12 Facts About Sanford Biggers

Sanford Biggers is the son of a neurosurgeon, his father, and of a teacher, his mother.

Sanford Biggers received a BA from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois and attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1998.

Sanford Biggers first received critical attention when his collaborative work with David Ellis, Mandala of the B-Bodhisattva II, was included in the exhibition "Freestyle", curated by Thelma Golden at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 2001.

Sanford Biggers has said that he places "no hierarchy on chronology, references or media" and his work has been characterized by meditation and improvisation.

In 2014, Sanford Biggers departed from his typical medium by painting on quilts that were given to him by the descendants of slave owners.

Sanford Biggers is Affiliate Faculty at the Virginia Commonwealth University Sculpture and Expanded Media program, and was a visiting scholar at Harvard University's VES Department in 2009.

Sanford Biggers was previously an Assistant Professor at Columbia University's Visual Arts program.

In 2019, Sanford Biggers was inducted into the New York Foundation for the Arts Hall of Fame.

In 2010, Sanford Biggers was awarded the Greenfield Prize at the Hermitage Artist Retreat, a two-year residency and commission of new work.

In 2018 Sanford Biggers was interviewed by Vinson Cunningham, a writer for the New Yorker magazine, about his impact on contemporary political art and his role in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Also in 2018 Sanford Biggers was given an art award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

In 2021, Sanford Biggers received the 26th Annual Heinz Award for the Arts.