Photo by: Jeff McLane
Carl Cheng, Early Warning System, 1967-2024. Fabricated plastic, electronics, projector mechanism, wheat, wooden base, and radio. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Purchase, by exchange, through a git of Michael D. Abrams. Courtesy of: the artist and Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Photo by: Jeff McLane
Carl Cheng, Erosion Machine No. 4, 1969-2020. Plexiglass, metal racks and fittings, plastic, water pump, LED lights, black light, pebbles, 4 erosion rocks, and wood base. Courtesy of: the artist and Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA)
Fund: $45,000
ICA LA supports art that sparks the pleasure of discovery and challenges the way we see and experience the world. In fall 2026, the museum will present the touring exhibition Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses, the first in-depth survey of the six-decade career of a pioneering Los Angeles artist whose genre-defying work explores the increasingly timely subjects of environmental change and the role of technology in society. Honoring Cheng’s decades-long exploration of water as both sculptural and conceptual material, and inspired by works from his earlier Black Lake series, the ICA LA presentation will feature a newly commissioned "water work” that engages with ideas of perception, erosion, and survival—all of which are central to the artist's practice.
Awardees
