GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A 104-pound painting of Lake Michigan dubbed “Dynamic Sunset” won the public vote grand prize at ArtPrize 2024, earning artist John Katerberg $125,000.

“This is surreal,” Katerberg told News 8 after his big win was announced Friday in downtown Grand Rapids. “I just can’t believe it.”

Painted in a mix of oil and acrylic on a sheet of brass and welded steel over the course of a year, “Dynamic Sunset” was displayed at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. Katerberg said ArtPrizegoers “have just been loving on” it.

“I painted a scene that’s very familiar to western Michigan. People fall in love with it right away. They love a sunset, they love the splashing waves. But the dynamic part about that piece is it’s an interactive piece. It almost looks three-dimensional. And the people who view it are doing the painting dance. They look at it, they dance around it,” he described.

Katerberg, who is from Jenison, said this was his 14th time participating in ArtPrize.

“I think this is the first time that I really earned it. I think I’ve great pieces in the past. I think I really earned it this time,” he said.

He said the huge cash prize will help him grow as an artist.

“I have some crazy art ideas. I think I’m going to do some things that are going to break the art world. I think this is going to light the fuse to my rocket,” he said.

Some 93,000 votes were cast over 14 days during this year’s ArtPrize, which included about 900 pieces across about 160 venues.

“It’s an amazing experience that happens here in Grand Rapids, and no where else in this world does this happen. No where else do we get to celebrate art in the way that we are doing right here, right now, tonight,” Catlin Whitington, the event’s executive director, said at the Closing Ceremony Friday evening.

In all, $390,000 in prizes were handed out, the largest single chunk of which was the public vote grand prize.

“The public vote is the great tradition of ArtPrize and it stretches back now 15 years. It’s one of the elements that sets this event apart from other art festivals and competitions out there. And they’re copying Grand Rapids all over the country. So far, no one achieved what we are doing here in Grand Rapids,” WGVU’s Dee Morrison, who emceed the Closing Ceremony, said.

JURIED AND CATEGORY WINNERS

Jurors chose their own grand prize winner to award $50,000. That went to the Trauma Project, a collection of 16 paintings from more than 20 artists from Grand Rapids displayed at 106 Gallery.

“This is very overwhelming,” collaborator Scoob the Artist told News 8 as he held the team’s trophy. “So many sacrifices went into bringing this together, uniting so many people. This is God. God guided me the whole way.”

Artist Ray Foy previously explained to News 8 that the exhibition takes viewers on a journey through trauma — from something dark into something beautiful. Scoob the Artist said it took about a year and a half to bring all the artists together.

“We merged art and music together. We got a collection of artwork that is permanently paired with music. And I just wanted to shine a light on the talents that’s hidden here in Grand Rapids, and to also show how powerful art and music is together,” he said.

The winners of six public vote and juried category awards got $10,000 each:

Category	Public	Juried
2D	Robert VanderZee: “The Prophets”	Jonathan Harris: “Remember who are you are.”
3D	Bruce Gorsline: Tut’s Tomb	H. Highwater: Old Stories
Installation	Shirin Abedinirad: Reflective Journey	Samuelle Green: marshmallow polypore variant
New media	Bruce Holwerda: Too Much Information	Stafford Smith: “Me So Calgon”
Time-based	Endlesswill: “My Poem Your Topic”	Endlesswill: “My Poem Your Topic”
+Design	Zak Doezema-Nunez: Ash desk with drawers	Common Object Studio: Understory

“I really want to say thank you,” Endlesswill, whose actual name is William Davis, told News 8. “I know that my ArtPrize opportunity has really been about patience. It takes a lot of time for folks to wait in my line and to allow me to write a poem for them.”

He also competed in ArtPrize in 2022, when he won the Contemporary Black Art Award.

ArtRat Gallery and En Vivo Church split the $10,000 juried outstanding venue award.

There were five juried visibility awards, each carrying a $15,000 prize:

• Pat ApPaul: “Sovereign”
• Ruth Crowe: “The Journal Project”
• Isabel Dowell: “What Does it Mean To Be Queer?”
• The ArtSchool Dropout (Keyon Lovett): 456: A Reflection on Fatherhood
• Chris Pappan: “Fragments of Anima 1 & 2”

The $10,000 Artist to Artist award, selected by ArtPrize artists, went to Andrés Bustamante for “Palabras De Esperanza. Words of Hope,” displayed at Pekich Park.

ArtPrize also included four community awards:

• GRAAAMF Awards: Oalliyah Hornes for Burning Bush and Dani for Core
• Asian Art Award: Tatsuki Hakoyama for “Feel the Need to Breathe on My Own”
• Artista Latino Award: Teresa Dunn for “A Long Line of Women”
• SmartArt: Nusra Juma for Earth Balance

ARTPRIZE ‘UPLIFTS’ ARTISTS

While the big cash prizes were what put ArtPrize on the map, event organizers say they are not its most important part.

“One of the greatest prizes to ArtPrize is the amount of eyeballs on your work, the amount of real Americans actually interacting with your pieces — which as artists, that’s what all we really want. More than a prize, more than even to sell our pieces, we want people to see what we have to say,” ArtPrize steering committee member Tyler Loftis, founder of AllArtWorks, said.

He said the key to ArtPrize’s success over the last 15 years is “very simply, the artists.”

“Uplifting their incredible work because the passion, the bravery it takes to do what they do is really special,” Loftis said.

The ArtPrize 2024 Closing Ceremony was held at Kendall College of Art and Design from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. The party featured food trucks, cash bar and a circus performance, plus another performance from David, the 35-foot, 200-pound puppet that scaled the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel to kick off this year’s art competition.

ArtPrize continues through Saturday, with additional activations and events on the schedule. Next year’s competition is scheduled to run Sept. 19 to Oct. 4.

“The ArtPrize mission is to transform the art world through this open, global art competition, but also through this cultural event that takes place every year in Grand Rapids,” Whitington, the executive director, said. “We are a platform, we are an opportunity, we are the vessel; come, be a part of this.”

—News 8’s Adriana Doria contributed to this report.