NEWS

JANUARY 29, 2021

GABRIEL KRUIS’S DEBUT COLLECTION OF POEMS HAS JUST BEEN PUBLISHED

Simon & Schuster, Archway Editions, has recently published Acid Virga, the debut collection of poems from Gabriel Kruis (Writing Fellow 2018-2019). In praise of Acid Virga, Tom Sleigh (Writing Fellow 1981-1982 and 1979-1980) writes, “As wildly visionary as it is linguistically alive, Gabriel Kruis’s Acid Virga, drills down into the bedrock of American life to produce a book unparalleled in its exploration of how visionary experience and social upheaval collide in ways that are both transformative and annihilating.” Book cover image by artist Nicole Eisenman.

JANUARY 11, 2021

AUSTIN SEGREST WINS VASSAR MILLER PRIZE FOR POETRY

Austin Segrest (Writing Fellow 2018-2019) has just won the Vassar Miller Prize for Poetry from the University of North Texas for Door to Remain, his forthcoming collection of poetry. The collection will be published by UNT Press in 2022. His poems can be found in Poetry, The Yale Review, The Threepenny Review, Ecotone, New England Review, Ploughshares and many others. His poetry reviews and essays can be found in 32 Poems, Southern Humanities Review and Pleiades. Photo: Ann Wood

JANUARY 11, 2021

KAMBUI OLUJIMI CREATES OVER 200 PORTRAITS IN TRIBUTE TO CATHERINE ARLINE

For more than five years, Kambui Olujimi (Visual Arts Fellow 2007-2008) has painted an ongoing and remarkable series of portraits in homage to Catherine Arline, an unwavering mentor of his, from childhood until her recent passing. “Walk With Me,” the extraordinary exhibition of 177 of these paintings, is currently on view at Project for Empty Space in Newark, NJ and runs through January 24. These works are a posthumous and bittersweet homage to a woman who had a profound impact on both Olujimi and his childhood community in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Of the work Olujimi says: “For more than the last five years, I have created more than 200 paintings from a photograph of her when she moved to New York at 18-years-old. Flattened by grief the work became a place of both healing and sharing time with her. The work engages in the process of remembering, forgetting, and mythologizing.” Photo (detail): Kambui Olujimi by Simbarashe Cha for the New York Times, Center & Right images: Portraits of Catherine Arline, ink on paper, 11” x 14”

JANUARY 08, 2021

COADY BROWN CURATES “DOMESTICATED” – A GROUP SHOW AT RICHARD HELLER GALLERY

Coady Brown (Visual Arts Fellow 2019-2020 and 2018-2019) is the curator (and a participating artist) of “Domesticated,” a new group show at the Richard Heller Gallery in Santa Monica, CA. The exhibition also features works by Raul De Lara (Visual Arts Fellow 2019-2020). In addition to Brown and De Lara, the group show also features works by Alexander Harrison, Brook Hsu, GaHee Park and Jose de Jesus Rodriguez. The show opens January 9th and runs through February 13th. Left image: Coady Brown, Midnight Bloom, 2020, oil on canvas, 42” x 36”, Right image: Raul De Lara, Tornado, 2020, painted wood and leather saddle, 21.5” x 9.5” x 21.5”

DECEMBER 31, 2020

NATHALIE MIEBACH LAUNCHES NEW STUDIO VENTURE – “SPIDERS AND BIRDS”

Nathalie Miebach (Visual Arts Fellow 2007-2007 and 2006-2007) has recently launched a wonderful new artist-run, women-owned small business called Spiders & Birds – playful handwoven design for a home that likes to smile. According to Nathalie, “I began Spiders & Birds during the Covid-19 pandemic. After a 15 year, solid career in exhibiting sculptures all over the US and abroad, I wanted to stretch my wings again to start a design studio that borrows my fine arts aesthetics of play to combine with more functional items for the home. While I am still working in my regular studio making sculptures (nathaliemiebach.com), I am excited to start this new branch in my art career that focuses on a slightly different interest of mine.”

