MTV and Smithsonian Channel™ today announced the premiere of The Exhibit: Finding The Next Great Artist, a first-of-its-kind docu-competition series in which seven diverse artists compete for a $100,000 cash prize and a once-in-a-lifetime, career-defining exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC. Each rising artist is tasked to create a museum exhibit based on the Hirshhorn’s mission to feature art that “responds to history in real-time.” This series is produced in partnership with Smithsonian Channel™ and the Hirshhorn.
Hosted by MTV News’ Dometi Pongo, The Exhibit: Finding The Next Great Artist will feature Melissa Chiu, Director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden as lead judge along with respected art-world insiders Abigail DeVille, JiaJia Fei, Samuel Hoi, Adam Pendleton, Keith Rivers, Kenny Schachter, and Sarah Thornton, as guest judges. The six-episode series features weekly competitions centered around the hot-button issues of our time, leading to a grand finale at the Hirshhorn Ball, the museum’s annual gala, where the winning artist will be chosen.
The Exhibit: Finding The Next Great Artist premieres Friday, March 3 @ 9PM ET/PT on MTV and will air on Smithsonian Channel™ on Tuesday, March 7 @ 9PM ET/PT and every week thereafter. Beginning on Friday, March 10 the series will move to its regular time slot @ 10PM ET/PT on MTV. See MTV’s upcoming Friday night programming schedule below:
· Friday, 3/3 @ 8PM-9PM ET/PT – RuPaul’s Drag Race
· Friday, 3/3 @ 9PM-10PM ET/PT- The Exhibit: Finding The Next Great Artist
· Friday, 3/3 @ 10PM ET/PT – RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked
· Fri, 3/10 @ 8PM-9:30PM ET/PT – RuPaul’s Drag Race (90 mins)
· Fri, 3/10 @ 9:30PM-10PM ET/PT – RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked
· Fri, 3/10 @ 10PM ET/PT – The Exhibit: Finding The Next Great Artist
Be sure to follow this inspiring art docu-competition series on MTV Instagram, Smithsonian Channel Instagram, and Tik Tok. Join the conversation using #TheExhibit.
Todd Radnitz, Nadim Amiry, Rachel Watson-Pass, and Tim Evans serve as executive producers for MTV Entertainment Studios. Patty Ivins Specht and Lisa Fletcher are executive producers for PB&J TV + Docs, with Azon Juan and Mikell Ivey serving as co-executive producers.
Meet the host and lead judge:
· Dometi Pongo is host of multiple MTV News franchises including its flagship program, “Need to Know,” which provides award-winning analysis of trending news stories.
· Melissa Chiu is director of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the national museum of modern and contemporary art in Washington D.C. She is a world-renowned expert on modern and contemporary art, with a PhD in art history. She has worked with some of the world’s best-known artists to curate or commission groundbreaking exhibitions of their work.
Meet the artists:
· Jamaal Barber | Atlanta, GA
An artist, printmaker, and educator whose mixed media practice examines the ways in which social issues, culture, and identity can overlap with Blackness. Barber is currently a visiting lecturer at the Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design in Atlanta, GA.
· Frank Buffalo Hyde | Minneapolis, MN
An Onondaga/Niimíipuu (Nez Perce) artist whose paintings examine and elevate an image of contemporary Indigenous life through a vibrant pop-sensibility and uncompromising satirical eye. Hyde lives and works in Northfield, MN.
· Baseera Khan | Brooklyn, NY
A New York-based performance, sculpture, and installation artist whose work explores materials and their economies, and the effects of these relationships upon labor, family structures, religion, and spiritual well-being.
· Misha Kahn | New York, NY
A New York-based artist and designer who works at the intersection of design and sculpture and is best known for creating whimsical and playful objects made through a variety of materials and array of processes.
· Clare Kambhu | Queens, NY
An artist and arts educator in New York City that creates paintings that draw attention to everyday, often overlooked objects, with a recent focus on how these items might reveal the potential for humanity to break the constraints of educational institutions.
· Jillian Mayer | Miami, FL
Working across video, sculpture, photography, performance, web-based experiences, and installation, Mayer is a Miami-based artist whose practice explores the intersection of technology and human existence, particularly how our participation in a digital landscape reshapes our physical experiences.
· Jennifer Warren | Chicago, IL
A Chicago-based oil painter whose work explores themes around nature, beauty, and the Black body. Largely self-taught, Warren’s practice reflects her passion for incorporating new ideas and techniques that aim to convey the lived Black experience through everyday intimate and meditative moments.
