The Future Perfect has announced the launch of The Future Perfect Prize with its first recipient Anina Major. Created in celebration of TFP’s 20th anniversary, the Prize recognizes the unique vision and achievements of Major, and continues the gallery’s unparalleled work in supporting emerging talent and contemporary design.
Anina Major is an acclaimed visual artist from the Bahamas. A rising talent, her work combines forms of straw weaving indicative of her Bahamian culture, using the medium of clay to create intricate works that blur the boundaries between craft and art. Establishing a home outside of the place she was born and raised, Major’s ceramic pieces are inspired by her relationship between self and place.
The mission of The Future Perfect Prize is to identify and support excellence in the field of design. The Prize follows a multi-level selection process featuring a jury of design industry luminaries. Major was chosen for her unparalleled and unique work, which combines the mediums of ceramics and weaving.
As the recipient Major will receive $20,000 of unrestricted direct funding, along with ongoing professional development and mentorship to support her artistic practice. Additionally, Major will debut a new body of work with the gallery in 2025 to be showcased at their acclaimed New York City outpost.
The Prize is one of the few awards dedicated to design in the United States and one of the only offering unrestricted direct funding, marking a significant act of support to the field. This is a landmark initiative for the gallery in its mission to foster and celebrate contemporary design. With the Prize, The Future Perfect has the unique opportunity to continue its longstanding focal point of showcasing emerging talent, outside of the parameters of the traditional gallery.
Created to provide direct resources towards an emerging designer who brings a unique, diverse and disrupting force to their field. It aims to support both the winner’s studio practice and artistic growth through a monetary grant and professional mentorship. The selection process is conducted by a jury of five esteemed design world luminaries invited and joined by The Future Perfect’s Founder David Alhadeff and Managing Director Laura Young.
This edition’s jury members included:
Major holds an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design. She is the recipient of the Socrates Sculpture Park Fellowship, and has served as a mentor for the Saint Heron Ceramics Residency Program.
Her work has been exhibited in The Bahamas, across the United States, and in Europe, and is featured in permanent collections that include the National Gallery of The Bahamas; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Rhode Island School of Design Museum; and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Major was born and raised in The Bahamas and lives in New York City. This decision to establish a home contrary to the location in which she was born and raised sits at the heart of her practice where she investigates the relationship between self and place as a site of negotiation.
Referencing her heritage to Bahamian straw basket weaving, Major creates intricate ceramic pieces, from large scale installations to smaller vessels and sculptures. Her work confronts the history of the craft and how it’s undervalued, developing other ways in which the act or language of weaving can be meaningful.
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