The North Louisiana Virtual Residency program began this Tuesday February 9th online. In partnership with the Ross Lynn Charitable Foundation and the North Central Louisiana Arts Council, this is the 2nd year of the virtual program which supports and nurtures artists as they create new works of art. This year’s residency program lasts eight weeks and focuses on artists from all over the globe coming together as pairs to collaborate on a new piece of artwork. RLCF and NCLAC began the program in May of 2020 as a way to offer virtual space and support for artists to come together as a community during the early stages of the pandemic. The residency organizers believe that “art has always allowed humanity to understand and explain both our inner and outer worlds, bringing to life realities in a tangible substance that can be shared, retold, and reinterpreted in unending ways.”
Artists in every stage of their career seek out residency opportunities to constructively work through challenges, give voice to their own experience, and awaken themselves to the creative calling. RLCF and NCLAC desire to foster a communal and collaborative environment — a sharing of experiences between artists as they process this period of life in their art and in turn give voice and vision to all who experience the collective work. To do this they will facilitate video calls, artist talks, and online discussions. The program will culminate with an online exhibition in 2022 for the public.
The 2021 North Louisiana Virtual Residency accepted artists bring a unique set of experiences and backgrounds to the program and to north Louisiana. With 50 percent of the artists residing in the US and 50 percent residing outside, the 16 artists are all very excited to begin the 8-week program. From painting, wearable sculpture, dance, and public performance art, to paper arts, photography, sculpture, ceramics, digital art, and more, each artist brings something unique to the table.
Resident artist Ally Zlatar is a Scotland based artist originally from Canada that uses curation and art-making to explore topics of body image, eating disorders, cultural norms, social pressures, and dissatisfaction. April Fitzpatrick is a visual artist with an Art Therapy background based in Tallahassee, FL. Robyn Gibson is a visual artist based in Brooklyn, NY that centers her practice around personal experiences. Both are working together to explore black identity, emotional trauma, symbolism, collective memory, and mental health.
Resident artist Ayesha Ali is a visual artist, fashion designer, and creative director based out of Pakistan who explores self-identification and aesthetic conventions associated with identity through body jewelry and wearable sculpture.Beenish Ahmen is a painter that focuses on everyday, domestic objects that quietly represent a meaningful part of Pakistani culture. She will be working with painter Eman Fatima based in Pakistan who’s paintings on wasli paper explore the line between public and private spaces.
Resident artist Chris King is a multimedia artist and educator based in Natchitoches, LA originally from Los Angeles. His work explores themes of displacement, injustice, immigration, and social ailments through painting, sculpture, installation, and drawing. Christina Koutsolioutsou is a graphic artist living in Athens, Greece. She hopes to use popular imagery and satire to examine people’s behaviors during the pandemic to better understand the necessity of normality. Emily Tironi is a disabled mixed media collage artist based in Cambridge, NY. She is interested in the mental and physical impact of Corona virus on the disabled community and other marginalized communities.
Resident artist Kinnari Saraiya is a visual artist based in San Francisco, CA who’s practice is inspired by her grandfather’s stories of India’s imperial past. Her works engage the viewer to participate in a re-telling of history from a post-colonial standpoint. Mami Takahashi is a visual artist from Tokyo, currently based in Portland, OR, who uses photography, performance, installation, and urban intervention to explore the visible and invisible complexities of being a Japanese woman living in the US. Oluwakayode Moyosade is a photographer and creative director based in Nigeria. He plans to explore the nuances of everyday culture surrounding corona virus such as air fives and mask-wearing to look at the habits of human nature.
Resident artist Sangram Mukhopadhyay is a performer and dancer from India using movement and choreography to explore contemporary life, storytelling, identity, sensorial experiences, dance as fine art, and more. Sarah Nguyen is a visual artist based in Columbia, MO. She uses cut paper forms as her medium to evoke memory, play, ritual, folklore, history, and nature. Eden Radfarr is a visual artist and ceramicist based in Albuquerque, NM. She uses found materials to work intuitively, allowing the process to guide her towards new connections and juxtapositions.Shannon Moriarty is a mixed-media artist based in Philadelphia, PA. She creates installations out of clay and found materials that reveal a relationship between form and surface to connect personal memories to community, material, and space.