ArtSake

Here’s the latest installment of Fellows Notes, the current news of past fellows/finalists from our Artist Fellowships Program.

In February, our past awardees roll with rock book clubs, pack for Rome residencies, go walking (and dancing) in Memphis, and lots more.

Five MCC Artist Fellowship Program awardees in Painting, Vico Fabbris (Fellow ’06), Christopher Faust (Fellow ’10), Joel Janowitz (Fellow ’08), Laurie Kaplowitz (Finalist ’08), and Anne Neely (Finalist ’10) are in an exhibition at the Shipyard Gallery in Hingham, a satellite gallery of the South Shore Art Center. The exhibition runs through February 20, 2011 at 18 Shipyard Drive, next to the Hingham Beer Works. Read about the show in the Boston Globe.

Steve Almond‘s (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) book Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life is the inaugural selection of the new Rock and Roll Book Club. Since the club, inspired by a love of books and rock and roll, reads and discusses books with a connection to rock, we can’t think of a better first selection that Steve’s ode to the pop music we love (even when we know we shouldn’t). Steve will join the group for a launch party on February 16 at The Enormous Room in Cambridge. Read about the Rock and Roll Book Club in Time Out Boston.

Claire Andrade-Watkins (Film & Video Fellow ’09) has organized a weekly program of screenings of rare archival 8mm, video about the Fox Point Cape Verdean community and the Cape Verdean Diaspora, presented by the Cape Verdean Student Organization at Brown University and the Fox Point Cape Verdean Project (which Claire directs). The series launches on Friday, February 18, 7 PM, at the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, Brown University, in Providence, RI. Admission is free, open to the public.

Claire Beckett (Photography Fellow ’07) has a solo show opening this month at Carroll and Sons in Boston: You Are…, February 23-March 26, 2011, opening reception Friday, March 4, 5:30-7:30 PM. She’s also among the artists currently exhibiting in The Truth Is Not in the Mirror: Photography and a Constructed Identity at the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI, through May 22, 2011.

Nell Breyer (Choreography Fellow ’06) will give an illustrated lecture called Perceptions of Motion at the Observatory Room in Brooklyn, NY, on Friday, February 11, 8 PM. The lecture, which is presented by the Hollow Earth Society, will explore how we perceive motion, using art and science as lenses.

In late 2010, Janet Echelman (Crafts & Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09) was awarded a prestigious, year-long residency at American Academy in Rome. She’s currently working on three sculptures to be featured in Terminal 2 at the San Francisco Airport (see a computer simulation of her recomposure zone in this New York Times article). What’s more, she’ll be presenting at TED2011 on March 1, 2011, as part of the Threads of Discovery series.

Christopher Frost (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09) has a solo show at Boston Sculptors Gallery in the South End, February 9-March 13, 2011.

MASS MoCA will screen Michal Goldman‘s (Film & Video Fellow ’07) film At Home in Utopia, which tells the story of immigrant Jewish garment workers as they challenged social norms through the cooperatively owned and run United Workers Cooperative Colony, aka the “Coops.” The documentary, showing on Thursday, February 10, at 7:30 PM, is part of MASS MoCA’s “Power to the People” Series. Screened in Club B-10, followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker.

Michael Hoerman (Poetry Fellow ’04) will read on February 4 for Dire Literary Series at 106 Prospect Street, Cambridge, at 8 PM. Joining Michael are poets Carissa Halston and John Hodgen (Poetry Finalist ’00).

Masako Kamiya (Painting Fellow ’06, ’10) is part of two exhibitions opening this month. She’s among the artists in Extravagant Drawings at Dorsky Gallery in Long Island, NY, February 6-April 10, 2011, opening reception Sunday, February 6, 2011, 2-5 PM. Also, she, along with Rose Olson and other artists, is featured in Point of Departure at The Gallery Della – Piana in Wenham, MA. The show runs February 13-April 21, 2011, opening reception, Sunday, February 13, 3-5 PM.

Caroline Klocksiem‘s (Poetry Fellow ’08) chapbook, Circumstances of the House & Moon, was accepted for publication by Dancing Girl Press.

Kathryn Kulpa (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Finalist ’10) has a new piece published in decomP magazine, “Soon, and for the Rest of Your Life.” Also, the Winter 2011 issue of Newport Review, which she edits, just made its online debut. The journal is now looking for submissions of poetry, prose and artwork for the Summer 2011 issue.

Caitlin McCarthy (Playwriting Finalist ’11) is interviewed on WCVB-TV Boston’s Chronicle, on Friday, February 18, 2011, about her screenplay Wonder Drug, which explores the DES drug disaster. She’ll also discuss efforts, advocacy, and personal history with the case. The program coincides with the 40th anniversary of the DES cancer link discovery at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital. Find details on The Boston Channel or watch the program after it airs on the Chronicle HD Archives.

Gary Metras (Poetry Fellow ’84) was profiled in and is the cover photograph for the National Education Association’s magazine for retired members, The Active Life, Nov. 2010 issue, with a focus on retired teachers who are published writers. Also, Gary has a poetry reading this month, on Friday, February 18, 2011, 7 PM, at Amherst Books in Amherst, Mass.

Nathalie Miebach‘s (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09) installation Changing Waters will be on exhibit at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton through September 25, 2011. There will be an opening reception on February 27, 2-5 PM, and an artist talk on March 27. Also, Nathalie will conduct an intensive, week-long sculptural weaving workshop at the museum March 8-12. Elsewhere in the state, she has a solo show called Musical Scores and Sculptures at the Anderson Gallery at Bridgewater State Univeristy. The show runs Feb 14 – March 11, with an opening reception Thursday, February 17, at 4:45 PM.

Pan Morigan (Music Composition Fellow ’07) just released an album of new original songs called Wild Blue. Pan will perform at a CD release concert on Friday, February 11, 2011, 8 PM, at the Helen Hills Chapel at Smith College in Northampton. Pan will also join another past MCC fellow, Andrea Hairston (Playwriting/New Theater Works Fellow ’03), in a series of events combining narrative and music, taking place across the United States to promote Andrea’s novel Redwood and Wildfire.

Koji Nakano‘s (Music Composition Finalist ’09) Ancient Songs was recently performed by Soprano Stacey Fraser at Chapman University and at the University of California at San Diego, and another performance is planned at the Hong Kong Arts Centre on March 6, 2011. On February 20, 2011, Fraser will premiere Arigatoo, an aria from Koji Nakano’s second opera Spiritual Forest, as part of a concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. In addition, she will give the Taiwan Premiere of the same aria at the Taipei National Concert Hall on March 1, 2011.

Jendi Reiter (Poetry Fellow ’10) was runner-up for the 2010 Iowa Review Award in Nonfiction.

Matt Rich (Painting Fellow ’10) was among the artists selected by the editors of New American Paintings as 11 to watch.

Adam Schwartz (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’10) will have an event celebrating his book A Stranger on the Planet at Wellesley College (where he teaches), on February 4, 2011. Also, he joins poet Dan Chaisson for a reading at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, on February 9,  at 7 PM. Read a terrific review of Adam’s novel in the Boston Globe.

Carolyn Webb (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’82) will have a solo exhibit of sculpture and prints at Spheris Gallery in Hanover, NH. The show runs February 19-March 22, 2011.

Rachel Perry Welty (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09, Drawing Fellow ’04) has a solo exhibition at deCordova Sculpture Park + Museum in Lincoln, called Rachel Perry Welty 24/7. The show runs through April 24, with an opening on February 5, 2011. Read a Q&A with Rachel in the Boston Globe.

Judith Wombwell (Choreography Fellow ’10) choreographed a piece called Integral for Project: Motion in Memphis, TN. The piece will be part of a performance at Evergreen Theatre in Memphis, February 18-20, 2011. Judith’s company Deadfall Dance will perform their piece Grass as part of the concert. Read an article about the rehearsal process for Integral.

Kevin Young (Poetry Fellow ’10) reads from his new book, Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, on Monday, February 7, 7 PM. Read a primer on the books of Kevin Young on the Porter Square Books blog.

Past Fellows Notes
Jan. 2011

Are you a past fellow or finalist with an event, honor, or other bit of news you’d like to share? Tell us about it.

