The Center Participants
Participant Awards
Participants in The Center have received numerous prestigious awards for their work following their time in this marquee program at Anderson Ranch. These world-renowned achievements include honors in the following:
- Amber Bracken: World Press Photo of the Year 2022
- Amber Bracken: World Press Photo 1st Place Contemporary Issues
- Rosem Morton: Leica Women Foto Project Award Winner, 2022
- September Bottoms: Leica Women Foto Project Award Winner, 2022
- Jackie Molloy: recipient of the VII Leica Women’s Mentorship, 2022
- Rebecca Kiger and Amr Alfiky featured in Time’s Top 100 Photos of 2021
- Salwan Georges:
- Photographer of the Year, Pictures of the Year International, 2021
- Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism, winner, 2020
- Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, finalist, 2020
- Gerald Loeb Award for International Business Reporting, finalist, 2020
- WHNPA, Picture Feature Story, winner, 2019 & 2020
- Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism, finalist, 2019
- PDN’s 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch, 2017
- Michigan’s Emmy Award, winner, 2017
- Michigan’s Press Photographers Association Multimedia Photographer of the Year, 2016
- Amr Alfiky and September Bottoms: NY Times Photography Fellowship recipients, 2020
- Maria Contreras Coll: National Geographic Explorer grantee, 2020
- Sebastian Hidalgo: National Geographic Explorer grantee, 2019
- Arati Kumar-Rao: National Geographic Explorer grantee, 2019
- Yu Yu Myint Than and Elias Williams: Magnum Foundation Photography and Human Rights Fellowship, 2017
Photography & New Media
Visual Storytelling and Documentary Photography Projects
José A. Alvarado Jr.
José A. Alvarado Jr. (b.1989) is a Nuyorican photographer dedicated to documenting class inequality, civic engagement, and contemporary issues in Puerto Rico and New York City. He works primarily in long-form storytelling, using visual imagery as a bridge to help raise awareness of the struggles and hardships impacting individuals and communities immersed in positions where they feel trapped, violated, and unable to escape. Through his devotion to in-depth projects, his goal is to spread awareness, begin discussions between members of the communities affected and their audience, and to discover strategies to navigate these challenging elements in our societies.
September Dawn Bottoms
September Dawn Bottoms (she was, in fact, born on a September dawn) is a self-taught photographer from Oklahoma. She focuses on women’s and social issues, and also endeavors to explore her family through photography to better understand the effects of intergenerational trauma. Starting in June she joined The New York Times as a Photography Fellow. She was also a 2020 Joop Swart Masterclass Participant.
Clients include TIME, New York Times Magazine, New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, ESPN, CNN, Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine, NPR, & The Guardian among others.
Trey L Broomfield
Trey L Broomfield Is a practicing artist from El Paso, Texas who holds a BFA from New Mexico State University. He uses photography, video, and poetry as creative vessels to articulate his perspectives on the complex world around him. Trey’s work often comments on topics such as mass media distribution as well as personal and cultural identity. Through his various mediums, Trey aims to both inform and provoke the viewer to reflect upon themselves and become more conscious of how one’s reality is shaped and constructed through media.
Maria Contreras Coll
Maria Contreras Coll is a documentary photographer based in Barcelona, Spain. Contreras Coll has the need to tell people’s stories from an intimate perspective. She is especially interested in women’s rights and in gender issues, and how women are redefining social structures in different countries and religions. She is a National Geographic Explorer 2020-2021 and a member of Women Photograph and Photographic Social Vision, and she is currently participating in a three-year program as a mentee to James Estrin, a senior staff photographer at The New York Times and co-creator of Lens Blog, and Ed Kashi, member of VII Photo Agency.
Nicole Craine
Nicole Craine is a documentarian and photojournalist with a focus on sociopolitical issues in the southeastern United States and the ongoing impact of climate change in rural, coastal communities. Nicole serves on the Advisory Board of Everyday Projects and is the founder of Everyday Rural America, a social media project dedicated to featuring stories from communities and storytellers working outside cities and urban areas. She is a regular contributor to New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Washington Post, Redux and Associated Press. Her work has been featured in New York Times Magazine, Marie Claire Magazine, Columbia Journalism Review, ESPN, and the Intercept.
