The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has announced 16 finalists for its closely watched SECA Art Award for 2019. The awards are the region’s most prestigious recognition for emerging artists.

The finalists, all of whom work and live in the Bay Area, are Sadie Barnette, Craig Calderwood, Sofia Cordova, Brett Goodroad, Nicki Green, Kunlin He, Porpentine Charity Heartscape, Kenyatta AC Hinkle, Sahar Khoury, Dionne Lee, Marlon Mullen, Ramekon O’Arwisters, Clare Rojas, Davina Semo, Christine Wang and Karla Wozniak.

Three winners will be announced in March following a series of studio visits by SECA members and curators. An exhibition of work by the three winners is scheduled for November. It will be organized by Linde Lehtinen, SFMOMA’s assistant curator of photography, and Nancy Lim, assistant curator of painting and sculpture.

The Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art is an SFMOMA auxiliary group that has supported the program since 1967 (the group was founded several years earlier). Awards are generally made every two years.

by Charles Desmarais