The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS Bard) has given its 2026 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence to Los Angeles–based curator Hamza Walker. He will receive $25,000 and will be honored at CCS Bard’s spring gala in April.
Walker has been the executive director of the Brick (formerly LAXART) since 2016. During his tenure, he has mounted exhibitions for artists like Elizabeth Paige Smith, Gregg Bordowitz, and Postcommodity.
He is also a cocurator of the acclaimed “Monuments” exhibition, which he organized with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. The exhibition, on view through next May, looks at artists’ responses to the felling and decommissioning of Confederate monuments over the past decade; it also includes several vandalized monuments. The centerpiece of the Brick’s portion of the show is Kara Walker’s Unmanned Drone (2023), which ARTnews named as the defining artwork of 2025.
In addition to leading the space’s curatorial vision, Walker has also been instrumental in leading the closely watched LA arts nonprofit into its next chapter. He secured a $1 million donation from collectors Jarl and Pamela Mohn to help finance its move to a new space in Hollywood that opened in June 2024 and its rebranding as the Brick.
Prior to the Brick, Walker was associate curator and director of education at the Renaissance Society in Chicago, where he mounted exhibitions for Kerry James Marshall, William Pope.L, Danh Vo, Gaylen Gerber, and Mai-Thu Perret.
The Audrey Irmas Award has been given annually since 1998 and honors “outstanding curatorial achievements of individuals bringing innovative thinking, bold vision, and dedicated service to the field of exhibition-making,” according to a press release. Past winners include Adriano Pedrosa, Connie Butler, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, and Thelma Golden.
In a statement, CCS Bard executive director Tom Eccles said, “Hamza’s three decades of curatorial practice have brought forward voices and perspectives that challenge dominant narratives, create dialogue, and have left a lasting imprint on the field. CCS Bard is thrilled to present this award to a curator whose practice reflects a shared mission of harnessing art to engage critically with the world around us.”
