Graduate student Isaiah Bertagnolli has won the Marstine Prize for Outstanding Work in the Public Humanities to recognize and further develop his work with the Greer Lankton Archive at the Mattress Factory. Lankton was a trans woman artist working in the West Village in the 1980s best known for her dolls. These dolls, which range in size and shape, come with their own identity, personality, and biography. Some dolls are modeled after glamorous real-life women such Diana Vreeland and Jackie O., while others are more fictional. Though they are not autobiographical, these dolls often have backstories and experiences similar to Lankton’s. Bertagnolli was the summer 2020 research fellow at the Mattress Factory, where his research focused on Lankton’s struggle with substance abuse and addiction. Bertagnolli will use the funds from the Marstine Prize to further develop exhibition and program outcomes for his work with the collection. Read about his research on the Constellations blog.