Images: Laurie Kaplowitz, LUSTRE (2006), Acrylic on canvas, 46×42 in; Chris Frost, RED CASTLE (2008) concrete patio blocks, 7x11x12 feet; CD cover for WILD BLUE by Pan Morigan; Promotional image for Deadfall Dance.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Here’s the latest installment of Fellows Notes, the current news of past fellows/finalists from our Artist Fellowships Program.

From the looks of it, the new year will be rich with great art!

Peter Brown (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06) reads from his new short story collection A Bright Soothing Noise at Brookline Booksmith, on Tuesday, January 11, 7 PM. The collection, which won the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction, is about characters struggling to realize their own pieces of the American dream.

Alicia Casilio, Sara Casilio, Kelly Casilio, and Cary Wolinsky aka TRIIIBE (Sculpture/Installation Fellows ’09) have their New York City debut in a show at DODGE Gallery, January 8 – February 13, 2011.

Patrick Donnelly (Poetry Fellow ’08) is the new director of the Advanced Seminar at The Frost Place, a poets’ residency and educational center in New Hampshire.

Beth Galston (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’84) unveils a new public art project this month, Serpentine Fence. Three years in the making, this permanent sculpture is a 120-foot-long serpentine fence made of stainless steel and translucent purple metal mesh, with special lights at night. The project has involved a collaboration between the City of Boston Parks Department, JP Centre/South Main Streets, Ray Dunetz Landscape Architecture, Solutions in Metal (Fabricator), Ron Marini (Contractor), and the artist, supported by grants from The Browne Fund.

In April 2010, Ralf Yusuf Gawlick (Music Composition Fellow ’09) premiered Kinderkreuzzug, a large-scale work for children’s voices and small chamber ensemble (read an ArtSake post about the work). Musica Omnia has released a CD of the powerful cantata, which adapts Bertolt Brecht’s extraordinary poem about a group of orphaned children on a crusade to find a land of peace.

Michael Hoerman (Poetry Fellow ’04) will read on February 4 for Dire Literary Series at 106 Prospect Street, Cambridge, at 8 p.m. Joining Michael are poets Carissa Halston and John Hodgen.

Eric Hofbauer (Music Composition Fellow ’09) was recently featured in an interview/solo set on BBC’s Jazz on 3 radio show. In it, he played several pieces from his American Fear solo recording.

Congratulations to Sharon Howell (Poetry Fellow ’10), who recently learned that her poetry collection has been accepted for publication by Pressed Wafer Press – details to come!

Jan Johnson (Drawing Fellow ’10) is one of the artists exhibiting in A woman’s work is never done, at the A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. The show, curated by Susanne Altmann, includes work by women from throughout the country (and world). The art focuses on diverse artistic approaches and blends “the personally meaningful with a close and objective eye toward cultural observation” (read more). The show runs at January 5-January 30, 2011. See images of the exhibition on A.I.R. Gallery’s Facebook page.

Caroline Klocksiem‘s (Poetry Fellow ’08) poem No cracked earth was recently featured in the poetry journal Leveler. Also, two of her poems appear in Super Arrow, issue three.

Jane D. Marsching‘s (Photography Finalist ’03) work Ice Out an edition of 5 “hybrid prints,” is on exhibit at Ningyo Editions in Watertown, through January 15, 2011. The work draws on wind data during “ice out” days (90% melt of pond ice), using data drawn today via specially created software (co-written with Matthew Shanley) and from Thoreau’s 1847 almanac. This piece includes a video with choreographer/dancer Sarah Baumert.

Todd McKie (Painting Finalist ’08) has a solo exhibition of collages and of paintings on found wooden panels at Victoria Munroe Fine Art in Boston, January 13 – February 26, 2011.

Rachel Mello (Painting Finalist ’10) has a solo show of cut-silhouette paintings, wood-block prints, and print collages at Club Passim/Veggie Planet in Cambridge, MA. The show runs through January 21.

Nathalie Miebach (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09) has a solo show opening this month at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton. Changing Waters is the largest installation Nathalie has build so far, a 27-foot long wall piece and four 10-foot long sculptures. The installation looks at the interaction between ocean and weather systems in the Gulf of Maine, integrating both data from off-shore buoys and weather stations as well as some of the rich fishing history. It’s fantastical, theatrical and numerical. The installation will be on exhibit January 15, 2011 – September 25, 2011, with an opening reception February 27, 2011, 2-5 PM.

Koji Nakano (Music Composition Finalist ’09) has had a fortuitous run since receiving his MCC award. In 2011, in conjunction with a University of California/Davis lecture, his work Ancient Songs will be performed at Chapman University (Jan. 14), University of California at San Diego (Jan. 20), and the Hong Kong Arts Centre (March 6). In 2010, Mr. Nakano received a MetLife Creative Connections Grant from Meet The Composer to support the premiere of Time Song III: Reincarnation “The Birth of a Spirits” at the Pacific Rim Music Festival. It was subsequently performed in Seoul, Korea, and Taipei, Taiwan. Two film/music collaborations with filmmaker Tiffany Doesken premiered in 2010: Unspoken Voices-Unbroken Spirits for Audio Visual at the 2010 ISCM World New Music Days in Sydney, Australia, and Looking at a Dancing Apsara through Rectangular Prisms at the Interactive Creative Forum. In the fall of 2010, the multi-media concert Music, Dance and Film: Innovation and Tradition in the Works of Koji Nakano was presented as part of the Annual Music and Performing Arts at Burapha University in Bangsaen, Thailand (see image above). Also in 2010, Mr. Nakano received a residency fellowship from the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, an ASCAPlus Award, and the White Flowers Residency for Composers from Yaddo. In the fall of 2009, Ensemble Reconsil Vienna gave the world premiere of his Scattered Clouds/Dramatic Sky as part of Composers Forum in Mittersill (recorded on CD KOFOMI #14 from Ein_Klang Records).

Monica Raymond‘s (Playwriting Finalist ’07, Poetry Finalist ’08) essay Notes on “Collateral Damage Noted” (about Mobius member Tom Plsek‘s sound meditation commemorating Iraqi civilian deaths in the current war) was published at qarrtsiluni.com in December. Also, her poem Dreaming the World was a prize winner in Old Father William’s Frabjous and Curious Poetry contest for poems influenced by Lewis Carroll, sponsored by Caffeine Theater in Chicago.

Anna Ross (Poetry Finalist ’10) has poetry in the Fall/Winter 2011 issue of the journal Barrow Street.

Eric Henry Sanders‘s (Playwriting Fellow ’09) play Reservoir had its world premiere at The Drilling CompaNY Theatre in New York, November 4 -24th, 2010 – read a terrific review in the New York Times. The run has been so successful that it’s been extended for an additional eight shows: January 6-16, 2011. You can read about the play’s development (as well as hear an excerpt performed by Company One) on ArtSake.

Adam Schwartz (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’10) reads from his new novel A Stranger on the Planet (an excerpt of which won him an MCC fellowship) at Brookline Booksmith on Thursday, January 27, at 7 PM. Next month, he joins poet Dan Chaisson for a reading at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Wednesday, February 9, 7 PM.

In The Guardian, Annie Proulx gives Salvatore Scibona‘s (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06) The End a great review, calling it “an outstanding work in all the right ways.”

Peter Snoad‘s (Playwriting Fellow ’09) new full-length farce, Identity Crisis, winner of the 2010 New Play Festival at Centre Stage in Greenville, South Carolina, will receive a workshop production there from January 13-22. Also this month, his short play My Name Is Art will run at the Short and Sweet Festival in Sydney, Australia (January 5-February 20). Recently, his play The Greening of Bridget Kelly was performed at the Roy Arias Studios in Manhattan by 3 Road Productions as part of its “Blood Bond” series of new plays.

Julia Story (Poetry Finalist ’10), who recently won the John C. Zacharis First Book Award for her prose poetry collection Post Moxie, is entertainingly interviewed on the Ploughshares blog by another past MCC awardee, Simeon Berry (Poetry Fellow ’06).

Cam Terwilliger (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) was recently named the Associate Fiction Editor at West Branch, and his short story “The Kingdom” was a finalist for Narrative‘s “People Under 30″ contest.

