Pat Oleszko Wins Whitney Biennial’s $100,000 Bucksbaum Award

Pat Oleszko, a sculptor and performance artist who was not well-known in New York before earlier this year, has won the 2026 Whitney Biennial’s $100,000 Bucksbaum Award, a prize previously won by famed artists such as Zoe Leonard, Ralph Lemon, and Pope.L.Oleszko’s contribution to the show was a large inflatable sculpture called Blow Hard (1995), featuring a gigantic green face pushing air into a trumpet that expels flames. As is the case with most of Oleszko’s work, the title i