Nicole graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2011 and attended Eddie Adams Workshop in 2015. She is currently based between Atlanta, GA and Brooklyn, NY.
Rory Doyle
Rory Doyle is a freelance photographer based in Cleveland, Mississippi. Born and raised in Maine, Doyle studied journalism at St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont. In 2009, he moved to Mississippi to pursue a master’s degree at Delta State University. Doyle has remained committed to photographing Mississippi and the South. He was a 2018 Visual Artist Fellow through the Mississippi Arts Commission and National Endowment for the Arts, and has exhibited in New York, London, Atlanta, Mississippi and beyond. His work has been published in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, ProPublica, ESPN, The Guardian, Politico, CNN and numerous outlets.
Sebastian Hidalgo
Sebastian Hidalgo is an independent visual journalist, writer, National Geographic explorer, and a frequent contributor to national publications. His work focuses on immigration, low-wage labor, housing, and environmental justice. The first few years of his career were spent during a time of dramatic change in Chicago–where he was raised in a working-class household, worked as a freelancer, and was influenced by his peers. His photography is among the permanent collection at The National Museum of Mexican Fine Art, and at Harvard University. Today, Hidalgo is considered one of the new and emerging photographers in the country.
Rebecca Kiger
Rebecca Kiger is a documentary photographer and photo educator in Central Appalachia. Her work has been published in NYT, TIME, NPR, VOX, and the Washington Post Magazine. She lives with her family in Wheeling, WV.
Shelby Knowles
Shelby Knowles, born and raised in Texas, is a documentary photographer, videographer and photo editor based in San Francisco. She is currently a photo editor at The New York Times, and previously worked as a multimedia producer at Newsday, NPR and the Texas Tribune. In 2020, Knowles won an Emmy for Sports Photographer for her documentary, “Empress,” as well as 1st place in AP Sports Editor and NYPPA in long-form documentary. Shelby’s work appears in The New York Times, NPR, The Texas Tribune, Newsday, among others.
Roddy MacInnes
Roddy MacInnes has been teaching photography at the University of Denver since 2001. He considers himself to be an autobiographical photographer. In that capacity he has been documenting his life through photography since 1964. He received a Master of Fine Arts in photography from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a Bachelor of Arts in photography from Napier University in Edinburgh, Scotland. His latest photography project, One Thing Leads to Another (working title) was inspired by an album of photographs he discovered in an antiques mall in Denver, Colorado. A North Dakota woman made the photographs in 1917. Through this project Roddy is exploring issues surrounding the relationships between photography and intimacy.
Christopher Michel
Christopher Michel is the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. His appointment is focused on leveraging visual storytelling to elevate the work of scientists, engineers and medical professionals in society. Previously, Chris founded and sold two technology companies. He is also the founder of Nautilus Ventures, a seed venture fund. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Chris flew for the Navy as a Navigator and Mission Commander aboard P-3C patrol aircraft.
Chris graduated from the University of Illinois and holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and an honorary Doctorate from Tiffin University. Chris serves on the board of Dale Carnegie and Catchlight, a non-profit focused on supporting photographers and innovative leaders in the field of visual storytelling. Chris is also an advisor to the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, and a member of the Explorers Club.
Rosem Morton
Rosem Morton is a documentary photographer based in Baltimore, Maryland. She is a National Geographic Explorer, an International Women’s Media Foundation Fellow and a We, Women Photo Artist. Her storytelling focuses on everyday life amidst gender, health, and racial adversity. Her work has been recognized by the Pictures of the Year International, the World Press Photo 6×6 Global Talent and Visa pour I’image. Rosem’s work appears in The New York Times, National Geographic, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Reuters, NPR and CNN, among others.
Ilana Panich-Linsman
Ilana Panich-Linsman (b. 1984) is an independent visual journalist based in Austin, Texas. She is a graduate of the International Center of Photography’s photojournalism program (New York, New York) where she was awarded a Director’s Fellowship. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Scripps College (Claremont, Calif.), completed the Eddie Adams Workshop in 2009, and graduated in 2014 from the University of the Arts, London, with a Master of Arts degree in photojournalism and documentary photography.