Daniel Tobin (Poetry Finalist ’10) reads from his new poetry collection Belated Heavens at Brookline Booksmith on Tuesday, January 25 at 7 PM.

Rachel Perry Welty (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09, Drawing Fellow ’04) will have a solo exhibition at deCordova Sculpture Park + Museum in Lincoln, called Rachel Perry Welty 24/7. A 68-page fully illustrated catalogue/artist book has been created in conjunction with the show, which runs January 29 – April 24 with an opening on February 5, 2011. By the way, Rachel recently had a solo show of work at Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York, which received a nice blurb in The New Yorker.

Jeff Zimbalist‘s (Film & Video Fellow ’05) much-lauded documentary The Two Escobars just received another laud: it was named Best Documentary of 2010 by Sports Illustrated!

Past Fellows Notes

Dec. 2010

Are you a past fellow or finalist with an event, honor, or other bit of news you’d like to share? Tell us about it.

Images: Image from a portrait concert of work by Koji Nakano as part of the Annual Music and Performing Arts Festival at Burapha University in Thailand on November 17, 2010; CD cover image for KINDERKREUZZUG by Ralf Gawlick (Musica Omnia 2010); Todd McKie, FRUIT BOWL (2007), flashe on canvas, 40×30 in, photo by Bill Kipp; poster for IDENTITY CRISIS, a play by Peter Snoad, performed by Centre Stage Theatre; cover art for BELATED HEAVENS by Daniel Tobin (Four Way Books, 2010).

Powered by Bookmarkify™

We compile a monthly list of presentations, honors, publications, and events featuring past and present MCC Artist Fellows & Finalists. As you’ll see, the news is good – not just about these award-winning artists, but also about the breadth and vitality of contemporary arts throughout the Commonwealth.

Two past Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellows will read from their respective short story collections as part of the Blacksmith House Reading Series in Cambridge. Tracy Winn (’08), author of Mrs. Somebody Somebody, reads with Peter Brown (’06), author of A Bright Soothing Noise, on December 6, 8 PM.

Sachiko Akiyama (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’05) has a solo show at The Danforth Museum of Art in Framingham, called Sachiko Akiyama: Things Unseen, an exhibition of carved polychrome wood sculpture and relief. The show runs through February 6, 2011. The artist will speak on her work on Sunday, December 12 at 3 PM.

Congratulations to Kathryn Burak (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Finalist ’10), whose novel The Dress is going to be published by Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan in Spring 2012. Read an excerpt of an earlier version of the novel, which garnered Kathryn her MCC honor.

Michael Dowling‘s (Playwriting Fellow ’09) film Speck’s Last (adapted from his award-winning play) will screen at Anthology Film Archives in NYC, on Sunday, December 5th, 3 PM. RSVP here. Find more details on the film’s Facebook page.

Brian Knep’s (Sculpture/Installation Finalist ’07) interactive installation Healing 1 is on display in the Brigham Young University Museum of Art’s e.g. (Electronic Gallery) through January 2011.

Niho Kozuru (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09) has a solo show of new work at Boston’s Arden Gallery on Newbury Street. The show runs December 1-30, 2010, with an opening reception Friday, December 3, 5-7 PM.

Scott Listfield (Painting Finalist ’10) has created a series of 15 small works which will debut in Stars & Cars: Paintings by Jason Chase and Scott Listfield, which runs at Laconia Gallery in Boston in December and January. The exhibit opens Friday, December 3rd (5:30-8 PM) at Laconia Gallery. In other news: Scott was selected as the creator of this year’s First Night Boston pin; on December 31st, an estimated 70,000 people will have one of Scott’s distinctive astronaut images pinned to their clothes. (See a picture of Scott at the button unveiling.) Scott also has a work in the current Icons + Altars show at the New Art Center in Newton (through Dec. 12); benefits from the show will go to the New Art Center.

Tara L. Masih‘s (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Finalist ’96) story collection, Where the Dog Star Never Glows, was announced as a finalist in the USA Book News Best Books 2010 Awards, short story category. Read Tara discussing Three Stages in the book’s development on ArtSake.

Gary Metras (Poetry Fellow ’84) has published a new book of poems, Two Bloods: Fly Fishing Poems, winner of the Split Oak Press Chapbook Award.

Joshua Meyer (Painting Fellow ’10) has a solo exhibit, Everything in between at Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, December 2, 2010-January 31, 2011. Check out Joshua’s terrific video interview with Evelyn Herwitz.

David Moore (Painting Fellow ’08) has work on exhibit at the FP3 Gallery in Boston’s Fort Point Channel, through January 3rd.

You can hear Monica Raymond‘s (Playwriting Finalist ’07, Poetry Finalist ’08) poem Economies read aloud by Nic Sebastian on the Whale Sound website. Monica’s photograph of the Cambridge Carnival was published by Dave Bonta on qarrtsiluni.com. As part of an evening program devoted to mythology, Monica read her poems Tale Tale, The Love Twin, and What the Echo Knows at Sprout in Somerville on November 17th.

Salvatore Scibona (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06), named one of The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40, has a short story in the just-published accompanying story collection, 20 Under 40: Stories from The New Yorker.

Congratulations to Peter Snoad (Playwriting Fellow ’09), whose play Identity Crisis, a farce about race, won the 2010 New Play Festival of Centre Stage in Greenville, SC in October and will be produced there January 13-22, 2011. Peter won the same festival in 2006 with his play Guided Tour. Identity Crisis is also scheduled for a staged reading in February by HRC Showcase Theater in Hudson, NY. In November, Peter’s popular short play, My Name is Art, had two more Australian productions at Short and Sweet Festivals in Melbourne and Brisbane after being staged earlier this year in Canberra. Another of his short plays, The Greening of Bridget Kelly, will be produced December 1-5 in New York by 3 Road Productions.

Congratulations to Julia Story (Poetry Finalist ’10), whose poetry collection Post Moxie won the Zacharis Prize, awarded by Ploughshares each year to a first book of poetry or fiction. This month, Julia will read as part of the Small Animal Project series, joining Claire Hero and Becca Klaver on Wednesday December 15th, 8 pm, at Outpost 186 in Cambridge’s Inman Square. The Small Animal Project series is directed by Jessica Bozek (Poetry Finalist ’10).

Rachel Perry Welty‘s (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09, Drawing Fellow ’04) solo exhibition Lost in My Life continues at Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York through December 23, 2010 (a recent review calls the show “a hoarder’s dilemma and an obsessive-compulsive dream.”) What’s more, Rachel’s work has or will feature into two art fairs, PARIS PHOTO in the Carrousel de Louvre (November 18-21), and PULSE Miami, at the Ice Palace in Miami Florida (December 2-5). Yancey Richardson Gallery is representing Rachel in both fairs. Other recent news: Rachel recently donated a pigmented print from the “Lost in my Life” series to The Kitchen Benefit Art Auction, and she’s been invited to be visiting artist (and speak) at Cranbrook Academy of Art (Detroit, Michigan) and Montserrat College of Art (Beverly, Massachusetts).

Past Fellows Notes
Nov. 2010
Oct. 2010
Sept. 2010
Aug. 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
Apr. 2010
Mar. 2010
Feb. 2010
Jan. 2010

Are you a past fellow or finalist with an event, honor, or other bit of news you’d like to share? Tell us about it.

Images: Scott Listfield, painting from the STARS AND CARS exhibition at Laconia Gallery in Boston; Brian Knep, HEALING #1 (2003), Computer, custom software, video projectors, video cameras, vinyl flooring. Dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist; David Moore, FLIGHT I (2007), oil on linen, 72×72 in; cover art for POST MOXIE: POEMS by Julia Story (Sarabande Books 2010).

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Here’s the latest installment of Fellows Notes, the current great news of past Fellows/Finalists from our Artist Fellowships Program.

November’s got some terrific stuff: Claire Beckett’s photos on DC buildings… TRIIIBE’s ongoing installation at Boston University… Eric Henry Sanders’s new play in New York. Read on.

