The work of Susan Chen, Avram Finkelstein, Jared Owens, and James Howell exemplify how artists navigate the balance between art and activism. The panel explores how artists can maintain creative integrity and relevance while contributing to social change in a time of increasing polarization. Chen’s direct engagement with identity and societal issues highlights the potential for art to foster understanding actively. Finkelstein, through his work with Gran Fury and advocacy in the LGBTQ+ community, uses art to encourage dialogue without enforcing a singular perspective. Owens, with his use of symbolic abstraction and ritual, subtly provokes introspection, suggesting that personal transformation can be as powerful as overt activism. Howell’s work, rooted in emotional depth and personal narratives, brings forth a contemplative yet powerful call for empathy, bridging divides with a quiet yet profound impact. Together, their practices demonstrate that art can be a bridge for social change while also offering space for harmony, empathy, and thoughtful dialogue, thus promoting collective understanding.

Susan Chen
2025 Creative Capital Awardee

Susan Chen (American, b. 1992, Hong Kong) is an artist and oil painter in New York City whose work has centered on community portraiture. Since earning her MFA from Columbia University in 2020, she has collaborated with over a hundred individuals in the studio from diverse backgrounds. Deeply curious about her sitters’ experiences, her paintings explore themes of race, community, immigration, prejudice, identity, family, longing, love, and loss.

Chen is a 2022 Forbes Under 30 North America Honoree, 2022 Artsy Vanguard Artist, and 2020 Hopper Prize Winner. Chen presented her debut New York solo exhibition, On Longing, at Meredith Rosen Gallery in 2020, and her debut Los Angeles solo exhibition, I Am Not A Virus, at Night Gallery in 2021. Her recent solo shows at Rachel Uffner Gallery featured a collection of Purell bottles (2023) and large-scale oil paintings and ceramics highlighting women’s advocacy following changes to Roe v. Wade (2024). Recent group exhibitions include Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brandeis University Kniznick Gallery, The Aldrich Museum, Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, and Songwon Art Center in South Korea. In 2022, Chen was an Artist-in-Residence at Silver Art Projects, where she participated in their Social Justice & Activism Program. Chen’s work can be found in the Brooklyn Museum, Columbus Museum of Art, Museum of Chinese in America, Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, and the Yuz Museum Shanghai.

Chen’s painting Chinatown Block Watch (2022) is currently on view in the American Wing of the Brooklyn Museum, in the Museum’s 200th Anniversary Exhibition, Toward Joy: New Frameworks for American Art.

Avram Finkelstein
2024 Creative Capital Awardee

Avram Finkelstein received the Creative Capital Award in 2024. Finkelstein is an artist, writer, and a founding member of the Silence=Death and Gran Fury collectives. His work has shown at MoMA, the Whitney Museum, the New Museum, the Metropolitan Museum, David Zwirner, the Shed, the Museum of the City of New York, the Hirshhorn, Kunsthal KAdE, and the Migros Museum, and is in the permanent collections of MoMA, the Whitney, the New Museum, the Metropolitan, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Brooklyn Museum. He is featured in the artist oral history project at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, and his book for UC Press After Silence: A History of AIDS Through its Images was nominated for an International Center Of Photography 2018 Infinity Award in Critical Writing and Research. He has written for BOMB, frieze, Art21, and Foam, been interviewed by The New York Times, frieze, Artforum, NPR, Slate, and Interview, mentored younger queer artists in the Queer|Art|Mentorship program, and lectured about art, social practice, AIDS activism, LGBTQ cultural production, and the American Left at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and NYU.

Jared Owens
2025 Creative Capital Awardee

Jared Owens (b. 1968 Queens, NY) is a justice-impacted artist who works in painting, sculpture, and installation. Using carceral materials and references he brings attention to architectures of confinement, as well as the purposeful “shadowing” of humanity. Since 2021, Owens has a studio at Silver Art Project in the World Trade Center, where he is also the Artist Liaison. He was one of three finalists for the 2024 Frieze Impact Prize, a 2022-23 Art for Justice Fellow, and 2020 Right of Return Fellow. He is the curator of Anthem X in Miami in 2022 and had a residency in Mexico City at Naranjo 141 in 2023. Recently he was featured in Cultured Magazine (Abigail Glasgow: When Art’s Against the Carceral State) and the Voice of America “Connect” series. In the last three years exhibitions include, No Justice Without Love curated by Daisy Desrosiers at the Ford Foundation, NY and Gund Gallery, OH; Visions of Transcendence: Creating Space in East and West, curated by Emma Diffley at the Wende Museum in Los Angeles; and Public Matters, curated by Alison Glenn for The Belt in Detroit;111… and other stories at Malin Gallery, NY (Solo); Chosen Family, Martos Gallery, NY; SHAG Right of Return curated by Dana Gluck, Jesse Krimes, and Dr Nicole R. Fleetwood, Spring Hill Arts Gathering, New Preston, CT; Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, curated by Dr Nicole R. Fleetwood (2020-2021) at MoMA PS1, NY and traveling.

The James Howell Foundation

The James Howell Foundation, led by Director Laura Bardier, is committed to preserving and promoting the legacy of American artist James Howell (1935–2014). Since its founding, the Foundation has played a pivotal role in curating exhibitions, advancing scholarly research, and engaging with the public to ensure Howell’s contributions to contemporary art are celebrated and accessible to a broader audience.

Recent initiatives include the Circa Press publication of James Howell – Infinite Array, with an essay by Dr. Alistair Rider; the exhibitions Resolution and Independence at the Josef Albers Museum in Germany, curated by Dr. Heinz Liesbrock; and Twilight: 21 Works by James Howell at the New York Studio School, curated by Silvia Benedetti. The Foundation also anticipates the release of the award-winning documentary film Thoughts of Infinity, directed by Halina Dryscka. Looking ahead, the Foundation is preparing a major retrospective at the Parrish Museum for September 2025.

The Foundation’s philanthropic initiatives include support for the Delcy Morelos exhibition catalog at the Dia Art Foundation, Maya Lin’s Ghost Forest at the Madison Square Park Conservancy, and the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, The Milk of Dreams, curated by Cecilia Alemani, as well as support for the U.S. Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale featuring Jeffrey Gibson, reinforcing its mission to promote innovative artistic projects on a global scale.

Creative Capital

Creative Capital uplifts innovative artists with unrestricted project grants, professional development, and community-building services to foster thriving careers. Known as the “gold standard in artist support,” Creative Capital Awards are made via a national open call process. Over 25 years, Creative Capital has fundraised and awarded grants and services to 1,010 artists to create 830 innovative new works across the country in the visual arts, performing arts, film, technology, literature, multidisciplinary, and socially engaged forms.