Juan Diego Reyes
Juan Diego Reyes is a Colombian adventure and documentary photographer based in Western North Carolina. His work explores themes of cultural history, migration, folklore and mythology, climate change, and identity. It is the endless search for genuine connection and understanding that fuels his passion for photography and visual storytelling. He has exhibited in Bogota, La Paz, Berlin, Raleigh, and beyond. His work has been published in The New York Times Magazine, NPR, Vogue, WIRED, The New York Times, and other publications. He is a member of Diversify Photo.
Virginia McGee Richards
Virginia McGee Richards is a photographer, historian, and environmental lawyer. A 1985 recipient of the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for work in photojournalism, she is currently documenting landscapes and waterways along the Inner Passage, a colonial era waterway in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. Internationally acclaimed photographer-writer James Estrin and photojournalist Ed Kashi have mentored her work. Her photographs have been exhibited at the Light Factory in Charlotte, North Carolina, and are in private collections. In March 2022, the Smithsonian Magazine will publish her wet-plate collodion work on the “Inner Passage” as a feature article with author Imani Perry.
Rachel Wisniewski
Rachel Wisniewski is an independent photojournalist based in Philadelphia, PA. Her work often explores the intersections of identity and trauma, covering topics such as the #MeToo movement, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and religion. She is a contributor to publications including: Reuters, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and more. Rachel received a National Geographic Society grant in 2021. She recently completed the Gwen Ifill Fellowship with the International Womens Media Foundations (IWMF). Beyond photography, she is passionate about volunteering, traveling, and food. When she doesn’t have a camera in her hands, it’s probably because she’s eating pizza.
Sculpture
Object Design and Architecture
Stephanie Andrews
Stephanie Andrews is an experienced designer and creative technologist interested in exploring economies of collectivity, care, and communication. Her work seeks to respond to emergent issues with levity and sentimentality, primarily taking the form of flux kits, software tools, art games, tactile spaces, and participatory installations.
Stephanie brings to her art practice an interdisciplinary background spanning software engineering, interaction design, public policy, social work, and community organizing. She specializes in building interactive systems that use digital, physical, and interpersonal mediums to create communal space. She is currently a resident and instructor at Gray Area.
Ana Maria Botero
Ana Maria Botero is a contemporary artist; she was born in Bogota, Colombia. In 1990 she received a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota where she lived and worked for several years.
In 2001 Ana Maria and her family moved to Florida, she worked there for Vigneault and Hoos Architecture Inc. until 2005 when she moved again to the state of Colorado. Is at this moment when she decided to devote herself to art.
Ana Maria Botero’s work is in several private and corporate collections in USA, and other countries.
Angela Carpenter
Angela Carpenter is the Fabrication Manager at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. Angela oversees the school’s fabrication facilities and integration of building focused courses taught at all scales. She provides expertise and instructional support in digital fabrication techniques and procuring specialized equipment. Angela has taught as a Visiting Assistant Professor and Instructor in advanced Design-Build studios and Additive Manufacturing. Her experience has allowed for developing multi-scale investigations in material manipulation and construction advancements.
Angela holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Arkansas, Fay Jones School of
Architecture and Design and a Master of Architecture at Cranbrook Academy of Art, where she was awarded the Architecture Department’s Merit Scholarship. Combining the use of digital technology, with methods of traditional architectural building highly influences Angela’s work and strategies in material exploration.
Pam Fortner
Pam Fortner was born in Los Alamos, New Mexico – a society that prized scientific achievement above all else and considered her proclivities for art unimportant. She was not afforded the opportunity to attend university, but credits her life experiences for being her greatest teachers. Her many occupations including professional pyrotechnics, wilderness guiding, and construction work, continue to influence her process and fearless use of tools and materials. This unconventional education has allowed her to develop a unique artistic practice.
Constantly curious and deeply connected to nature, she draws both inspiration and materials from the natural world. Originally working in 2-dimensional acrylics, she progressed into 3-dimensional sculpture upon learning steel-working and book-binding skills. She describes herself as a welder, bookbinder and maker. By combining steel and paper, found clay, primitive pigments or natural materials, she creates sculpture that provides an immersive experience for the viewer. She lives in the wild desert of Abiquiú, New Mexico with her family.
Liz Heller
Liz has her MFA in Sculpture from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 2014. Since then, she has participated in artist residency programs at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, The Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences, The Haystack Open Residency and Campos De Gutierrez in Medellin, Colombia, and is currently at The Red Brick Center for the Arts in Aspen, CO.