On the Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene blog, Steve Almond is entertainingly interviewed by Cam Terwilliger, in advance of Steve’s participation in the Somerville News Writers’ Festival, November 13, 2010, at the Center for the Arts at the Armory in Somerville. (Both Steve and Cam are 2008 Fellows in Fiction/Creative Nonfiction.) Here’s a sample of Steve discussing his recent, DIY self-publishing projects: “Of course, there’s a lot of schlepping involved. And some low-level humiliation. But that’s the life of a writer anyway these days.”

Diane Arvanites-Noya and Tommy Neblett (Choreography Fellows ’08, ’04), aka Prometheus Dance, are part of Dance and back again! A 19th Birthday Faculty Concert in the Julie Ince Thompson Theatre at The Dance Complex. New and renewed pieces by Prometheus Dance, The Prometheus Elders, and numerous other groups will be performed on Saturday, November 13, 8 PM and Sunday, November 14, 7 PM.

Claire Beckett (Photography Fellow ’07) is one of the artists included in the 2010 Photolucida Critical Mass Top 50. Also, her work will be on display during FotoWeek DC in the show 100 Portraits – 100 Photographers: Selections from the FlakPhoto.com Archive, curated by Andy Adams of FlakPhoto.com. This exhibition is part of the NightGallery series of projections on display from November 6-13, 2010, with a launch party at the Corcoran Gallery of Art on Friday, November 5. The images will be projected on exteriors of significant buildings across Washington, DC, including: Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design, Newseum, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, American Red Cross, National Museum of the American Indian, Satellite Central (M Street – Georgetown) and the Human Rights Campaign buildings.

Liza Bingham (Painting Finalist ’10) is one of the over 80 artists exhibiting work in the 34th Annual Waltham Mills Open Studios, on Saturday, November 6 (12-6 PM) and Sunday, November 7 (12-5 PM).

Martha Jane Bradford (Drawing Fellow ’85) collaborated with Chantal Harvey to produce Acquarella: The Fable, digital/virtual art on view in the Air Tree Exhibit in the Madrid Pavilion of the World Expo in Shanghai, curated by Spanish curator and virtual arts leader Cristina García-Lasuén. Martha (Alizarin Goldflake in Second Life) produced, directed, and designed most of the virtual environment, while Chantal Harvey helmed the 3-D computer animation. Watch the clip with narration in English or Chinese. Also, Martha recently constructed Second Life sets for a real life play, The Winter Bear, which premiered in Anchorage October 29, 2010. Martha’s virtual, immersive art is integrated into the show’s the stage design (watch a video trailer). Find more information about the play The Winter Bear, a story of a troubled Athabascan teenager whose video game skills come in handy against a marauding Winter Bear. The play runs at Cyrano’s Off-Center Playhouse, Anchorage AK, Oct 29 – Nov 13. Read more about the project.

Sarah Braunstein (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’04) was named as one of the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 selections, recognizing five young fiction writers chosen by National Book Award Winners and Finalists. She’ll be formally honored at a celebration at powerHouse Arena in NYC on Monday, November 15, hosted by musician and author Rosanne Cash with music journalist Rob Sheffield as DJ. Sarah’s novel The Sweet Relief of Lost Children will be published by W.W. Norton in 2011.

Congratulations to Peter Brown (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06), whose short story collection A Bright Soothing Noise is published by University of North Texas Press this month. The book won the press’s Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction.

Alicia Casilio, Sara Casilio, Kelly Casilio, and Cary Wolinsky (Sculpture/Installation Fellows ’09), aka TRIIIBE, are turning Boston University’s massive 808 Gallery space into a site-specific installation. In Search of Eden will evolve as creators and observers participate in developing a present day version of the Garden of Eden. The installation will encompass photography, sculpture, painting and daily performances by the artists.

Lorraine Chapman (Choreography Fellow ’04) and her dance company join Contrapose Dance for an afternoon of dancing and dynamic work by Gianni Di Marco, Courtney Peix, and Lorraine Chapman. The event is on Sunday, November 14, 2:30 PM, Green Street Studios in Cambridge, MA. Among the works by Lorraine Chapman, The Company are “Pulp Tango,” the gold section from “Displaced Here Persons There,” and a new solo danced by Lorraine Chapman.

Regie Gibson (Poetry Fellow ’10) will emcee the literary feast A Taste of Grub, a November 5 fundraiser for Grub Street, a writers’ service organization based in Boston. Regie has plenty of experience behind a microphone; he’s a former Poetry Slam National Champion.

Jane Gillooly (Film & Video Fellow ’07) will be a guest at EventWorks SIM (Studio for Interrelated Media at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design) on Thursday, November 4, 2010, at 7:30 PM when her documentary Today the Hawk Takes One Chick has a free screening.

Cathy Jacobowitz‘s (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Finalist ’10) short story “You Made Me Leave My Happy Home” (drawn from her novel Melly Mockingbird) will be published in the Santa Monica Review spring or fall of 2011.

Congratulations to Liza Johnson (Film & Video Finalist ’07), who won the prestigious Rappaport Prize from the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. The prize is a $25,000 award to an individual artist, “an investment in both an individual and the broader community.”

Dawn Lane (Choreography Fellow ’10) was recently invited by Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival to a Creative Development Residency to develop a new work, one potato, two potato. The work uses aspects of Irish culture and history as a metaphor for exploring excess, loss & insufficiency. Joined by dancers Lorimer Burns, Jane Goodrich, Susannah Millonzi and Leslie Nelson, Dawn spent a productive week in October in the Doris Duke Theatre that culminated in an informal showing of the work in progress on October 15.

Scott Listfield (Painting Finalist ’10) was selected as the creator of this year’s First Night Boston button. The design will be unveiled this month.

Tara L. Masih‘s (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Finalist ’96) story collection, Where the Dog Star Never Glows, was announced as a finalist in the USA Book News Best Books 2010 Awards, short story category. Read Tara discussing Three Stages in the book’s development on ArtSake.

Rania Matar (Photography Fellow ’07) was selected for inclusion in the 2010 Photolucida Critical Mass Top 50.

Rachel Mello (Painting Finalist ’10) has a solo exhibition on paintings, prints, and collages at Club Passim in Cambridge. The exhibition runs November 15, 2010-January 3, 2011. Additionally, she has two pieces in the Nave Gallery’s Our Town exhibit, featuring works of and about Somerville, MA. Opening November 18, Rachel’s work will be included in Plenty at 13FOREST in Arlington. It’s the annual small works holiday show (gift ideas, anyone?).

Eric Henry Sanders’s (Playwriting Fellow ’09) play Reservoir will have its world premiere at The Drilling CompaNY Theatre in New York, running November 4 -24th, 2010. An earlier draft of the play helped Eric win an MCC fellowship, and you can read about its development (as well as hear an excerpt performed by Company One) on ArtSake.

Leslie Sills (Crafts Fellow ’95) created a sculptural teapot, called High Tea, that is among the works included in The Teapot Redefined. The exhibition of sculptural teapots ran at Mobilia Gallery in Cambridge through Oct. 31. High Tea was inspired by Leslie’s artist residency this past summer at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, which borders a sheep farm in Newcastle, Maine.

Ron Spalletta (Poetry Finalist ’10) had a poem featured in Slate this summer, selected by poetry editor Robert Pinsky (hear Ron reading “Blank Villanelle”). Also, check out a great article about Ron in the Harvard Gazette, highlighting his dual careers as an award-winning poet and a Harvard Medical School manager.

Rachel Perry Welty (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09, Drawing Fellow ’04) has a solo photographic exhibition, Lost in My Life, at the Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York. The work is a series of photographs in which the artist herself is immersed in an environment of flattened cereal boxes, bread tags, twist ties, and other miscellaneous leftovers of modern consumption. Lost in My Life runs November 4-December 23, 2010, with an opening reception November 4, 6-8 PM.

Leslie Williams‘s (Poetry Fellow ’10) new poetry collection Success of the Seed Plants has been published by Bellday Books. The book won the 2010 Bellday Books Prize.

Kevin Young (Poetry Fellow ’10) has poetry featured in the Best American Poetry 2010 anthology.

Jeff Zimbalist’s (Film & Video Fellow ’05) documentary The Two Escobars is being released in San Francisco this month, is currently running in New York, and will have an LA release next week. The film recently received a glowing review by The Onion’s AV Club (and those discerning hipsters are tough to impress!). The highly lauded documentary will be released on DVD Blu Ray this month.

