News and Notes from MCC Artist Fellows
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 and beyond.
Bilingual Review Press recently published Mara Luisa Arroyo’s (Poetry Fellow ’04) poetry collection Gathering Words/Recogiendo palbras. The collection, written mostly in English but including some Spanish translations, explores the stark realities of life and gives voice to battered and oppressed women. Earlier this year, Mara was named a Massachusetts Unsung Heroine by the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women.
Candice Smith Corby (Painting Fellow ’08) was recently profiled in Brockton’s The Enterprise. Also, Candice’s work is included in the Dress Redress exhibition – in which contemporary artists explore the role of clothing in our lives and identities – at the Kniznick Gallery at Brandeis University, through September 25.
Ranjanaa Devi’s (Traditional Arts Finalist ’08) Nataraj Dancers use brilliantly colored costumes, expressive gestures, masks, powerful footwork, and original music to create performances that blend classical Odissi, folk, and contemporary dance styles. On August 16, the group joins Somapa Thai Dance Company and Angkor Dance to perform the Ramayana for Southeast Asian Water Festival in Lowell.
Stephen Earp (Traditional Arts Finalist ’08) has been selected for inclusion in the 2008 Directory of Traditional Crafts, sponsored by Early American Life Magazine. His work is also featured in the August 2008 issue of Early American Life.
Sherrill Hunnibell (Drawing/Printmaking/Artist Books ’04) has a solo exhibition of mixed media paintings and altered books at Turtle Gallery in Deer Isle, Maine. The exhibition, which has an opening reception August 24, 2 PM, runs August 24-October 18.
Sculptural and two-dimensional work by Julie Levesque (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’05) shows at the Rice/Pollak Gallery in Provincetown in a solo exhibition running August 29-Sept 14 (opening reception Fri, Aug 29, 7 PM). Julie’s work infuses stark, monochromatic sculptures and drawings with striking narrative life.
A video installation by Julie Mallozzi (Film & Video Finalist ’08) is part of the “Dualities” show at the San Francisco Art Institutes Swell Gallery. Also, Julie co-edited the film “In Paraguay,” directed by Ross McElwee (Film & Video Fellow ’97, ’05) and showing in the Venice Film Festival, which runs August 27 Sept 6, 2008. Julie describes both projects in her blog.
Salvatore Scibona (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06) reads from his acclaimed novel The End at West Tisbury Free Public Library on Saturday, August 30, 5:30 PM. (In case you missed it, check out our interview with Salvatore.)
Tom Sleigh’s (Playwriting/New Theater Works Fellow ’03) essay “The Deeds” appears in the Summer 2008 issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review.
Steve Tourlentes (Photography Fellow ’05) was recently interviewed in Big RED and Shiny about his arts background and his fascinating nighttime portraits of prisons.
Rachel Perry Welty (Drawing/Printmaking/Artist Books Fellow ’04) is part of the group show “(dis)concert,” an exhibition of “sound objects” curated by Carole Ann Klonarides. It shows at Steve Turner Contemporary in L.A., through August 16.
Joan Wickersham’s (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) new memoir The Suicide Index (portions of which garnered Joan a 2008 fellowship) has just been published. Joan will read from the work at Porter Square Books on Thursday, August 7, 7 PM. Read an excerpt from the work from our Gallery@ MCC.
Past Fellows Notes
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
Mar. 2008
Feb. 2008
Jan. 2008
Dec. 2007
Nov. 2007
Oct. 2007
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: Candice Smith Corby, Til Death Do Us Part (2007), gouache on cloth napkin, 14 in. x 20 in.; publicity photo from Nataraj Dancers; Cover art from The Suicide Index (Harcourt 2008) by Joan Wickersham; Stephen Earp, Jug (2007), 13 in. height