Liz began making functional ceramics in the spring of 2015. Inspired by the simplicity of Mid Century Modern Design, she appropriates objects like iconic cut glass tumblers and copper plated jello molds into newly transformed functional ware. She is drawn to objects that have had a previous life, and then casts a manipulated form in a different material, which completely changes their cultural meaning. Most recently Liz has been inspired by her Mountain environment, working with topographies and organic forms. Liz teaches lost wax casting and mold making for slip casting at Colorado Mountain College in Aspen, CO.
Nifemi Ogunro
As a Nigerian American designer, Nifemi Ogunro bridges the gap between design, social issues, and sustainability. Nifemi use’s photography and performance as a way to articulate this work.
Nifemi defines their style as “functional sculptures”.
Ella Rocker
Ella Rocker is an interdisciplinary artist from Holland, Michigan. She grew up painting, and drawing and was encouraged to pursue art in college by her high school art teacher, Peter Middleton. She received her BFA from the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan (2019) where she focused primarily on Digital Fabrication, and Furniture Design. After graduating, Ella interned at Anderson Ranch Arts Center and assisted in both Digital Fabrication, and Sculpture workshops.
Following her time at the Ranch Ella had the opportunity to move to Santa Barbara, CA where she pivoted her creative interests — from the world of fine art to the world of architecture at ShubinDonaldson, Architects. She worked primarily under Dr. F. Myles Sciotto in their R & D Department. While at ShubinDonaldson Ella was accepted to Parsons School of Design at The New School where she is currently pursuing a MFA in Transdisciplinary Design, and living in Brooklyn, New York. Ella enjoys complicated questions, shared meals with good conversation, and taking risks.
Dara Schaefer
Dara Schaefer (B. Princeton, NJ, Raised in Montreal, Canada) lives and has studios in both New York City and the Hudson Valley. She attended the art and architecture schools at The Cooper Union where she received her Bachelor of Architecture. Dara began working in ceramics as a child, and in 2011 after over a decade of practicing architecture, delved deeply into ceramics, mostly hand-building in clay and porcelain. Witnessing the surge in parametric design popularized by architects like Zaha Hadid in the early 2000’s she began to explore the links between architecture and ceramics.
In 2019 she enrolled in an Anderson Ranch Workshop with Del Harrow called Digitally Fabricated Molds- which completely altered her ceramics practice and led to her current body of work. Using a visual programming language called Grasshopper- she applies mathematical algorithms- normally used in digital animation to make water flow or animal fur appear windswept, to create forms and surface textures. She uses a myriad of analog and digital technologies to realize each series of works. Within her forms, she hopes to elevate the powerful effects light, form and hue can have on our intimate experience with our environment.
Lynda Weinman
Lynda Weinman began her computer graphics career in the early 1980’s, first working on animation for film, tv and industry, and later as faculty member and adjunct faculty at Art Center College of Design, American Film Institute, and San Francisco State Multimedia Studies. She is the author of numerous how-to books and instructional videos, and is most known for co-founding one of the world’s first online video course websites called lynda.com in 1995. The company sold to LinkedIn in 2015, and is now called LinkedIn Learning.
After an early retirement, Weinman chose to pursue a ceramics practice which ultimately led her to combine her technical skills and new ceramic skills using 3-D clay printing. She incorporates 2-D software tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator, and 3-D tools such as Rhino 3-D and Grasshopper, and sleeps, breathes and dreams in geometric and parametric forms. Her practice includes teaching and collaborations in a variety of mediums, with a focus on clay and digital fabrication.
Painting
Topics in Painting: Studio Practice and Critique
Betsy Chaffin
For Betsy Chaffin art has been a long-standing passion. It was not the classroom of an MFA program that formed the philosophy and basis of her work; but the good fortune of participating in workshops at Anderson Ranch conducted by some of the country’s leading artists and art educators including Roy Dowell, John Gill, Jane Hammond, Holly Hughes, Roberto Juarez, and James Surls. These intense workshops provided an opportunity to spend quality time with the instructing artist.
Chaffin is now in her first year of participating in The Center for Advanced Mentored Studies at Anderson Ranch, a three-year program with master faculty artists, Holly Hughes and Shahzia Sikander. “ This is a remarkable opportunity to engage in a critical dialogue to push my own studio practice. Shazia and Holly have already provided an amazing context of critical thinking and positive energy.”