Past Fellows Notes
Oct. 2010
Sept. 2010
Aug. 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
Apr. 2010
Mar. 2010
Feb. 2010
Jan. 2010

Are you a past fellow or finalist with an event, honor, or other bit of news you’d like to share? Tell us about it.

Images: poster for RESERVOIR by Eric Henry Sanders, produced by The Drilling CompaNY; still from a trailer for THE WINTER BEAR, with virtual environments designed by Martha Jane Bradford; still from THE TRAVELERS CABARET by Lorraine Chapman; Scott Listfield, GRAND CANYON (2008), Oil on canvas, 24×48 in; Rachel Perry Welty, LOST IN MY LIFE (BOXES) (2010), Pigment Print, represented by Yancy Richardson Gallery.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

This post is a pictorial tour of some of the exceptional stuff past fellows/finalists from MCC’s Artist Fellowships Program are currently up to.

1. Reimagined tea pots. Leslie Sills (Crafts Fellow ’95) created the above work, called HIGH TEA. The sculptural teapot is among the works included in The Teapot Redefined, an exhibition of sculptural teapots at Mobilia Gallery in Cambridge (through Oct. 31). The work was inspired by Leslie’s artist residency this past summer at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, which borders a sheep farm in Newcastle, Maine.

2. National film releases. Jeff Zimbalist’s (Film & Video Fellow ’05) documentary The Two Escobars is being released in San Francisco this month, is currently running in New York, and will have an LA release next week. The film recently received a glowing review by The Onion’s AV Club (and those discerning hipsters are tough to impress!).

3. Chinese World Expos. Martha Jane Bradford (Drawing Fellow ’85) collaborated with Chantal Harvey to produce Acquarella: The Fable, digital/virtual art on view in the Air Tree Exhibit in the Madrid Pavilion of the World Expo in Shanghai, curated by Spanish curator and virtual arts leader Cristina García-Lasuén. Martha (Alizarin Goldflake in Second Life) produced, directed, and designed most of the virtual environment, while Chantal Harvey helmed the 3-D computer animation. Watch the clip with narration in English or Chinese.

4. Literary/culinary benefit events. Former Poetry Slam National Champion Regie Gibson (Poetry Fellow ’10) will emcee the literary feast A Taste of Grub, a November 5 fundraiser for Grub Street, a writers’ service organization based in Boston.

5. Edens-in-progress. TRIIIBE (Sculpture/Installation Fellows ’09), the artists collective of Alicia, Kelly, and Sara Casilio and photographer Cary Wolinsky, is turning Boston University’s massive 808 Gallery space into a site-specific installation. In Search of Eden will evolve as creators and observers participate in developing a present day version of the Garden of Eden. If you’re in search of art that’s visually arresting, socially engaged, and possessed of a truly unique vision, then traveler, I think I know where to find your paradise.

6. Collaborative, two-part installations. Liz Nofziger (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’05) and Linda Price-Sneddon (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’01) have created a multi-media installation showing at two different art venues. Part one of That Which Changes That Which Stays the Same shows at the Villa Victoria in Boston through November 3, 2010. Part two shows at the Essex Art Center in Lawrence through December 8, with an Artists’ Talk Wednesday, November 17, 7-8 PM. The artists’ collaboration is itself the result of a collaboration (woah, meta) between Villa Victoria and Essex Art Center, called Exchange.

For more exceptional stuff, check out Fellows Notes.

Images: Leslie Sills, HIGH TEA (front and side view), ceramic; still from THE TWO ESCOBARS by Jeff and Michael Zimbalist; still from ACQUARELLA by Martha Jane Bradford and Chantal Harvey; Regie Gibson; promotional image for A Taste of Grub; TRIIIBE, FINE; installation view of THAT WHICH CHANGES THAT WHICH STAYS THE SAME by Liz Nofziger and Linda Price-Sneddon.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

We compile a monthly list of presentations, honors, publications, and events featuring past and present MCC Artist Fellows & Finalists. As you’ll see, the news is good – not just about these award-winning artists, but also about the breadth and vitality of contemporary arts throughout the Commonwealth.

The Boston Book Festival on Saturday, October 16, 2010 is a free literary celebration featuring readings, discussions, and events with an impressive list of world-renowned authors – including numerous past MCC Fellows. Events include Steve Almond (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08), who hosts the Book Revue, a rocked-out multimedia event with literature by and about rock stars; Henriette Lazaridis Power (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06), who hosts the event Fiction: Time and Place, exploring identity and the march of history in fiction; and Kevin Young (Poetry Fellow ’10), editor of the new anthology The Art of Losing, who joins other authors to read and discuss as part of Poetry of Love, Loss, and Healing (incidentally, Meg Kearney, one of our recent grants panelists in Poetry, will also take part).

Julie Levesque (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’05) and David Prifti (Photography Finalist ’09) are part of the Rice/Polak Gallery‘s contribution to Affordable Art Fair New York City, September 30-October 3.

Liz Nofziger (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’05) and Linda Price-Sneddon (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’01) have created a collaborative installation, in two parts showing at two different art venues. Part one of the installation That Which Changes That Which Stays the Same shows at the Villa Victoria in Boston through November 3, 2010. The second part of the installation shows at the Essex Art Center in Lawrence through December 8, with an opening reception Friday, October 8, 5-7 PM, and an Artists’ Talk Wednesday, November 17, 7-8 PM. Both works are part of a joint exhibition by Villa Victoria and Essex Art Center called Exchange.

David Binder’s (Photography Fellow ’01) film Calling My Children received Best Short Documentary at the Woods Hole Film Fest in August where David also received an Emerging Filmmaker award. Furthermore, the film was named Best Short at the Newburyport Documentary Film Fest last weekend. The film will screen at the New Jersey Film Festival on October 1, the New Hampshire Film Festival October 14 – 17, and the Oaxaca International Film Festival in Oaxaca, Mexico November 5-13, 2010.

Steven Bogart (Playwriting Finalist ’09) has received great reviews for the production of Cabaret he directed – the Globe review in particular singles out his direction for praise. Read an ArtSake interview with Steven about the show.

Congratulations to Sarah Braunstein (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’04), who was named as one of the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35! The award recognizes five young fiction writers, selected by National Book Award Winners and Finalists. Sarah’s novel The Sweet Relief of Lost Children will be published by W.W. Norton in 2011.

Candice Smith Corby (Painting Fellow ’08) currently has work in two shows: Painting Now at the Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery at Bristol Community College (through October 21), and New Work 2010 (with Gwen Strahle) at the Lenore Gray Gallery in Providence, RI (through Oct. 25).

Patrick Donnelly (Poetry Fellow ’08) is reading as part of the Greenfield Poetry and Spoken Word Festival on Saturday, October 9. He’ll be taking part in readings at the Greenfield Grille at 3 PM and again at 6:30 PM.

Michael Gandolfi’s (Music Composition Fellow ’03) composition Plain Song will be among the works on the Boston Symphony Chamber Players new CD, Plain Song, Fantastic Dances: Chamber Music By American Composers, on the BSO Classics label. Gandolfi’s composition both commissioned specifically for the Boston Symphony Chamber Players. The new recording will be made available for download as a complete album and at the Symphony Shop in Boston, in November.

Ilana Manolson (Painting Fellow ’08) has a solo show, Stasis/Flux, at Clark Gallery in Lincoln, Mass. The show runs October 1-30, with a reception October 2, 4-6 PM.

Rebecca Meyers (Film & Video Fellow ’09), whose work is currently showing in the ICA/Boston 2010 Foster Prize Exhibition, has a Q&A with ICA curator Randi Hopkins on Thursday, October 28, 7 PM. In Words & Images: Rebecca Meyers, she’ll present a selection of short work including the New England premiere of her newest film, blue mantle, which explores the local history of the Massachusetts coast, shipwrecks, and the role of the sea as aesthetic inspiration.

