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BY CATHERINE D. ANSPON SOCIAL SCULPTURE — NOT BRONZE OR STEEL — IS CELEBRATED BY ONE OF THE WORLD'S TOP ARTS AWARDS, SET TO BE CONFERRED NEXT MONTH IN DALLAS. F ive years since it launched, the Nasher Prize returns to America for its honoree. This 2020 Nasher Prize Laureate sculptor is not a boldface name, nor will you find him setting auction records. Instead, he's a second- generation American of Iraqi-Jewish descent who is an artist's artist; a mid- career talent (born 1973) whose practice is more relevant now than when his pioneering works first garnered critical attention in the late 1990s. He's also known for a staunch, uncompromising attitude and for being the first to bravely say "No" to an invitation to participate in the 2019 Whitney Biennial due to a museum trustee's questionable income sources. He's also spoken out about Christie's $31 million sale of an ancient Assyrian relief in 2018 as an insensitive act of profiting from cultural loss. Cue Michael Rakowitz as the 2020 Nasher Prize winner. The honor comes with a $100,000 cash prize and an award designed by Pritzker Prize architect Renzo Piano, set to be bestowed Saturday, April 4, in a ceremony at the Nasher Sculpture Center. Later that evening, the laureate will be fêted at a black-tie gala on the grounds of the Nasher, the second U.S. artist ever to receive the global art award. REFUGEES TO FOOD TRUCKS, HOMELESSNESS TO ARCHAEOLOGY The selection of Rakowitz, a Northwestern University professor of art theory and practice, embodies the museum's mission to think globally and encourage a thoughtful dialogue in contemporary sculpture — a conversation that is also attuned to diversity and nontraditional approaches to art-making. Previous winners hailed from Europe and South America. Rakowitz, however, more closely relates to the concept of social sculpture and activism evidenced in the selection of Theaster Gates, another Chicago artist, who won the Nasher Prize in 2018. Rakowitz is the fifth winner in the internationally watched series. He holds a BFA from Purchase College, State University of New York, and a Master of Science in Visual Studies from MIT. The sculptor first signaled his empathy for displaced communities and interest in literally taking the studio to the streets with an ongoing series addressing homelessness begun in 1997, which created inflatable heated housing shelters for those without dwellings. Subsequent works include Enemy Kitchen, an ongoing pop-up fostering public engagement through the best way possible: by breaking bread. The performance piece features Iraqi cooking workshops and food trucks that in turn are staffed by Iraqi refugees and immigrants as chefs. One of the most engaging examples of Nasher Prize programming was spun around this concept last month: All of Dallas was invited, free of charge, to a lunch cooked by the artist. On the menu were traditional Iraqi dishes served alongside platters of Texas barbecue. Not surprisingly, the 2020 Nasher Prize Laureate is also the author of a recently release cookbook, A House With a Date Palm Will Never Starve, 2019, from Art / Books. Nasher director Jeremy Strick noted about the 2020 pick, a sculptor who appears hauntingly aligned with our times, particularly this election year: "In Michael Rakowitz, the Nasher Prize jury has selected a laureate whose work wrestles in unique and revelatory ways with many of the complex questions of history, heritage, and identity that are so much at the forefront of contemporary culture and politics … Rakowitz weaves dense webs of meaning in distinct bodies of work rich with insight and surprise." Nasher Prize ceremony, Saturday, April 4, at Nasher Sculpture Center. For info on Nasher Prize Dialogues and symposium, nashersculpturecenter.org. ART+ACTIVISM NASHER PRIZE NUMBER FIVE Michael Rakowitz's paraSITE homeless shelter, 1997 COURTESY THE ARTIST, COLLECTION MOMA, NYC. 2020 Nasher Prize Laureate, Michael Rakowitz COURTESY NASHER SCULPTURE CENTER