Carrie Mae Weems, Alex Katz and Mark Bradford have received the National Medal of Arts, a government award for American artists and philanthropists. Merit is decided by the presidentially appointed National Council for the Arts, an advisory committee that oversees public culture funding.

The artists will be recognized today at a formal ceremony at the White House in Washington DC, honoring the 2022 and 2023 recipients. It is the final ceremony surrounding the national art award led by President Biden ahead of the November presidential election.

Weems is known for her photographic work examining race in America and is currently the subject of a study at the CCS Bard’s museum. Katz, the subject of a 2022 Guggenheim Museum retrospective, is known for his sparse portraits of people around him. The two artists were part of the 2022 and 2023 award winners respectively.

The youngest of the three contemporary art figures to receive the award, Bradford was also among the 2023 recipients. He is known for his abstractions that reference aspects of black history, some of which were on display at his United States pavilion for the 2017 Venice Biennale.

The winners of the 2022 and 2023 awards also include filmmakers Spike Lee and Ken Burns, as well as the late sculptor Ruth Asawa. Jo Carole Lauder, a New York-based art collector who is active in donor circles in the Washington DC area, was also named a recipient.