She works in a variety of forms including painting, collage, ceramics and photography. Her work is included in private collections throughout the United States. She lives and has studios in Spring Island, South Carolina and Basalt, Colorado. Betsy has twice been invited to be a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome and she was selected to participate in the Residency Program at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center.
Elizabeth Chapin
Elizabeth Chapin is a Contemporary American portrait artist whose mixed media work explores and deconstructs ideas of archetypes, anxiety, gender roles and the status quo through an anthropological lens. Chapin’s background as a traditional portrait artist has evolved, incorporating materials like undulating fringe, plexiglass, silk and tulle rues, neon and LED, onto stued canvas. These dynamic elements turn a flat painting into a 3D manifestation.
Born in Jackson, MS, Chapin received her BFA at the University of Virginia and has also studied at The Parson School of Design in Paris. Her work has been exhibited extensively across the United States including in New York, NY; Austin, TX; New Orleans, LA; Nashville, TN; and Jackson, MS, among others. In 2020, she was awarded a residency in Florence, Italy, through Feminist Art Collective Toronto. In 2022 she was invited to participate in an intensive 3 year mentorship program under the internationally acclaimed artists Shahzia Sikander and Holly Hughes. Also, in 2022, Chapin was chosen for a seven-week solo exhibition at Women and their Work, a catalyst for contemporary art in Texas. Her work has been featured on platforms such as Whitewall, Forbes Magazine, Design Milk, Luxe and Artsy, among others.
Her most recent body of work, Banishment of Solitude, explores how archetypal and foundational myths inform women’s responses to themselves and each other irl and online. Using a frame of Greek, Sumerian, Egyptian and biblical stories, Chapin deconstructs the crafted identities we present to the world, likening social media to an ongoing religion of both self creation and self exile. First exhibited at Martine Chaisson Gallery in 2021, Banishment of Solitude is the artist’s first body of work that pushes the bounds of what defines painting, stung the canvas to create 3-dimensional environments, many of which are lit, contain secret pockets and aromatic features. Chapin lives and works in Austin, TX.
Larry Frank
Larry Frank is a co-owner of Madison, WI-based Frank Productions, a producer of live music events in clubs, theaters, arenas and stadiums in the United States and Canada. National touring clients include a diverse group of performers including Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen and many more.
In his capacity as a company founder and drawing on his 40 years of concert promotion experience, Larry coaches and advises the company’s Presidents in the art of booking performers, negotiating contracts with venues and interacting with agents and managers.
Larry was the visionary behind the design and construction of The Sylvee, a nationally recognized state-of-the-art concert venue in Madison, WI. While designing the Sylvee, Larry also provided the vision and design concept for the Frank Productions office space attached to the Sylvee. This office has been recognized by the community as a cool, open and collaborative space that promotes new and innovative ideas.
In the past 35 years, Larry has designed, renovated and restored 7 personal homes, testing the patience of his wife and children but always delighting them with the results.
While over-achieving in his professional and personal life, Larry also maintained a personal art studio where he explored all the visions in his head and taught himself how to translate those visions to a canvas.
Pamela Joseph
Pamela Joseph is a multi-media artist who lives and works in Aspen, Colorado. Her paintings and sculptures address ideas of feminist critique and socio political issues with a sense of humor and historical incisiveness. Her work was described as “well-executed, powerful and edgy” by the Colorado Council on the Arts, who awarded her a Visual Arts Fellowship in 2001. She was subsequently selected as a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome in 2003 and 2004. Francis M. Naumann Fine Arts in New York City represented Joseph from 2007 until the gallery’s closing in 2019. In the fall of 2021 she
exhibited bas-relief sculptures of mask/headdresses called Radical Beauty at the Michael Warren Contemporary in Denver. An interview with Juxtapoz magazine about the exhibit is at
https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/sculpture/radical-beauty-mask-veils-headgear-pamela-joseph-michael-
warren-contemporary-denver/?utm_source=leadBarContent&utm_medium=direct
Also The Censored Series of paintings addresses the obliteration of any nudity by famous artists in art books produced in Iran. Images from “Censored” are featured in The Artist, the Censor and the Nude: A Tale of Morality and Appropriation (DoppelHouse Press, 2017). Joseph has exhibited nationally and internationally in locations including New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Barcelona, and Beijing. Her work is in the collections of the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, Indiana; Colorado University Art Museum, Boulder; the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque; the National Art Museum of China, Beijing; the School of Art and Design at Alfred University, Alfred, New York; Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut; the General Services Administration and Henry Schein Inc., New York among others.
