and Nika Kaiser were named recipients of the 2026 Sally and Richard Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards. Liza Stout received the 2026 Sette/Cohn Artist Award, according to a press release.
As part of the awards program, each artist receives a lifetime membership to Phoenix Art Museum and financial support for their artistic practice. Airitam, Gutierrez and Kaiser will also present exhibitions at the museum. Airitam’s exhibition is scheduled to open in January 2027, while Gutierrez and Kaiser will exhibit together in summer 2027.
“We are thrilled to announce this year’s recipients of the Scult, Lehmann, and Sette/Cohn Artist Awards in recognition of their meaningful contributions to Arizona’s vibrant arts and culture landscape,” Jeremy Mikolajczak, Sybil Harrington director and CEO of Phoenix Art Museum, said. “Each of these artists has developed a dynamic and thoughtful practice shaped by their lived experiences, communities and unique perspectives on identity, connection and the broader human condition. We are honored to support their work as part of our ongoing commitment to elevating the voices of Arizona-based artists and are deeply grateful to the Scult, Lehmann and Cohn families, Lisa Sette, and Artlink for their generosity and partnership in making these efforts possible.”
Scult Family Artist Award
The Scult Family Artist Award recognizes a midcareer Arizona artist whose work demonstrates artistic achievement and sustained career development. The award includes a $20,000 grant and a solo exhibition at Phoenix Art Museum.
The 2026 recipient, Alanna Airitam, is a Tucson-based photographic artist whose work explores Black lived experience through photography, installation, archival research and material experimentation. A self-taught artist, Airitam has exhibited nationally and internationally and has work in the collections of institutions including Phoenix Art Museum, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Center for Creative Photography and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards
The Sally and Richard Lehmann Emerging Artist Awards support emerging Arizona artists through a competitive application process administered by Artlink. Each recipient receives $10,000 and the opportunity to participate in a museum exhibition.
The museum selected Memo Gutierrez and Nika Kaiser as the 2026 award recipients.
Gutierrez, who is based in Phoenix, is a multimedia artist whose work incorporates sound, electronics and sculpture. His work has been shown nationally and internationally and is included in the permanent collections of the El Paso Museum of Art and the Rubin Center for Visual Arts.
Kaiser is a multidisciplinary artist working in video, sound, photography and installation. Based in Tucson, her practice explores themes including ecology, deep time and interspecies relationships. She also teaches experimental practices in the Department of Film and Television at the University of Arizona.
Sette/Cohn Artist Award
Established in 2024, the Sette/Cohn Artist Award provides a $5,000 grant to an emerging Arizona artist selected from the Lehmann Emerging Artist Award applicant pool.
The 2026 recipient is Liza Stout, whose work examines the relationship between the body, labor and caregiving through sculpture, performance and object-making. Stout earned an MFA from Arizona State University and a BFA from Pratt Institute and was a 2026 Windgate Fellow at the Museum for Art in Wood in Philadelphia.
“I offer my heartfelt congratulations to Alanna, Memo, Nika, and Liza on being named this year’s Arizona Artist Awards recipients,” Christian Ramírez, Cohn assistant curator of contemporary art and director of engagement at Phoenix Art Museum, said.
“Each of these artists has developed a distinctive and multifaceted practice, and their work is a powerful reflection of the talent, creativity and strength of Arizona’s arts community. I look forward to working with Alanna, Memo, and Nika as we begin planning their exhibitions and finding meaningful ways to engage our community with their evocative work and unique perspectives. I am equally excited to see how Liza takes advantage of this award opportunity to continue growing and evolving as an artist.”