Nathalie Miebach (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09) has a solo show, Weather Scores, at the Gordon Gallery of the Boston Arts Academy. The show features Nathalie’s work using weather data to create sculptural musical scores. Information from weather stations, off-shore buoys and satellite imagery, is translated into 2D and 3D musical scores that map meteorological conditions of a specific time and place, but also function as musical scores to be played by musicians (in fact, musician Elaine Rombola recently joined Nathalie to play the scores at a Nave Gallery reception). The Boston Arts Academy pieces focus on recent New England hurricanes, blizzards and storms. The show runs October 5-November 30, with an opening reception October 5, 5-7 PM. Read more about Nathalie’s weather scores in an ArtSake interview.

Cynthia Morrison Phoel (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’04, ’10) has a number of reading events for her new short story collection, Cold Snap: Bulgaria Stories. She takes part in the Concord Festival of Authors on Sunday, October 24, reading at 3 PM. Then, on Tuesday, October 26, 7 PM, she reads at Porter Square Books in Cambridge. On Thursday, October 28, 7 PM, she reads at Andover Bookstore (for both the Porter Square Books and Andover Bookstore events, she’ll be joined by Tracy Winn). Finally, she takes part in the Blacksmith House Reading Series: Monday, November 1, 8 PM, at Blacksmith House in Cambridge.

A 25-year survey of the work of Daniel Ranalli (Drawing Fellow ’10) will be presented at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. The exhibition, curated by Leslie K. Brown, focuses on Ranalli’s environmental works, embedded in the ecology and landscape of the Outer Cape. It includes over 30 works from several series. The show will be on view October 15, 2010 – January 16, 2011, with a free public reception occurring October 22, 2010, at 7-9 pm.

Monica Raymond (Playwriting Finalist ’07, Poetry Finalist ’08) has a photograph of the Cambridge Carnival featured in the current online edition of qarrtsiluni on “Crowds.”

Cristi Rinklin‘s (Painting Fellow ’10) solo exhibition, Paracosmos, opens at Steven Zevitas Gallery in Boston and will run from September 30-October 30, with an opening reception on Oct. 1st from 5:30-8 PM. Furthermore, her work is currently included in two group exhibitions: Painting Now, at the Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery at Bristol Community College in Fall River, MA, on view through October 21, and Crazy Beautiful II, at Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Larchmont, NY, on view through November 4.

Work by Leslie Sills (Crafts Fellow ’95) is included in The Teapot Redefined, an exhibition of sculptural teapots at Mobilia Gallery in Cambridge. The show runs through October 31.

Sarah Slifer (Choreography Fellow ’10) is interpreting and performing Charles Olson’s dance-play Apollonius if Tyana for two festivals celebrating the centenary of Olson’s birth. The first festival, Black Mountain North Symposium in Rochester, NY, is on October 3, 11:45 AM. The second festival is Olson 100 in Gloucester on October 10, 1 PM.

Identity Crisis, a new full-length comedy by Peter Snoad (Playwriting Fellow ’09) which received its first staged reading at Provincetown Theatre, in Provincetown, MA in May, is slated for two more staged readings. Centre Stage-South Carolina has selected Identity Crisis as a finalist in its annual new play contest and will present a reading of the play in Greenville, SC on October 21. (Peter won the theater’s 2006 contest with Guided Tour, pictured above.) Next February, HRC Showcase Theater in Hudson, NY will also give Identity Crisis a staged reading as part of its reading series. Peter’s popular short play, My Name is Art, was staged in September at the Short and Sweet Festival in Canberra, Australia after being produced twice in London over the summer – including a slot at the London Fringe Festival – and at Short and Sweet in Singapore.

Congratulations to Tracy Winn (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08), who received the 2010 Sherwood Anderson Foundation Fiction Award! The award is a yearly monetary prize (2009 award was $15,000) to a promising writer to celebrate the memory and literary work of Sherwood Anderson. Also, Tracy reads from her novel Mrs. Somebody Somebody (now in paperback) at Newtonville Books on October 14, 7 pm. Then, she’ll read at Porter Square Books on October 26 at 7 PM, and at Andover Bookstore on October 28, 7 PM.

Past Fellows Notes
Sept. 2010
Aug. 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
Apr. 2010
Mar. 2010
Feb. 2010
Jan. 2010

Are you a past fellow or finalist with an event, honor, or other bit of news you’d like to share? Tell us about it.

Images: David Prifti, EMRYS AND MR. FRENCH (2007), Tintype, 8×10 in; director Steven Bogart and performer Amanda Palmer during a rehearsal for CABARET, photo by Kati Mitchell; score for HURRICANE NOEL by Nathalie Miebach; Poster for GUIDED TOUR, a play by Peter Snoad, performed by Centre Stage-South Carolina, 2007.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Some might assume that the editors of ArtSake are, like Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way. (Other assumed similarities: that we carry coat racks in our handbags and frequently fraternize with chimney sweeps.) However, despite this appearance of practical perfection, we occasionally slip, missing important news when compiling our monthly Fellows Notes updates from past MCC fellows/finalists.

When you’ve recovered from the shock of this admission, here are some of the intriguing updates we left out of our recent September 2010 Fellows Notes post:

Three past fellows, Candice Smith Corby (Painting ’08), Cristi Rinklin (Drawing ’10), and Laurel Sparks (Painting ’04) are in the show Painting NOW, at the Grimshaw-Gudwicz Art Gallery at Bristol Community College, running September 9-October 21, 2010. There will be an opening reception Thursday, September 9, 6-8 PM.

Jane Brox (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’04) has three Massachusetts readings of her new book of nonfiction Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light. She’ll read at the Andover Bookstore in Andover on Thursday, September 9, 7 PM, at Porter Square Books in Cambridge on Monday, September 27, 7 PM, and at the Boston College Murray Function Room on Tuesday, September 28, 7 PM.

Ambreen Butt (Drawing Finalist ’10) is among the artists exhibiting in the Munroe Center for the Arts Open Studios in Lexington on Saturday, September 11, 12-4 PM.

Timothy Coleman (Crafts Finalist ’07) is exhibiting in the Society of Arts and Crafts Artist Award Exhibition in Boston. He is one of the three artists who received the 2010 award, which recognizes New England craft artists who demonstrate a mastery of their media and who create original and innovative work. The exhibition runs August 28 – October 31, with an opening reception Thursday, September 30, 6-8 PM.

Cynthia Maurice (Drawing Fellow ’02) has a solo show, Fresh Cut: New Works on Paper, part of the New England Currents series at the Danforth Museum in Framingham. The exhibit runs September 12-November 7, with an opening reception September 12, 5-7 PM. There will be a gallery talk on Wednesday, October 6, 12:30 PM.

Anne Neely (Painting Finalist ’10) recently showed in Large/Small, a Gallery Selection at Lohin Geduld Gallery in NY (the exhibition closed September 3). She’ll be in the group show Water at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Ketchum, Idaho from September 10 to November 5. And she’ll be among the artists participating in the South End Open Studios on September 25 and 26th. Anne’s studio, on 535 Albany Street, 4th Floor, will be open 12-5 PM both days.

Mary O’Donoghue (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06) will read from her debut novel, Before the House Burns, at the Boston Athenaeum on Wednesday, September 22, 2010, 6-7:30 PM.

Mary O’Malley (Drawing Fellow ’06) was recently featured on the site Artist a Day.

Henriette Lazaridis Power (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06) has a short story called “Uruguay” coming out in the November issue of Camera Obscura. She’s also just released another issue of The Drum, the online audio journal of new literature she founded.

Michael Zelehoski (Painting Fellow ’10) has a solo show, Objecthood, at the Christina Ray Gallery in NYC, September 9-October 10, with an opening reception Thursday, September 9, 7-9 PM. In the Huffington Post, Steven Mesler calls Michael the “next great artist.”

Jeff Zimbalist (Film & Video Fellow ’05) will screen The Two Escobars, the documentary he created with Michael Zimbalist, in Boston this month! It will have it’s Boston premiere at the Boston Film Festival, at the Stuart Street Playhouse in Boston on Saturday, September 18, at 4:45 PM. Ticket info.

Read the full Fellows Notes.

Images: Cristi Rinklin, ORACLE (2009), Flashe on Duralar, 30×48 in; cover art for BRILLIANT by Jane Brox (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010); logo for THE DRUM.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

September 2010

We compile a monthly list of presentations, honors, publications, and events featuring past and present MCC Artist Fellows & Finalists. As you’ll see, the news is good – not just about these award-winning artists, but also about the breadth and vitality of contemporary arts throughout the Commonwealth.