DECEMBER 29, 2020

“S-334473” – SARAH OPPENHEIMER’S STUNNING INSTALLATION AT MASS MOCA

Sarah Oppenheimer (Visual Arts Fellow 1995-1996) has recently completed the installation of S-334473 – her dynamic environmental sculpture – at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) in North Adams, MA. Visitors are encouraged to touch the glass and metal sculpture in order to set its movement in motion and redefine the physical experience and sight lines of the exhibition space. “Oppenheimer’s S-334473 mobilizes the museum’s architecture in order to transform and extend the visitor’s understanding of the exhibition spaces it reveals, and disrupts. In the process, artwork and viewer become joined in an intricate choreography of the inhabited environment.” Left photo: courtesy MASS MoCA, Right photo: Bette Warner

DECEMBER 24, 2020

FIRELEI BÁEZ IN POWERFUL GROUP EXHIBITION AT SKIDMORE COLLEGE

Firelei Báez (Visual Arts Fellow 2013-2014) is one of the participating artists in the extraordinary group show, “Never Done: 100 Years of Women in Politics and Beyond,” at the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College. According to organizers Rachel Seligman and Minita Sanghvi, “the exhibition takes the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment as the occasion for reflection and exploration of the issues and challenges women in the United States have faced, and continue to face, in politics and society. “Never Done” aims to go beyond politics to create conversations about art, gender, race, and intersectional identities. To do so, this exhibition presents artwork by a diverse group of women: Black, brown, Indigenous, LGBTQ, and differently-abled women and non-binary artists; artists working in photography, painting, printmaking, collage, textile, and sculpture; artists from across the United States and from different generations.” Through June 6, 2021. Image above: Untitled (Temple of Time), 2020, oil and acrylic on archival printed canvas, 94.5” x 132.5”

DECEMBER 23, 2020

JOHN MURILLO LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/VOELCKER AWARD

John Murillo’s (Writing Fellow 2007-2008) collection of poetry, Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry, has just been longlisted for a 2021 PEN/Voelcker Award For Poetry Collection given to a poet whose distinguished collection of poetry represents a notable and accomplished literary presence. “Since 1963, the PEN America Literary Awards have honored many of the most outstanding voices in literature across diverse genres, including fiction, poetry, science writing, essays, sports writing, biography, children’s literature, and drama. With the help of its partners, PEN America confers over 20 distinct awards, fellowships, grants and prizes each year, awarding nearly $350,000 to writers and translators. Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry was also selected as one of the Top Ten Poetry Books of 2020 by the New York Public Library (NYPL). Photo: Marcus Jackson

DECEMBER 23, 2020

LEILA CHATTI LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/OPEN BOOK AWARD

Deluge, Leila Chatti’s (Writing Fellow 2016-2017) collection of poems, has just been longlisted for a 2021 PEN Open Book Award for an exceptional book-length work of any literary genre by an author of color. “Since 1963, the PEN America Literary Awards have honored many of the most outstanding voices in literature across diverse genres, including fiction, poetry, science writing, essays, sports writing, biography, children’s literature, and drama. With the help of its partners, PEN America confers over 20 distinct awards, fellowships, grants and prizes each year, awarding nearly $350,000 to writers and translators.

DECEMBER 22, 2020

ASAKO SERIZAWA LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/ROBERT W. BINGHAM PRIZE

Asako Serizawa’s (Writing Fellow 2015-2016) collection of linked stories, Inheritors, has just been longlisted for a 2021 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize For Debut Short Story Collection for an author whose debut collection of short stories represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise for future work. “Since 1963, the PEN America Literary Awards have honored many of the most outstanding voices in literature across diverse genres, including fiction, poetry, science writing, essays, sports writing, biography, children’s literature, and drama. With the help of its partners, PEN America confers over 20 distinct awards, fellowships, grants and prizes each year, awarding nearly $350,000 to writers and translators.