Kim Manfredi
Kim Manfredi graduated from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) with a BFA in 1988 and then worked as a skilled decorative painter for many years. She returned to MICA and graduated with an MFA in Fine Art in 2009 and moved to the Palm Springs area in 2016.
Kim’ s artwork examines how todays crisis of identity, anxieties over humanity’s effect on our planet, and an urgent sense of surviving have complicated our fluency with desire. She is an enthusiastic cyclist who rides daily with her biking community through the valley and into the mountains. These journeys power her artistic vision and provide the raw materials for new paintings.
After graduating MICA, she was represented by C. Grimaldis Gallery, 2009 – 2013 and has attended residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, VCCA, Maryland Art Place and most recently a portfolio reviewed workshop at Anderson Ranch. Kim is represented by Slate Contemporary in the bay area exhibits at various venues in the Coachella Valley. Kim is a founder of the Desert Open Studios Tour.
Randy Jayne Rosenberg
I bring to my work more than 30 years’ experience as an artist, contemporary art curator, art therapist and art educator. I have provided curatorial and art consulting services to a range of international and cultural organizations, including Art Works for Change, The Natural World Museum, the Dalai Lama Foundation, United Nations, The World Bank, International Finance Corporation and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. I hold a Master of Art Therapy degree (George Washington University) and a Master of Fine Arts degree (University of Maryland).
I have been exhibiting my artwork internationally since 1998.
Nirali Shah
Having spent the first half of my life in India and the second half in the United States after immigrating here, I straddle American and Indian cultures which my works reflect through the vast array of personal vocabulary created by the influences and imprints including from the folk art of rural India to the modern, capitalist world of logos and graphic design. With my bachelors in Commercial Art and Masters in Fine Art, I seek harmony and connection between my two identities by usually using gouache, collage, and extensive golf leaf to create works that reveal balances/ tensions between religions, environments, and lifestyles. My artistry aims to protect the complexity of individuals, and inspire every individual to seek challenges of diverse identities rather than uniformity.
Laura Sharp Wilson
Laura Sharp Wilson is a multimedia artist whose practice is focused on painting, sculpture, outdoor installation, public art and performance art. Wilson’s paintings are distinguished by rendering with acrylic paint and graphite on mulberry paper adhered to a wood panel. Textiles and surface pattern design have long been a huge influence on the artist and are an element in her installations, and performances.
Laura Sharp Wilson’s current work explores intersections: between humans and the botanical, and overlaps amongst human identities in contemporary American society. These ideas are illustrated with floral forms, patterns, cords, ribbons, knots, weaving, bound, cosseted and ensnared shapes, chains and strands of beads.
Laura received a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University where she was particularly inspired by teachers Sam Gilliam and Susanne Slavick. The artist studied surface pattern design at North Carolina State University and served as an apprentice at the Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia. Wilson received an MFA from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. In 2018 the artist was a resident at the Golden Foundation.
In 2016 Laura’s terrazzo floor design “Thread, Strand, Rope and Yarn” was installed in the Eccles Theater in downtown Salt Lake City. Her solo exhibition “From the Dining Room Table” is currently on display at McKenzie Fine Art in New York. Wilson’s installation “We Don’t Understand” is included in the Utah Statewide Annual at Ogden Contemporary Arts in Ogden, Utah. ”Chiasma” , a solo exhibition of new work by the artist was on display this past summer at Granary Arts in Ephraim, Utah.
Wilson was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1965 and grew up in northern New Jersey and New York city. The artist lives and works in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Tricia Townes
Tricia is a painter who lives in Nashville, TN. She has taught at Tennessee State University since 2019. Her practice includes abstract design-based works, figurative pieces, and landscapes. Tricia has had several solo shows and has been included in many group exhibitions. She has participated in various art residencies, including those at Skowhegan, MassMoCA, The Fine Arts Work Center, and The Vermont Studio School.