Congratulations to First Street Gallery member Nicole Santiago, recipient of the Bennett Prize Runner-Up Award.
The Bennett Prize, the largest art award offered to women working in the field of figurative painting, announced its winning artists on May 19, 2025 in an exhibition unveiled at the Muskegon Museum of Art, in western Michigan.
Nicole Santiago, of Williamsburg, Va., won $10,000 as the runner-up. The judges were impressed by the dense environments that make up her work — figures in dimly lit spaces crowded by things, like party decorations, dirty laundry, bottles and cans, and iPads and iPhones.
Dallas-based Amy Werntz — also a finalist for the second Bennett Prize in 2021— took home the top honor, joining previous winners Ayana Ross, Shiqing Deng, and Aneka Ingold. Her strikingly lifelike paintings depict elderly people, mostly women, in everyday scenarios: eating at a diner, shopping, sitting at a café, or bundled against the elements.
