News:

January 29, 2020

By January 29, 2020
Christine Sun Kim, Degrees of Institutional Deaf Rage, 2018; charcoal and oil pastel on paper.

Artist Christine Sun Kim to sign the National Anthem alongside performer Demi Lovato at Super Bowl LIV in Miami

ADVERTISEMENT

MIAMI—Artist Christine Sun Kim, whose text paintings charting her experiences of “deaf rage” in museums and other institutions gained attention as part of the 2019 Whitney Biennial, has announced she will perform the National Anthem in American Sign Language alongside singer Demi Lovato at Super Bowl LIV, set to take place on Sunday, February 9 in Miami. As Kim told Artnet, the role is part of an annual partnership between the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and the National Football League (NFL).

“With the NFL’s massive platform, we can actually bring sign language to millions of homes. Representation matters a great deal to me, and I hope that seeing a Deaf person signing the anthem will bring attention to various issues that plague our community: language-deprived deaf babies, police brutality towards disabled people, a lack of mental health services, and many others,” Kim continued. “The biggest reason why I have decided to perform, however, is because I’m so damn patriotic as a Deaf person. Compared to other countries, America has it good—although not perfect—when it comes to disability laws… The NAD is the oldest civil rights organization in America, founded in 1880.”


United States Artists announces 2020 fellowships for over fifty artists across ten disciplines

CHICAGO—United States Artists has awarded over fifty artists with an unrestricted grant of $50,000 each. Founded in 2006, USA was created to combat cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts. This year’s fellows include cross-disciplinary artist and quiltmaker Aaron McIntosh, documentarian RaMell Ross, artists Howardena Pindell and Martine Syms, poet Jericho Brown, and others. The artists selected work within one of the ten disciplines: Architecture and Design, Craft, Dance, Film, Media, Music, Theater and Performance, Traditional Arts, Visual Arts, and Writing.


Joan Mitchell Foundation announces thirty-seven artists for 2020 artist-in-residence program in New Orleans

NEW YORK—The 2020 residents at the Joan Mitchell Center include eight artists based in New Orleans and twenty-nine artists traveling to the city from fourteen different states. “The 2020 artists’ work represents an incredible spectrum of formal and conceptual approaches, and an engagement with place, culture, identity, and the importance of the creative process in ways that feel timely and deeply meaningful,” said Toccarra A. H. Thomas, director of the Joan Mitchell Center. The program provides access to professional training, studio visits with curators, and consultations and workshops with arts, business, and legal professionals. All of the artists receive a monthly $600 stipend for the duration of their residencies.


Cannupa Hanska Luger, one of the inaugural awardees of the Craft Research Fund artist fellowship. Photo by Brendan George Ko, 2019.

The Center for Craft announces the inaugural Craft Research Fund artist fellows for 2020

ADVERTISEMENT

ASHEVILLE—The Center for Craft has announced artists BA Harrington and Cannupa Hanska Luger as the inaugural awardees for the 2020 Craft Research Fund Artist Fellowship. The program is just one of four parts to the Craft Research fund. Awards of $20,00 will go to each artist in support of research projects that advance, expand, and support the creation of new research and knowledge through craft. The research projects will take place over an 18 month period.

BA Harrington will develop a body of work that re-interprets historical American furniture that was designed and built specially for use by women and turning these objects into proto-feminist forms. Harrington’s research will focus on the role of furniture as historical evidence giving light to untold, underrepresented, and undocumented stories.

Cannupa Hanska Luger, a Native contemporary artist and craftsperson, will re-develop and re-claim ceramic traditions used by his Mandan ancestors that were destroyed by colonization. Luger will travel to North Dakota to spend time on his ancestors land to hand dig clay bodies from the earth and test their materiality.


The Creatives Project announces new artists-in-studio fellows for 2020 – 2022

ATLANTA—The artist-in-studio program will provide nine artists with studio space at the Goat Farm Arts Center and exhibition opportunities for the next two years. As part of the program, each artist will volunteer as a mentor for arts education to youths and adults in metro Atlanta. The nine artists chosen as fellows are Chloe Alexander, Rose Barron, EuGene Byrd, Artemus Jenkins, Walker Keith Jernigan, Crystal Jin Kim, Carley Rickles, Sachi Rome, Mason Webb.


The Loghaven Artist Residency in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Loghaven Artist Residency announces inaugural artists and completion of ninety-acre campus

KNOXVILLE—The newly completed artists residency center Loghaven is located near downtown Knoxville and features artist housing in rehabilitated log cabins, a performing arts studio and visual arts studio, and additional studio space and facilities for artists. The residency will provide artists with a weekly stipend grant for art supplies and other expenses.

Loghaven supports dancers and theater makers, collaborative artist groups, music composition, and writers. The inaugural residents, who were selected following a nomination process, include performance artist Ann Carlson, artists Tia-Simon Gardner and Wendy Red Star, and writer and editor Amy Lam. Open calls for residency applications will begin in June.


Kevin Cole to receive the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Award from Georgia Museum of Art

ATHENS—Kevin Cole will receive the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Award from the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia. Cole is a painter and mixed-media artist from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, who has grown prominent in Atlanta, Georgia, where he taught for thirty years in the Atlanta Public Schoools system, from which he is now retired. Additionally, an exhibition of his work, Kevin Cole: Soul Ties, will be presented through April 19 at the museum.


National Portrait Gallery will bring the Obama Portraits to the High Museum of Art

ATLANTA—Showcasing official portraits by Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, the Obama Portraits Tour will travel to five major museums over the course of a year, landing in Atlanta at the High Museum of Art from January 14, 2022 through March 13, 2022. Sherald, a Georgia native who painted the First Lady Michelle Obama, was the recipient of the High’s 2018 David C. Driskell Price.


The Asheville Art Museum receives prestigious award to digitize hidden Black Mountain College collection

ASHEVILLE—The Asheville Art Museum has received a major grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources to digitize the museum’s hidden Black Mountain College collection materials. With this funding the museum plans to create an online digital collection of the Black Mountain College archives and an interconnective timeline. Hundreds of never-before-seen archival document, literature, works of art, furniture and more will become part of this multidisciplinary resource. This is one of eighteen projects funded by CLIR for the 2019 Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives awards.


Digital sketch for BEZOZON by Tess Elliot at VINEGAR Contemporary, courtesy of the artist.

Vinegar Projects announces the opening of Vinegar Contemporary

BIRMINGHAM—Vinegar Projects, previously without a physical space for its curatorial projects, has announced the grand opening of Vinegar Contemporary, a permanent exhibition space focused on artists working in emerging and experimental art forms. Vinegar asks artists to explore intellectually rigorous and socially relevant topics in their work, making a space for artists to take risks and challenge themselves and their audiences. The grand opening and inaugural exhibition will take place Friday, February 21, featuring BEZOZON, an installation and VR project by Tess Elliot.

Related Stories