Ayana Ross Named 2026 Duncanson Artist-in-Residence

The Taft Museum of Art has selected visual artist Ayana Ross as the 2026 Duncanson Artist-in-Residence. The award-winning residency is known for its competitive application and review process. 

The 40th anniversary celebrates the program’s long-standing cultural significance, elevating the profile of contemporary artists across a variety of disciplines. Ross’s residency will include an exhibition of her work at the Taft Museum of Art as well as engagement with the community, leading public programs, teaching workshops and visiting schools across Greater Cincinnati in spring 2026. 

“For four decades, the Duncanson Program has honored the enduring legacy of Robert S. Duncanson by uplifting artists whose work challenges, inspires and transforms. As we celebrate this milestone, we reflect on the artists who have shaped our cultural landscape and look ahead with pride and purpose to the next generation of creative visionaries,” said Kareem Simpson, Taft Museum of Art Duncanson Program manager.

Ross is a visual artist whose work combines traditional oil painting methods, using figurative realism, with the elaborate treatment of patterns and decorative design as a visual language to evoke nostalgia, elevate her subjects and provide greater context into her work. Often autobiographical in nature, her paintings employ layered narratives from past and present to examine social issues, such as identity, race, equity and a general assessment of value systems, while aiming to illuminate the greater lessons that can be learned from everyday people and moments. 

Ross holds a Master of Arts degree in painting from Savannah College of Art and Design (2021) and a Master of Arts degree in liberal arts from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2014). She has been recognized as the 2021 winner of The Bennett Prize, the 2022 recipient of the National Black Art Festival Award in visual arts, the Pittsburgh Foundation’s Eben Demarest Fund Award in 2024, and was a 2024 Mellon Arts & Practitioner Fellow through the Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity and Transnational Migration.

To learn more about the Duncanson Program and the annual residency, visit taftmuseum.org/Duncanson-Program. 

Pictured: Ayana Ross, 2026 Duncanson Artist-in-Residence at the Taft Museum. Photo by Carol Rose of Colurwrk Photography, provided.