About the Juror

Christopher Blay is a Liberian-born American artist, curator, and writer. He is currently the Director of Public Programs at the National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, and formerly Chief Curator of the Houston Museum of African American Culture [2021 - 2024]. Blay was the News Editor at Glasstire from 2019 - 2021 and served as curator for the Art Corridor Galleries at Tarrant County College in Fort Worth for the ten years prior to Glasstire. Blay is also a contributing writer for Art in America magazine, with his most recent  essay on artist David-Jeremiah appearing in the October, 2024 edition of the magazine. He has also written catalog essays for Richard Prince, Richard Doherty, Erika DeFrietas, Nathaniel Donnett, and Letitia Huckaby, as well as essays for the Fort Worth Weekly, Glasstire, Gulf Coast, and the Nasher Sculpture Magazine.

Now an independent curator, Blay has organized David-Jeremiah: The Fire This Time, opening August, 2025 at the Modern art Museum, Fort Worth, and the Citywide African American Artist Exhibition in Houston for the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, which opened in December, 2024 at the Glassell School.

Blay’s work as a visual artist has been the subject of numerous group and solo exhibitions, as well as works of public art. Among his most recent works are the East Rosedale Monument Project, commissioned by the Fort Worth Public Art Commission, dedicated February 1, 2025, a solo exhibition titled Ritual SpLaVCe at the Galveston Art Center, (January, 2024), Artprize Featured artist award exhibition (2023), The Ion Artist Residency award exhibition (2023), and Christopher Blay: The SpLaVCe Ship, Barry Whistler Gallery, 2022. In March, 2025, Blay’s work will be in Elemental Currents, Material, Memory, and Myth, at Ballroom, Marfa, and on view for a public art commission at New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art, New Harmony, Indiana.

Blay is a 2003 graduate of Texas Christian University with a BFA in studio art and art history.