Of the nine finalists for the 2010 James and Audrey Foster Prize from the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, six are past MCC Fellows! This month, all finalists will be included in the James and Audrey Foster Prize Exhibition, running Sept. 22, 2010 – Jan. 17, 2011. The exhibition includes work by Robert de Saint Phalle, Eirik Johnson (Photography Fellow ’09), Fred H. C. Liang (Painting Fellow ’04, ’08), Rebecca Meyers (Film & Video Fellow ’09), Matthew Rich (Painting Fellow ’10), Daniela Rivera, Evelyn Rydz (Drawing Fellow ’10), Amie Siegel and Steve Tourlentes (Photography Fellow ’05). The winner of the prize, which recognizes and celebrates artists who live and work in Greater Boston, will be announced in early January 2011.

Three past fellows, Candice Smith Corby (Painting ’08), Cristi Rinklin (Drawing ’10), and Laurel Sparks (Painting ’04) are in the show Painting NOW, at the Grimshaw-Gudwicz Art Gallery at Bristol Community College, running September 9-October 21, 2010. There will be an opening reception Thursday, September 9, 6-8 PM.

Jane Brox (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’04) has three Massachusetts readings of her new book of nonfiction Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light. She’ll read at the Andover Bookstore in Andover on Thursday, September 9, 7 PM, at Porter Square Books in Cambridge on Monday, September 27, 7 PM, and at the Boston College Murray Function Room on Tuesday, September 28, 7 PM.

Ambreen Butt (Drawing Finalist ’10) is among the artists exhibiting in the Munroe Center for the Arts Open Studios in Lexington on Saturday, September 11, 12-4 PM.

Timothy Coleman (Crafts Finalist ’07) is exhibiting in the Society of Arts and Crafts Artist Award Exhibition in Boston. He is one of the three artists who received the 2010 award, which recognizes New England craft artists who demonstrate a mastery of their media and who create original and innovative work. The exhibition runs August 28 – October 31, with an opening reception Thursday, September 30, 6-8 PM.

Vico Fabbris (Painting Fellow ’06) is featured in the July/August 2010 Design New England. His art was selected as part of a model unit for the W Boston Hotel & Residences in Back Bay, designed by Meichi Peng and photographed by Michael J. Lee.

Congratulations to Patrick Ryan Frank (Poetry Fellow ’06), a finalist for the Ruth Lily Prize.

James Haug (Poetry Fellow ’98) has a new chapbook, called Scratch.

Liza Johnson’s (Film & Video Finalist ’07) film South of Ten will be featured in Hurricane Season, an evening of experimental documentary shorts reflecting the recent history of the Gulf Coast of the U.S. The screenings take place at the Issue Project in Brooklyn on September 15, at 8pm.

Caroline Klocksiem (Poetry Fellow ’08) has published two poems in Poets for Living Waters, an online poetry action in response to the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Rania Matar (Photography Fellow ’07) has a solo exhibition of photographs, A Girl and Her Room, at Gallery Kayafas in Boston. The photographs are on exhibit September 10 – October 16, 2010, with an opening reception Friday, September 10, 5:30-8 PM.

Cynthia Maurice (Drawing Fellow ’02) has a solo show, Fresh Cut: New Works on Paper, part of the New England Currents series at the Danforth Museum in Framingham. The exhibit runs September 12-November 7, with an opening reception September 12, 5-7 PM. There will be a gallery talk on Wednesday, October 6, 12:30 PM.

Rachel Mello (Painting Finalist ’10) was recently featured in a Weekly Dig article on the Somerville Open Studios.

As mentioned above, Rebecca Meyers (Film & Video Fellow ’09) will be among the artists in the Foster Prize Exhibition at the ICA. What’s more, Rebeca’s film blue mantle, an ode to the sea as a beautiful and terrible force, will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, which runs September 9-19, 2010. Read a fascinating Q&A with Rebecca from the Boston Globe.

Caleb Neelon (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’07) recently returned from creating a new mural in China. He shares some images from the adventure on the arts blog My Love for You is a Stampede of Horses.

Anne Neely (Painting Finalist ’10) recently showed in Large/Small, a Gallery Selection at Lohin Geduld Gallery in NY (the exhibition closed September 3). She’ll be in the group show Water at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Ketchum, Idaho from September 10 to November 5. And she’ll be among the artists participating in the South End Open Studios on September 25 and 26th. Anne’s studio, on 535 Albany Street, 4th Floor, will be open 12-5 PM both days.

Mary O’Donoghue (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06) will read from her debut novel, Before the House Burns, at the Boston Athenaeum on Wednesday, September 22, 2010, 6-7:30 PM.

Mary O’Malley (Drawing Fellow ’06) was recently featured on the site Artist a Day.

Henriette Lazaridis Power (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06) has a short story called “Uruguay” coming out in the November issue of Camera Obscura. She’s also just released another issue of The Drum, the online audio journal of new literature she founded.

Laurel Sparks (Painting Fellow ’04) is profiled on the New American Paintings blog.

Naoe Suzuki (Drawing Fellow ’06) has a solo show, Mi Tigre, My Lover opening at the Brown University Sarah Doyle Gallery in Providence. The show runs September 6 – October 1, 2010.

Tracy Winn (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) will read from her story collection Mrs. Somebody Somebody at Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley, Mass., on September 16, at 7 PM.

Michael Zelehoski (Painting Fellow ’10) has a solo show, Objecthood, at the Christina Ray Gallery in NYC, September 9-October 10, with an opening reception Thursday, September 9, 7-9 PM. In the Huffington Post, Steven Mesler calls Michael the “next great artist.”

Jeff Zimbalist (Film & Video Fellow ’05) will screen The Two Escobars, the documentary he created with Michael Zimbalist, in Boston! It will have it’s Boston premiere at the Boston Film Festival, at the Stuart Street Playhouse in Boston on Saturday, September 18, at 4:45 PM. Tickets info. And watch the terrific new trailer on iTunes!

Past Fellows Notes
Aug. 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
Apr. 2010
Mar. 2010
Feb. 2010
Jan. 2010

Are you a past fellow or finalist with an event, honor, or other bit of news you’d like to share? Tell us about it.

Images and media: Rebecca Meyers, still from the film LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS (2006); Rachel Mello, WHITHER SHALL I WANDER (2009), Oil on hardboard cut to silhoutte, 21 1/2×31 1/2 in; Naoe Suzuki, COME, LITTLE GIRL, COME (2010), Mineral pigment and graphite on paper, 30×66 in.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

What discoveries await you in this fan blog about Williamstown writer Jim Shepard? A. the above video. B. news of a new collection coming out March 2011, and that The Millions thinks You Think That’s Bad‘ll be rad. And C. that a Project X movie may be on the way. (I guess I just spoiled all your discoveries. Sorry. But still go check out the blog.)

Boston novelist Michelle Hoover guest-writes in the highly entertaining 1st Books Blog (authors writing about publishing their first books). The takeaway: persist, writers! Some 15 years spanned between the author starting her novel to the final days of editing, when she read chapters aloud to Other Press publisher Judith Gurewich.

Local playwright, actor, and theatre artist John Kuntz has launched a blog, and he recently wrote about how the audience at Company One’s Grimm was engaged and interested in the new play process: “It was a packed house, out for the night, they wanted to be there, and they were having a great time.” Dig it. May many more new works find many more enthusiastic audiences.

Jen Mergel, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art for the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, was featured in the New American Paintings blog discussing the role of contemporary art in an institution with a strong art history tradition: “I see [emerging artists] as hugely important in terms of keeping the conversation going and the discourse alive.”

And while we’re in the hallowed halls of the MFA: the Boston Globe recently profiled Andrew Haines who, as the museum’s conservator of frames, matches frames with paintings from MFA’s collection (that is, when he’s not creating his own astutely observed paintings).

In promoting their books and advancing their work, writers should definitely do these three things and then also these five things. Then POW: instant fame! Or at least, eight things done.

Sign of the times: Porter Square Books in Cambridge has added an e-Books buying section to its website.

Neato idea: a theatre company in NY enlists donations to cover the cost of giving away seats to audiences who otherwise may not have the opportunity to go.

