Catch up on the latest accolades and achievements of our Pew Fellows, including new exhibitions and public works.
Exhibitions & New Works
Approach, a new permanent installation by visual artist Karyn Olivier (2019), debuted in Terminal A at Newark Liberty Airport in November. The New York Times featured the piece, describing it as “Fragmented views of New Jersey’s skylines, shipping ports, salt marshes and infrastructure, like its infamous turnpike” imprinted on “stacks of 17 floating and parallel metal rings.”
Visual artist Odili Donald Odita’s (2022) solo exhibition Burning Cross is on view at Jack Shainman Gallery through February 18, 2023. The paintings featured in this exhibitionreflect on “the idea of trust, or the lack thereof, in American life” in recent years, Odita says. In a studio visit with ArtNews in December, Odita shared his artmaking process, including preparation for Burning Cross.
Selections from the Archives: Rami George at William Way LGBT Community Center “revisits and (re)frames the histories woven within Philadelphia’s local queer community” through visual artist Rami George’s (2021) selection of archival materials, according to the gallery site. George’s selection focuses on underrepresented voices in everyday life, political action, and the history of the William Way Center itself. Selections from the Archives is on view through February 23, 2023. George also received an Art & Change Grant from the Leeway Foundation in October.
Tina Satter’s (2019) debut feature film Reality, adapted from her play Is This a Room and starring Sydney Sweeney, will premiere at the 73rd Berlin Film Festival, February 16–26, 2023. Is This A Room debuted on Broadway in 2021, created from a verbatim transcript of an FBI interrogation of Reality Winner, a former American intelligence specialist charged with leaking classified information.
Visual artist Alex Da Corte’s (2012) solo exhibition The Streetis on view at the University of the Arts’ Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery through March 10, 2023. The Street features large scale recent paintings arranged in immersive installations.
Interdisciplinary artist Jesse Harrod’s (2020) solo exhibition Jesse Harrod: Tough Nut is on view at Fleisher/Ollman Gallery through March 11, 2023. This exhibition features new wall-based sculptures in paracord and brass drawn from “an extended residency at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and Kohler Co.’s Art/Industry program, where artists experiment with the materials and processes that Kohler employs in the manufacturing of bathroom fixtures,” according to the gallery site.
Adebunmi Gbadebo: Remains, ceramic artist Adebunmi Gbabedo’s (2022) solo exhibition, is on view at Claire Oliver Gallery in New York City through March 11, 2023. “I have crafted ceramic vessels from the very land that was once cleared by my ancestors,” Gbadebo’s artist statement explains, “as a way to commemorate what they endured and as a way to activate the land, using it, and shaping it.”
Nottingham Contemporary in England presents interdisciplinary artist Carolyn Lazard’s (2019) first solo exhibition in the UK, Carolyn Lazard: Long Take, February 11 through May 7, 2023. The exhibition features “a newly conceived installation that responds to the legacy of dance for the camera, considered through the lens of accessibility as a creative tool…anchored by a sound installation made of a recorded reading of a dance score, the sound of a dancer’s movement and breath, and an audio description,” according to the gallery website.
Art on the Underground has commissioned visual artist Sharon Hayes (2016) for the pocket map of the London Underground. Through an examination of newspaper archives and UK LGBTQ+ history, Hayes will use collage to explore language and how it changes over time and space. Hayes' pocket Tube map commission will be expanded and on view in poster sites at Holland Park Tube station in May 2023.
Poet and writer Major Jackson (1995) has been named the new host of American Public Media and The Poetry Foundation’s podcast The Slowdown, which features poetry for reflection in daily episodes. Jackson replaced fellow poet Ada Limón, who is leaving to become the 24th US Poet Laureate.
David Scott Kessler’s (2015) The Pine Barrens is now available to rent or buy on Amazon, which describes the feature film as “stories from a million-acre remote wilderness, where a culture grew out of a need for isolation and a devil haunts the charred landscape, all within the most crowded state in the most crowded region in America: New Jersey.”
Awards & Recognition
Visual artist Michelle Angela Ortiz’s (2018) Our Marketproject has been selected as one of three “Leave a Legacy” grant winners by PHILADELPHIA250, the organization leading the city of Philadelphia’s planning for its 250th birthday. The grant supports Ortiz’s development of the multi-year public art project in support of Philadelphia’s 9th Street Market community. Ortiz told The Philadelphia Inquirer, “When you understand our stories, whether it’s a family from Central America who arrived a month ago, to someone who is a third-generation descendant of Italian immigrants, you begin to see the commonalities between us.”
Choreographer Rennie Harris (1996) is the 2023 Hermitage Greenfield Prize winner for dance and choreography. This is the first time a Hermitage Greenfield Prize has been awarded in dance. One of two winners, Harris will receive a six-week Hermitage Fellowship and a $30,000 commission to create new work. Harris’ new hip-hop education program, Rennie Harris University, was recently featured in The New York Times.
Rea Tajiri’s (2015) film Wisdom Gone Wild won the Grand Jury Prize at the San Diego Asian Film Festival in November. Wisdom Gone Wild follows Tajiri’s journey over sixteen years as her mother Rose Tajiri Noda’s caretaker after she is diagnosed with dementia. Ahead of the festival, Tajiri spoke with BOMB Magazine about the film. Visit the film’s website to find an upcoming screening.
At the Buffalo International Film Festival, Shanti Thakur’s (2001) film Terrible Children received Best Documentary Feature Award. Terrible Children tells the story of the filmmaker’s father’s “history of trauma and renewal—of family violence, boyhood in a right-wing paramilitary group, Muslim-Hindu violence during Partition, and family banishment for marrying a Danish woman,” according to Thakur’s website.
Visual artists Mark Thomas Gibson (2021) and Didier William (2021) are two of the twenty recipients of the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation’s 2022 Biennial Grants. Each receives an unrestricted grant of $20,000 in support of producing new work and expanding their artistic practice.
Sculptor and ceramic artist Syd Carpenter (1992) and visual artist Rasheedah Phillips (2017) have both received 2023 United States Artists Fellowships. Each of the 45 fellows receives $50,000 in unrestricted funds. Carpenter was also the recipient of a $25,000 Anonymous Was a Woman grant in late 2022.
In December, James Ijames (2015) was named one of two 2022 Steinberg Playwright Awards recipients, along with fellow playwright Lloyd Suh. Each awardee receives a $100,000 prize. As well, Ijames’ Pulitzer Prize–winning play Fat Ham will make its Broadway debut this spring season. Previews begin March 11, and the show officially opens April 12, 2023.
