Established in 1978 as The Challenge and now known as the Wind Challenge, Fleisher’s annual juried competition is committed to featuring the work of exceptional artists living in the Philadelphia region. Since its inception, the series has supported the careers of hundreds of emerging artists and introduced their work to thousands of visitors. The Wind Challenge Exhibition Series is made possible thanks to generous support from the Wind Foundation.

Press Release: 2024 Wind Challenge Exhibition Series and 2025 Call for Entries

2024 Wind Challenge Exhibition Series
Juried by James Britt and Kathleen Eastwood-Riaño

About the 2024 Wind Challenge Series Jurors

James Britt is a visual artist and the Curator for Exhibitions & Programs at TILT Institute for the Contemporary Image.

Britt moved to Philadelphia in 2018 to become Director of Public Engagement at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, where he oversaw the institution’s public-facing initiatives, such as developing and implementing curatorial and interpretative programs, cultivating community partnerships, and strengthening student outreach.

He received a BA in Sociology and African American/African Studies from the University of Virginia, a MEd in Counseling Education from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a MFA in Art Theory and Practice from Northwestern University. His artwork has been exhibited at galleries around the country including Space 1026, the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, the Block Museum at Northwestern University, and Vox Populi, where Britt is a member.

 

Kathleen Eastwood-Riaño is a Philadelphia-based artist whose paintings, drawings and installations investigate intergenerational memory and relationships.

Eastwood-Riaño is the recipient of a 2022 Soaring Gardens Artist Residency and a 2021 grant from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation; she was also selected as a Wind Challenge artist in 2020. Her work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions nationally, and is part of numerous private collections. In 2022, Eastwood-Riaño was commissioned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Mural Arts to create a mural in response to their recent exhibition, Matisse in the 1930’s.

Eastwood-Riaño received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and a BFA from University of the Arts. Eastwood-Riaño has taught as an adjunct professor at Tyler School of Art and Architecture, University of the Arts, and Moore College of Art & Design. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design.

The 2025 Wind Challenge call for entries is now open!

We are excited to announce the call for entries for the 46th exhibition season of the Wind Challenge. Artists living within a 450-mile radius of Philadelphia are welcome to apply. The deadline to apply is April 29, 11:59PM ET.

For this series, nine selected artists will be featured in a trio of Wind Challenge Exhibitions—each featuring three artists—to be hosted at Fleisher in 2025. The jurors for this year’s competition are Colette Fu and Heidi Ratanavanich. The selected cohort of artists will work closely with the Director of Exhibitions in curating their work and exhibition-related programming.

Learn more about previous Wind Challenge artists, including Elizabeth Hamilton, Matthew Borgen, Kevin Huang, Jessica Curtaz, Yvonne Lung,  Melissa Joseph, Michael Konrad, and Natalie Kuenzi, in the YouTube series Fleisher from a Distance: Wind Challenge Edition.