BRIC is pleased to announce the 12 artists who have been selected to receive the 2017 Media Arts Fellowship, an award which makes BRIC's state-of-the-art media facilities and training programs available to professional Brooklyn-affiliated visual artists who have an interest in furthering their practice through multimedia and technology. This year’s application process saw a record number of exceptional applicants with a variety of backgrounds vying for the Fellowship, which is awarded from January – December 2017. Those artists selected to receive the 2017 Media Arts Fellowship include: Shay Arick, Jesse Chun, David Colosi, Heidi Lau, Daniel Lichtman, Dain Mergenthaler, Anne Mungtes, Nora Rodriguez, Farideh Sakhaeifar, Marco Scozzaro, Bradly Dever Treadaway, and Ellen (Jing) Xu.

BRIC’s Media Arts Fellowship is open to visual artists who live or work in Brooklyn and who have a strong desire to explore multimedia as a distinct medium or as part of an interdisciplinary approach to art-making.  The Fellowship is meant to provide the technical skills needed to enact the artists’ creative vision. Experience in video/multimedia production is encouraged but not required. Fellows were selected by a jury including BRIC's Contemporary Art and Media Education staff, as well as artist Hidemi Takagi (2016 Media Arts Fellow).

After the Media Arts Fellowship orientation, Fellows receive a $450 honorarium and are able to enroll in any education course offered at BRIC for free. Classes include training programs and technical assistance in video and digital production and post-production, such as Video Production in the Field, Video Editing with Premiere, and Television Studio Production. Once Fellows have completed the classes required to become a Certified Producer, they then have free access to BRIC’s video equipment and editing facilities. Throughout the year, meet-ups are organized as well as opportunities to review work in progress and receive critical feedback from BRIC staff. An End-of-Fellowship Screening allows Fellows the opportunity to present the projects they created during their Fellowship to contacts and to the general public. Completed projects will then be aired on Brooklyn Public Network’s channels.

Elizabeth Ferrer, Vice President of Contemporary Art at BRIC said, “This is an outstanding opportunity for artists to learn about media – working in a state-of-the-art facility and in a highly supportive environment. Given the importance of video for artists today, we are proud to be able to promote the creative growth of artists in this way.”

Skye MacLeod, Associate Director of Adult Education for Brooklyn Free Speech said, “One of my favorite parts of the Media Arts Fellowship is seeing how much the fellows learn and grow during the fellowship. It’s also an incredible benefit to our community—fellows bring an interesting and unique perspective to our programs, classes, and events: they really liven up the place!

For more information on BRIC’s Media Arts Fellowship, visit BRICartsmedia.org/maf.

About the 2017 Media Arts Fellowship Recipients

Shay Arick is an Israeli-born (1979) visual artist based in Brooklyn, NY. He holds an MFA from The San Francisco Art Institute and a BFA from Bezalel Academy, Israel. He has had solo exhibitions at ZIZspace, Tel Aviv; and Subterranean Arthouse, Berkeley, CA; as well as group shows at LiTE-HAUS Galerie, Berlin; NARS Foundation, Brooklyn; and the Y Gallery, New York; among others. Arick has received support through numerous residencies and fellowships including Ox-Bow, Saugatuck, MI; the International Sculpture Center, Hamilton, NJ; The Watermill Center Summer Residency, NY; and the NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program. (www.shayarick.com)

Jesse Chun is a Korean-born (1984) visual artist based in Brooklyn, NY. She holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts, and a BFA from Parsons the New School for Design, NY. Her solo and group exhibitions include Spencer Brownstone Gallery, Booklyn, Fridman Gallery, Julie Saul Gallery in NY; CICA Museum and the Incheon International Women Artists Biennial in Seoul; Space Debris Art in Istanbul and Lite-Haus Galerie in Berlin. Chun teaches at the Bruce High Quality Foundation University; other fellowships include the New York Foundation for the Arts’ IAP Program and the Bronx Museum of the Arts.  (www.jessechun.com)

Brooklyn-based artist and writer David Colosi was born in Fairport, NY, and received his BA from SUNY Plattsburgh, his MFA from CalArts, and an MA from NYU. He has had solo exhibitions at Musée des Morlaix, Morlaix, France; Galerie Catherine Bastide, Brussels; Cueto Project, NY; Art Basel, Switzerland; Highways Performance Space Gallery, Los Angeles; among others. He has been awarded residencies at Pioneer Works, Brooklyn; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, NY; VARDA Artists Residency, Sausalito, CA; and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Florida. In 2009 he received a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award. (davidcolosi.com)

