Binh Danh of San José, California, is the first recipient of the William Collins Smith Auburn Award for Advancing American Art. The $25,000 annual award, presented by The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University, honors an American artist or scholar-practitioner who has significantly impacted the American art scene in the spirit of the university’s modernist collection strength, grounded in creativity, innovation and experimentation. Funded by a transformational gift from the Julia and Albert Smith Foundation, the award also honors the legacy of advisory board chair emeritus William Collins Smith, whose support significantly advanced his mother’s vision of a campus art museum that contributes to an exceptional student experience. The “Auburn Award” is a first-of-its-kind museum award in higher education.
The museum convened an independent panel of museum professionals from across the country, including Janet Dees, Assistant Director of Arts at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture; David Odo, director of the Georgia Museum of Art, The University of Georgia; and Isra El-Beshir, director of museums, Washington and Lee University. Each provided names of living visual artists whose work demonstrated individualism, creativity and inventiveness, freedom of expression, and experimentation, and those widely exhibited, collected and published. The jurors were also guided by the curatorial scope of the 1946 US State Department exhibition, Advancing American Art, which highlighted creativity, innovation and experimentation. The jurors unanimously agreed upon Danh’s nomination to museum leadership at Auburn.
Danh’s latest work documents U.S. landscapes, cityscapes, and historical moments, often with dual meanings, using 19th-century technology: daguerreotypes. These photographs are created by capturing light on a polished metal plate and developing it with chemicals and heat. His renderings of Yosemite National Park parallel nature’s glory and national pride along with the plight of Indigenous people and investigate ideas around naturalized or multicultural citizens’ sense of belonging.
Danh said the award funds will expand his work in this area and allow him to pursue new ones.
During his weeklong residency this fall, Danh met with students and faculty in the Department of Art and Art History for portfolio reviews, a lecture and social time. He also had the opportunity to meet with President Christopher B. Roberts and discuss the daguerreotype process as a form of 19th-century nanotechnology: metallic nanoparticles create images. The family of William Collins Smith, Bert Smith III and J’Anne Smith Rawson, presented the award alongside Cindi Malinick, executive director of The Jule and Guin Robinson ’86, chair of The Jule Advisory Board, at a dinner for alumni and friends of Auburn.
L to R: President Christopher B. Roberts and Binh Danh
L to R: Malinick, Danh, Smith, Smith Rawson and Robinson.
