Congratulations to Stephanie J. Woods! Wood’s sculpture was acquired by the renowned Perry Art Collection. After spending the summer of 2025 at the prestigious Bemis Center for the Contemporary Arts international residency program, she created a sculpture so meaningful that Elliot Perry, a former NBA point guard, and his wife, Kimberly Perry, would later request to acquire the piece for their nationally recognized art collection.
The sculpture, Never Quite, Sweet Enough I, is a black porcelain, slip-cast, seeded watermelon with braided synthetic hair, designed to be suspended from the ceiling. It references the historical practice of enslaved West African people braiding seeds and grains, such as rice, okra, watermelon, and black-eyed peas, into their hair during the transatlantic slave trade. The sculpture is intentionally abstracted, so the viewer interprets it for themselves.
When being contacted about the sculpture by the Perrys, Wood stated the following: “When the Perrys reached out to me about acquiring the piece, I was really shocked. I hadn’t even documented it yet. I had only shared a short video clip on social media. To be included in their collection means my work will live on past me, as my legacy, it’s beyond what I could have imagined for it.”
Along with this, she has also been selected as one of the 34 prizewinners to showcase a piece in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery’s seventh triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. The artwork, My Papa Used to Play Checkers, depicted a figure with a watermelon braided into their hair. Woods says, “This piece was the beginning of me working with the watermelon motif in my practice.”
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
EXPLORE the work of Stephanie J. Woods on her website https://www.stephaniejwoods.com/
LEARN MORE at https://npg.si.edu/exhibition/outwin-2025-american-portraiture-today
READ MORE about Megan Borders’ UNM Newsroom review at https://news.unm.edu/news/unm-assistant-professors-sculpture-acquired-by-renowned-perry-art-collection
