04/30/2026
We’re thrilled to share that Art League Houston has named Jamal Cyrus the 2026 Texas Artist of the Year!
In recognition, ALH will present solo exhibitions of Cyrus and César Martínez, 2026 Lifetime Achievement awardee, on view September 18–December 20, 2026. Each exhibition will be accompanied by a publication. All honorees will be celebrated at the annual ALH gala on Friday, October 9, 2026
Many congratulations to Jamal and all the 2026 honorees!
Image:
Jamal Cyrus
Africanismus_12469, 2006
found padded vest, paperback books, cotton shirt
32 x 24 x 4 in (81.3 x 61 x 10.2 cm) approx
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Jamal Cyrus is a Houston-based artist whose multidisciplinary practice explores the intersections of Black American history, music, and cultural production. Working across sculpture, collage, assemblage, and performance, Cyrus creates layered works that draw from archival materials and sonic traditions to examine how history is shaped, remembered, and reimagined. He is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship (2023), the David C. Driskell Prize (2020), and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant (2019). His mid-career survey, The End of My Beginning, opened at the Blaffer Art Museum in 2021 and traveled to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Mississippi Museum of Art. His forthcoming solo exhibition, curated by Ryan N. Dennis, will open at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA) in June 2027.
His work has been featured in major national and international exhibitions, including most recently Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2025). His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Walker Art Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, among others.
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