The Hermitage Artist Retreat, an arts incubator based on Manasota Key in Englewood, has announced that the recipient of its 2026 Hermitage Greenfield Prize is visual artist Charisse Pearlina Weston.
The Hermitage Greenfield Prize is awarded annually, rotating between the fields of visual art, music, and theater. Weston will receive a six-week Hermitage Fellowship and a $35,000 commission to create new work that will premiere in Sarasota in 2028.
Weston’s recent exhibits include group and solo presentations at the Whitney Museum of American Art, MOMA PS1, SITE Santa Fe and the Queens Museum, among other venues. Weston was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2025.
Born in Houston and based in Harlem, Weston is a conceptual artist who works across sculpture, writing, installation and photography and often integrates glass into her work. Weston received a BA from the University of North Texas, a MSc in Modern Art from the University of Edinburgh’s College of Art and an MFA in Studio Art from the University of California-Irvine.
Weston was selected by a jury that included Ian Alteveer, Beal Family Chair of Contemporary Art at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Alison Gass, founding executive director of the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco; and Larry Ossei-Mensah, independent curator and co-founder of Artnoir, a nonprofit supporting artists, curators, cultural workers and emerging patrons.
“Amidst a remarkable field of four brilliant finalists, this insightful jury faced the difficult task of selecting a single recipient. Charisse Pearlina Weston emerged as a thoughtful and original artist who impressed the jury with her inspired and ambitious proposal,” says Hermitage Artistic Director Andy Sandberg. “Her innovative work with glass offers a unique lens into life and culture.”
The other three finalists for the 2026 Hermitage Greenfield Prize were Melissa Joseph, Lily Kwong and Patrick Martinez. All three will receive a Hermitage residency, in addition to a finalist prize of $1,000.
“I’m honored to receive the 2026 Hermitage Greenfield Prize,” said Weston in a statement. “Through multimedia installations, my commission will address the ongoing entanglement of past and present legal regimes and engage broad audiences in reflecting on how the past continues to shape contemporary life.”
For her Hermitage Greenfield Prize commission, Weston will create a new body of work examining so-called “zombie laws”—legal statutes that persist beyond their supposed expiration — and will draw on Zora Neale Hurston’s ethnographic writing on zombies in Haiti.
Weston will receive her award at the Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner on Sunday, April 12, at Michael’s On East. This year’s event co-chairs are Ellen and Richard Sandor. Tables and sponsorships can be reserved at HermitageArtistRetreat.org.
In addition to the Hermitage Greenfield Prize dinner on April 12, the celebration will include programs April 10-13 with current and past prize winners, including a debut from playwright and 2024 Hermitage Greenfield Prize recipient Deepa Purohit, presented in collaboration with Asolo Repertory Theatre.
A leading national arts incubator, Hermitage hosts artists on its Manasota Key campus for multi-week residencies, where they develop new works of theater, music, visual art, literature, dance, film and other fields.
As part of their residencies, Hermitage Fellows participate in free year-round community programs, offering local audiences a “sneak peek” into cutting-edge projects before they appear at galleries, concert halls, theaters and museums around the world.
