[Today in art news and events: The Clay Studio is having a bang-up summer; the #RachelDolezal scandal hasn’t quite died down yet; BuzzFeed offers promising full-time opportunities for artists and citizen journalists; and Rutgers students return from Iceland. — the Artblog editors]
News
If you are in Los Angeles and somehow still not partied out after celebrating the victory of marriage equality, make some upcoming LGBTQ exhibitions stops on your weekend itinerary. Queer Fantasy at OHWOW Gallery in Los Angeles, featuring Jacolby Satterwhite and John Waters, is curated by William J. Simmons and focuses on works from the 1950s to today. The show opens on July 11 at 6 pm and runs until August 15, 2015.
The Clay Studio just won an immense number of victories, from awards for its resident artists to awards for the Studio as a whole. Two resident artists have been awarded Independence Foundation Visual Arts Fellowships: Rebecca Chappell is traveling to England to take a historical food course with Ivan Day on Victorian sugar sculpture and visit the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, while Roberta Massuch is traveling to Mexico for a residency at Arquetopia Center for Development in Puebla, Mexico, working at the Talebera Ceramics Factory and traveling to Mexico City to study the architecture of Luis Barragan and Ricardo Legoretta. Chappell and Massuch are the 13th and 14th Clay Studio resident artists to receive Independence Fellowships.
Additionally, resident artist alumna Lauren Mabry became the 7th Clay Studio resident to receive a Pew Fellowship, and resident artist Joanna Pike has been selected to receive the 2015-16 Sybille Zeldin Fellowship. This Fellowship provides a stipend of $500 per month to one artist who demonstrates a high level of merit, artistic potential, and dedication to their work. On top of all this, the Clay Studio received an anonymous gift of $10,000 toward the operating costs of the Resident Artist Program. Safe to say, they’re having a good summer so far.
Steven D. Lavine, President of CalArts, is stepping down in May 2017 after an accomplishment-packed 29-year tenure. Lavine’s major career highlights include the endowment gifts that led to the naming of the Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance, the Herb Alpert School of Music, and the internationally renowned Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater (REDCAT). Lavine also founded CalArts’ Community Arts Partnership (CAP) for underserved students. and raised $42 million to rebuild and reopen the campus in just eight months after the Northridge earthquake. Such a long-term announcement means that Lavine has not only plenty of time to push key initiatives in his final two years at CalArts, but that the search for his replacement is going to be extensive.
Not many people are picking up on the artistic angle of the ever-sordid Rachel Dolezal saga, but maybe they should. Her fabrications and exaggerations may extend to her artistic CV while she lived in D.C. There are some interesting reads floating around, which should be taken with a grain of salt but are still worth perusing, including F. Lennox Campello’s blog, home to a series of articles investigating potential fraud in Dolezal’s art.
Opportunities
Held in Paris’ Grand Palais from March 31 to April 3, 2016, Art Paris Art Fair is seeking applicants. With 145 or so galleries participating, it’s open to all forms of artistic expression, including design. If you and your gallery are interested, applications are now open until October 5, 2015. For any further information, please contact Béatrice Campillo, Exhibitor Relations Manager, T +33 (0)1 56 52 12 / bcampillo@artparis.com
Eyebeam has launched a new journalism fellowship, together with BuzzFeed, and the initiative is an exciting prospect for anyone seeking to develop new work based on the principles of citizen journalism techniques. The partnership is focused on applications from technologists and artists whose work is creatively engaged with citizen journalism, and especially those who deal with questions of privacy, ad-hoc-ness, and tracking-resistance. One applicant is to be chosen, receiving the opportunity to present their work at Eyebeam in Brooklyn as well as show in Eyebeam’s annual showcase. The new fellow then works in San Francisco for the bulk of the time during the year, at BuzzFeed’s new R&D labs. To apply, please submit the following materials as attachments or links to openlabfellowship@buzzfeed.com:
– Résumé or CV
– Details on three to five past projects you feel are representative of your best work
– If applying for the senior fellowship, please include examples of successfully leading product launches
Project(s) proposal: Please explain in detail, in separate sections:
– The specific project(s) you intend to work on with a proposed schedule.
– How the project(s) can be completed in only a year.
– If involving hardware, how the project(s) can be scaled up, including rough cost estimates.
– Why you are qualified and capable of doing work others haven’t or can’t.
– How the project(s) is consistent with the open-source idea of bettering the media industry.
– Three letters of recommendation: Please have your referees email their letters directly to us at openlabfellowship@buzzfeed.com using the subject line “[Candidate’s Last Name] Reference”. Your referees should attest to your knowledge of your subject matter and your professional abilities, and your ability to create and innovate shareable technology.
The fellowships are full-time positions. Current and former BuzzFeed employees may apply but are not given special preference, and applicants must be authorized to work in the United States.
Artist News
Drew Leshko is doing a big group show in San Francisco with Hashimoto Contemporary. Repping Philly along with Erin Riley, he’s joined by Tracey Snelling, Ravi Zupa’s typewriter guns, 1010, Jessica Hess, Joel Daniel Phillips, Brett Amory, and a number of other incredible artists and works. Drew also has a solo show in L.A. opening later in July, plus some recent glowing press from Juxtapoz, Hi-Fructose, and The Daily Mini.
Joe Leroux, who, alongside his wife Stacey Webber, did a podcast with us, has a current solo exhibition at GRIN Contemporary Gallery in Providence, RI. The Bluffs, featuring meticulously fabricated sculptures and paintings, is available on Artsy.
For the second time, Margery Amdur and 13 Rutgers students have returned from a residence at the wonderful Gullkistan, an Icelandic artists’ residence. During their 12 days at Gullkistan, they completed a course on creativity and nature, and you can see a huge catalog of great photos of their adventures on the residency’s website.
