Four artists win 2026 MacArthur grants: Christine Sun Kim, Rodney McMillian, Vincent Valdez and Chip Thomas among 20 winners of the “genius grants”

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced on September 29, 2026 its class of 20 MacArthur Fellows — widely known as the “genius grants”. Each winner receives $800,000, unrestricted, paid in quarterly installments over five years, as Hyperallergic reports. Among the winners are four visual artists: Christine Sun Kim, Rodney McMillian, Vincent Valdez and Chip Thomas.

Christine Sun Kim, 46, based in Berlin, is the deaf artist who explores the political dimensions of communication through billboards, murals, performances and multimedia works. As a sound artist, she often translates her works between American Sign Language and American English — as in the video “Palm Reader” (2020), which animates the signs for authoritarian words such as “state” and “rule”. Widely known for the series “Degrees of Deaf Rage”, Kim was recently featured in a retrospective at the Whitney Museum and in 2020 performed the national anthem in sign language at the Super Bowl.

Rodney McMillian, 57, based in Los Angeles, works across painting, sculpture, video, performance and installation. According to the foundation’s official website, his art investigates how history, socio-economic conditions and public policy affect quality of life and can “perpetuate economic marginalization”, particularly for Black Americans in the U.S. South. His well-known works include the abstract painting “In This Land” (2019) and the installation “From Asterisks in Dockery” (2012), inspired by a chapel once on the Dockery plantation in Mississippi.

Vincent Valdez, 49, who divides his time between Houston and San Antonio, is a visual artist who depicts historical and contemporary scenes reflecting Latino experiences in the United States.

Chip Thomas, 69, from Flagstaff, Arizona, is a public artist who transforms neglected spaces — mainly in the Navajo Nation — into public artworks rooted in community history.

The MacArthur Fellowship is described by the foundation as a “no-strings-attached” award for those “who show exceptional creativity in their work and the promise of more in the future”. Candidates are nominated by outside parties and selected by an independent committee.

Since 1981, the foundation has awarded 1,195 MacArthur grants across disciplines including the visual arts, visual culture, literature, health policy and many other fields. This year’s class also includes choreographer Trajal Harrell, poet Layli Long Soldier, writer Maaza Mengiste, writer Bryan Washington, climate scientist Marika Holland, chemist Song Lin, physicist Vincenzo Vitelli, forensic anthropologist Kate Spradley and others — 20 names from science, the arts and public life.