CODAworx Emerging Artist Awards Announced!

CODAworx proudly recognized five early-career creatives with the 2025 Emerging Artist Awards at this year’s CODAsummit in Washington, D.C. The program, sponsored by Epson, celebrates artists with fewer than three years of experience in commissioned or public art whose practices explore new technologies, materials, and approaches to creative work.

Announced live at CODAsummit by Epson's Senior Project Manager Ramzi Shakra, the CODAworx Emerging Artist Awards honor early-career creators who are redefining what public art can be. Led by juror Caitlin Berry, Inaugural Director of the Irene and Richard Frary Gallery at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg Center, the program highlights emerging voices whose work reflects innovation, originality, and the potential to shape the future of public art.  Each recipient received a $750 cash award, complimentary registration to CODAsummit, and formal recognition among peers and industry leaders.

This year’s recipients—Jay Costello, Anna Dean, and Isaac Caruso—demonstrate a remarkable balance of technical skill, conceptual rigor, and sensitivity to human experience, expanding the field through works that fuse craft, digital process, and social engagement.

2025 Awardees

Jay Costello 

Exploring large-scale digital fabrication and interactive light.

Based in Providence, Rhode Island, Jay Costello is a multidisciplinary designer whose practice bridges architecture, landscape, and immersive installation. Their work investigates how light, sound, and form can transform perception and spatial awareness. In Ambient Box, Costello integrates projection, sound, and material precision to create a contemplative environment that heightens sensory experience. They were recognized for translating architectural logic into environments that merge technological innovation with emotional presence.

Anna Dean

This work is based on the flight patterns of birds, but also the hands of the clock

South Carolina–based Anna G. Dean works across sculpture, installation, and digital fabrication to explore the tension between precision and chance. Her mirrored geometries and light-reactive surfaces use technology to animate subtle shifts of perception. In Fractal Energy, reflective modules create immersive optical systems that respond to human movement. Dean’s practice stood out for its fusion of technical mastery, conceptual structure, and an acute sensitivity to how viewers encounter space and one another.

Isaac Caruso

Resilient Light is a glowing phoenix sculpture by Isaac Caruso that fuses history, community, and light to embody South Phoenix’s spirit of renewal.

Arizona muralist and public artist Isaac Caruso blends traditional painting, digital design, and community collaboration to create works that tell stories of resilience, ecology, and belonging. His murals transform civic sites into shared visual narratives developed through active engagement with residents. Caruso’s approach—combining technological tools with social process—was recognized for its ability to connect communities through powerful imagery and grounded, human-scale storytelling.

Together, these three artists exemplify a new generation of public-art practitioners—technically adept, conceptually grounded, and deeply attuned to the collective experience. Through their use of emerging tools and cross-disciplinary craft, they embody the collaborative and experimental ethos at the heart of CODAworx.

The Emerging Artist Program, sponsored by EPSON, is designed to uplift promising creative professionals who are new to the field of commissioned artwork. CODAworx encourages artists, curators, and community members to share this opportunity with early-career artists as applications for the next cycle open in spring 2026.

Questions about CODAsummit or sponsorship?
Visit codaworx.com/codasummit or contact Suzanne at suzanne@codaworx.com

Do you have news, stories, or projects to share?
We’d love to hear from you—reach out to editor@codaworx.com.