Bethesda Painting Awards Jury

The 2025 competition will be juried by Kevin Mitchell, Mary Proenza and James Williams II.

Kevin Mitchell, Washington, DC

Kevin Mitchell earned his Master of Fine Arts in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting from the University of Texas at Austin. Mitchell began teaching drawing and painting classes at The Catholic University of America in the Fall of 2002. He has also taught art courses at Virginia Commonwealth University, Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, VA, and the Arlington Arts Center in Arlington, VA. Mitchell has exhibited his work at galleries which include the Bowery Gallery, New York, NY; Hill Center Gallery in Washington, D.C.; Brentwood Arts Exchange, Brentwood, MD; Signal 66, Washington, D.C.; Dallas Visual Art Center in Dallas, TX; Creative Artist Network in Philadelphia, PA; Anderson Gallery in Richmond, VA; First Street Gallery in New York, NY; PEPCO Edison Place Gallery in Washington, D.C. and Galeria Juan Pardo Heeren in Lima, Peru.

Mary Proenza, Arlington, VA

Mary Proenza holds a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from New York Studio School, a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from The New School, and a Bachelor of Arts in Literature from UC Santa Barbara's College of Creative Studies. Recent exhibitions include "Cladogram" at the Katonah Museum of Art, NY, and "Digging In" at Cody Gallery, Arlington, VA. As part of a 2022 NEA Arts Project Grant, she exhibited paintings from her "Memoir" series and created four linoleum cut prints for the collaborative book Truth Comes Slowly. Her art has been featured on book, magazine, and CD covers, including those of Knopf and CMH records. As a writer, her reviews have appeared in Art in America and The Brooklyn Rail. Currently, she's working on graphic memoir combining visual art and writing, which has been supported by various fellowships, including a 2024 residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Proenza serves as an Associate Professor of Art at Marymount University, Arlington, VA.

James Williams II, Baltimore, MD

James Williams II is an interdisciplinary artist who creates paintings and sculptures centered on topics of racial constructs, systematic racism, and cultural identity in the United States. He received his master’s degree from the Mount Royal School of Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Williams’ paintings integrate non-traditional materials to create layered reliefs. His most recent solo exhibitions have been with UTA Artist Space, Atlanta, GA; LCVA Museum, Longwood, VA; Langer Over Dickie, Chicago, IL; Resort Baltimore, Baltimore, MD. His work has been included in group exhibitions at GAVLAK Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Catalyst Contemporary and Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD among others. Williams is a recipient of the 2022 Janet & Walter Sondheim Art Prize and the MFA Joan Mitchell Foundation award. His exhibitions have been reviewed by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Baltimore Beat, Baltimore Sun, BmoreArt and many more. Williams currently serves as faculty at MICA.