In the blog of ArtCorps, an organization that sends artists to strengthen and mobilize Central American communities, Massachusetts native Laura Smith talks about using art to foster empowerment with women in El Salvador.

Always wanted to weld/wire/sew/woodwork but don’t have the tools, space, and/or know-how? Artisan’s Asylum, a non-profit community workshop in Somerville, wants to make an array of tools and classes available to current or aspiring makers of things. In preparing their upcoming class schedule, they’re asking for artist/artisans to take an interest survey.

Attend the London Biennale – in Boston. No inter-dimensional wormhole required! TransCultural Exchange, a Mass. org specializing in connecting international cultural communities, is holding a local satellite event – a Curated Salon – as Boston’s contribution to the London Biennale’s three month calendar of cultural events. If you’re interested, bring yourself and a non-artist guest for an evening of brilliant conversation. All participants will be listed on TransCultural Exchange’s website as official participants in the London Biennale. The salon takes place on August 19, 6-8 PM, at the Hampshire House. Download the press release, which includes ticket information, here.

Finally, two “Notes” we missed in our recent Artist Fellows Notes: Wendy Jehlen’s (Choreography Finalist ’04) Anikai Dance Company is producing a free site-specific outdoor performance at Georges Island on the Boston Harbor Islands on Saturday, August 7, 1:30 PM. And Vico Fabbris (Painting Fellow ’06) is featured in the July/August 2010 Design New England. His art was selected as part of a model unit by interior designer Meichi Peng (see art overlooking pillow, below).

Media: clip of Jim Shepard reading the story “Boys Town” at Skidmore College; detail of model unit at the W Boston Hotel & Residences in Back Bay, Meichi Peng, designer and Michael J. Lee, photographer, from Design New England Magazine.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

The Rifrákt artist collective takes the conventional approach to art exhibitions and bends it a bit (the name is a play on the word “refract”). Founded by Carolyn Hulbert and Stephanie Goode, the collective shows work in a variety of spaces, including private homes, galleries, and alternative spaces like coffee houses and libraries. And, with their latest effort, the book 25 Emerging Boston Artists 2010, they aim to advance the featured artists while donating proceeds to causes they support.

We interviewed co-founder Carolyn Hulbert and Stephanie Goode about Rifrákt and the new book, as part of our Art and Philanthropy series, looking at artists who merge creative projects with philanthropic goals.

ArtSake: I was interested in something Carolyn said in an interview with TeaParty Boston, that one of the motives behind forming Rifrákt, along with exhibition opportunities, was helping the members grow as professional artists. How important is community and dialogue to your work, and your careers?

Carolyn: Community and dialogue are very important, especially when you’re trying to create a name for yourself, or for a collective. It helps to start in an environment you consider home, where you know and see people and they start to recognize you and your work. Even though our subjects aren’t directly connected to our community, our work is a product of where we live and the time we are living in.

Stephanie: If one is used to traditional schooling with the benefits of critique groups, Rifrákt and groups like ours make the transition to the art world outside school easier. It helps with self motivation especially.

ArtSake: Can you talk about how the new book came to be? How does the book fit in with Rifrákt’s goals, as a collective?

Stephanie: Carolyn and I talked about doing the book to showcase artists work, hoping that it would help each artist in exhibition and public representation. For some artists, getting their work out there can be very difficult without prior knowledge, contacts, and steady stream of personal strength as potential rejection letters come in. The book was a chance for us to see who else was out there in Boston that we felt everyone should know about. Rifrákt has always been a group aimed to help not only ourselves as we continue our career, but also those in our community.

Carolyn: We just wanted to see more opportunities for emerging artists in Boston. The book was the first larger scale project that we have done, and there are definitely more plans for projects that involve Boston-based artists.

ArtSake: Rifrákt has had four exhibitions since June 2009, and one upcoming in August. Can you talk a little bit about your curatorial process and how you select your venues?

Stephanie: Exhibition and competition is very prevalent in Boston, a city full of art schools. Creating your own alternative space is one way to curate and exhibit your own work within your own means and desires. We started doing one-night house shows with the core members and other guest artists in 2009. Basically, we took in any artist who wanted to exhibit their work and had the same positive and strong energy that we embodied. As time went on, more and more people became interested in joining. We created our website, adding to our member count, and began contemplating exhibiting in spaces other than apartments.

Carolyn: Most of our upcoming shows are through networking with previous and current Rifrákt members. Most of our venues are selected from research and networking. We definitely look at a lot of artist web sites, blogs, venue and gallery web sites, and try to see if it’s a good fit for us.

ArtSake: Carolyn, your own prints and paintings are influenced by ancient cultures, animal imagery, and mysterious symbols. What draws you to the subjects of your work?

Carolyn: The subject of my work is something that is personal or something I am very interested in at the moment. I love the unknown and mysteries. I can’t get enough of ancient cultures. There seems to have been a closer or more spiritual relationship between humanity and the earth. I feel by painting or drawing that, I feel closer to being a human, as well as transferring that feeling into my work. Most of the animal imagery is culture related, or is a current or past pet. I love adding Iceland my cat or Sais my dog into my work, or even using them as inspiration for a piece.

ArtSake: Stephanie, what draws you to the subjects of your work?

Stephanie: Most of my work revolves around psychology, and could be viewed as art therapy. Many projects work within the human psyche, dreams, familial spaces and nostalgia. I am always interested in why things are, how they came to be, analyzing. When I first started taking art seriously in my early teens, I worked a lot with drawing and mixed media. I became heavily involved within traditional photography in college. Now I am bringing back some of the mixed media work, printing photographs on adhesive vinyl, collage works on paper and assemblage projects for the future involving my own and found photographs.

ArtSake: What’s next for Rifrákt?

Carolyn: Rifrákt will be showing at Voltage Coffee and Art in August and at the West End Library branch in September. We will probably do a few small projects and a couple more proposals and submissions. We do have a proposal for a collaboration with another Boston collective! As for me, I have grad school on the mind, so I am taking my time and doing research.

Stephanie: We will continue to show and collaborate. I would like to grow in members and expand our reach beyond current limits. Perhaps collaborate with other Boston collectives, NYC collectives or show in corporate galleries and other venues that we haven’t been able to participate in before. Personally I would like to continue building a body of new work and grow in contacts to exhibit said projects. I may want to collaborate with glass and sculpture artists as well.

25 Emerging Boston Artists 2010 features work by Valerie Arruda, Fiona Boyd, Jessica Brilli, Alexandra Carter, Corey Corcoran, Leah Cunningham, Barbara Geoghegan, Stephanie Goode, Todd Goodman, Luba Grenader, Maggie Hennessy, Amy Hitchcock, Carolyn Hulbert, Vanessa Irzyk, Marco Jimenez, Scott Listfield (Painting Finalist ’10), Rachel Mello (Painting Finalist ’10), Aaron Morris, Nathaniel Price, Jennifer Reich, Nora Richardson, Anna Rochinski, Alec Strickland, Patricia Sarrafian Ward, and Brandy Wolfe.

An opening reception for 25 Emerging Boston Artists 2010 takes place on Friday, August 6, 6-10pm at The Temple in Jamaica Plain. The free event will include musical performances by Huellas and The Organ Beats starting at 7:30pm.

Copies of the book will be sold at cost through the 8/6 event. After that, all proceeds from the regularly-priced book will be generously donated to the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Images: book jacket for 25 EMERGING BOSTON ARTISTS 2010 by Rifrakt Artist Collective; Vanessa Irzyk, UNTITLED (2009), oil on panel, 22×24 in; Marco Jimenez, YOUR DOG WAS AMAZINGLY CUTE, YOU WERE OKAY (2010), Missed Connections, mixed media; Carolyn Hulbert, SAIS AND HIS FRIEND OF GOLD (2010), digital print, silkscreen & gold leaf, 12×16 in; Stephanie Goode, RED, 9 HOURS (2003), light jet print, aluminum/plexiglas mtd. 12×12 in, editioned; Rachel Mello, WHITHER SHALL I WANDER (2009), Oil on hardboard cut to silhouette, 21 1/2 x 31 1/2 in.

Powered by Bookmarkify™