Heidi Lau was born in Oakland, CA (1987), and received her BFA from New York University. Her work has been exhibited in venues such as the Macao Museum of Art, Macao, China; Guttenberg Arts, Guttenberg NJ; Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT; Aljira, Newark, NJ; and Wave Hill and the Museum of Chinese in America, both in NY. She has received residencies at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Socrates Sculpture Park, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the Center for Book Arts, and in NY; among others. In 2015 she received a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant. (heidilau.org)

Daniel Lichtman was born in Philadelphia (1982), and received his BA from Cornell University, and his MFA from Goldsmiths, London. He recently had a solo exhibition at Dynamo Arts Association, Vancouver. Group exhibitions, performances and screenings include The Drawing Center and The Queens Museum, both in NY; Vox Populi, Philadelphia; University of Oxford, Oxford; and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. He recently completed residencies at The Drawing Center and the National University of Colombia, Bogota, a retreat residency at Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge and a portfolio project for BOMB Magazine. (www.daniellichtman.com)

Dain Mergenthaler was born in Baltimore (1988), and holds an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI, and a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore. His work was recently exhibited at the Heidelberg Project, Detroit; and he has had recent projects at Hatch Art, Hamtramck, MI and at Lillstreet Arts, Chicago. Mergenthaler has been awarded residencies at MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA; Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT; ACRE, Chicago; and Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY. (www.dmergenthaler.com)

Anne Mungtes makes highly detailed drawings, prints, and installation art based on concepts of the home. Born in Denver (1982), and based in Brooklyn, her work has been exhibited in New York, Chicago, Buffalo, San Francisco, & Knoxville. Muntges has completed residencies at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE; Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT; Ox-Bow,Saugatuck, MI; and Anchor Graphics, Chicago. In 2014, she received a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. (www.annemuntges.com)

Nora Rodriguez was born in San Francisco (1989), and lives and works in Brooklyn. She is an artist and educator who works primarily with animation and found sound. Rodriguez received a BA from Columbia University, NY. She has completed residencies at Frans Masereel Centrum, Belgium; The Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY; and NARS Foundation, Brooklyn. (www.nrodriguez.com)

Born in Tehran, Iran (1985), Brooklyn-based artist Farideh Sakhaeifar received BFA from Azad Art and Architecture University, Tehran, Iran; and her MFA from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. She has had solo exhibitions at William Holman Gallery, NY; Cathouse FUNeral, Brooklyn; and Centro Cultural Casa Elizalde, Barcelona, Spain. She has been part of group shows at Salomon Arts, and WhiteBox, both in NY; and in the Pfizer Building, Brooklyn, among others. Sakhaeifar was awarded a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Residency in 2012-13. (faridehsakhaeifar.com)

Marco Scozzaro is an Italian-born (1979) artist based in Brooklyn. He received his MA from the University of Parma, Italy; and studied photography at the School of Visual Arts, NY, where he currently teaches. Working mainly with photography, installation, and music, his work has been exhibited, published, and performed internationally, including at Ed. Varie, Aperture, and the Humble Arts Foundation, all NY; the London Design Festival, UK; and the GRID Photography Biennial, Amsterdam. (www.marcoscozzaro.com)

Born in Mobile, AL (1977), Bradly Dever Treadaway is a Brooklyn-based artist and teacher utilizing lens-based image making, sculpture, installation and performance to comment on the breakdown of intergenerational communication. His work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of Art, and The International Center of Photography, both NY; Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY; The Ospedale degli Innocenti, Florence, Italy; and the Lishui Museum of Photography, China. His film/video work has been screened at the New Orleans Film Festival; the National Centre for Contemporary Art, Moscow; Union Docs, Brooklyn; Anthology Film Archives and the Coney Island Film Festival, both NY; and the Nashville Film Festival. He works as both a Faculty member and the Digital Media Coordinator at The International Center of Photography in NY. (bradlydevertreadaway.com)

Ellen (Jing) Xu was born (1987) and raised in Inner Mongolia, China. She received a dual degree from Xiamen University, China; her MFA from the University of Washington, Seattle; and has also attended Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Madison, ME. Her work has been exhibited at ROY G BIV Gallery, Columbus, OH; Veronica Project Space and Jacob Lawrence Gallery, both Seattle; Blue Door Art Center, Yonkers, NY; and Sculptureworks Ferguson, St Louis, MO; among others. Ellen has had residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT; and the Wassaic Artist Residency, Wassaic, NY. (ellenjingxu.com)