BRIC is proud to announce 12 artists who are the recipients of the 2018 Media Art Fellowship, which makes BRIC's Media Education courses, facilities, and resources available to professional Brooklyn-affiliated visual artists at no charge. The Fellowship is awarded to artists who have a strong desire to explore multimedia as a distinct medium or as part of an interdisciplinary approach to art-making, providing the technical skills to enact a creative vision. The 2018 Fellows are: Chloë Bass, Mildred Beltre, Sarah E. Brook, Esperanza Cortes, Caroline Falby, Michelle Gevint, David Cutler Kenndy, Jemila MacEwan, Alison Nguyen, Julie Petrusak, Kamran Shahraray, and Pacifico Silano. Read more about their artistic practices below. 

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Chloë Bass is a Brooklyn-based conceptual artist working in performance, situation, publication, installation, and conversation. Her work addresses scales of intimacy, where patterns hold and break as group sizes expand. She received her BA from Yale University and her MFA from Brooklyn College. Bass’ work has been included in recent exhibitions at Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Brooklyn; CUE Art Foundation, the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Project Space, and the Kitchen, all in NY; as well The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC. She has had solo exhibitions at Stainar Gallery at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA; Elsewhere, Greensboro, NC; and SPACES, Cleveland, OH; among others. Bass was a 2017 - 2018 Workspace resident at the Center for Book Arts, NY; and a 2017 artist-in-resident at Triangle Arts Association, Brooklyn. She is also currently an Assistant Professor in the Art Department at Queens College, City University of New York. (chloebass.com)

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Brooklyn-based artist, teacher, and community organizer Mildred Beltre’s work focuses on facets of social change through print, drawing, and a politically-engaged participatory practice. She is interested in political movements and their associated participants, relations, and structures and how those ideas interact with each other. Beltre earned her MFA from the University of Iowa, and has had solo exhibitions at the Eli Marsh Gallery at Amherst College, Amherst, MA; and Burlington City Arts Center, Burlington, VT. Beltre has been part of group exhibitions at the Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY; International Print Center of New York, NY; and Smack Mellon and the Old Stone House, both in Brooklyn. Beltre is a co-founder of Brooklyn Hi-Art! Machine, an ongoing public art project that explores community through art-making on Brooklyn sidewalks. Work by Brooklyn Hi-Art! Machine was exhibited as part of the BRIC Biennial: Volume II, Bed-Stuy/Crown Heights Edition at BRIC House. Beltre has completed residencies at Santa Fe Arts Institute, Santa Fe, NM; the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT; and has received grants from the Rema Hort Foundation and the Brooklyn Community Foundation, among others. (mildredbeltre.com)

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Sarah E. Brook is a Brooklyn-based artist who was born in Reno, Nevada, a geography that has vastly influenced her work. Using materials that evoke the stripped-down, distilled and bare qualities of the desert, Brook utilizes translucency, layering, color gradients, and architectural references to explore the relationship between expansive external and internal space. Brook earned her BA from the University of Notre Dame, IN; and her MSW from Arizona State University. She has had solo exhibitions at Greenpoint Gallery and Vanderbilt Republic, both in Brooklyn. She has been part of group exhibitions at Lesley Heller Workspace, and Field Projects, both in NY; the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor, NY; and Ground Floor Gallery, Brooklyn; among others. Brook’s work has been featured in two exhibitions at BRIC including Surface Matters, curated by 3walls in 2017; and the OPEN (C)ALL: TRUTH exhibition in 2018. In 2018, Viewfinding, a public art work, will be installed for one year in Riverside Park, incorporating queer feminist poetry and community programming. She has been awarded residencies from Jentel, Banner, WY; Playa; Summer Lake, OR; and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Nebraska City, NE. (sarahebrook.com)

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Esperanza Cortés is a Colombian-born, New York-based multidisciplinary artist, whose work focuses on folk art traditions, art rituals, and the music and dance of Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. She utilizes a wide variety of materials and artistic methods often in combination with reworked found objects that are impregnated with cultural symbols that act as sites of memory. Cortes’ work has been part of exhibitions at Smack Mellon, Brooklyn; Taller Boricua Gallery, the Bronx Museum, and El Museo Del Barrio, all NY; and MoMA PS1, the Queens Museum, and Socrates Sculpture Park, all Queens; among others. Cortés is a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Creative Engagement Grant. She has completed residences at Artist Space, NY; Sculpture Space, Utica, NY; Brooklyn Arts Council; and BRIC as a 2017 BRICworkspace artist-in-residence. Cortés has been awarded a residency at the Museum of Arts and Design, NY, in 2018. (esperanzacortes.com)

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Born in Toronto, Canada, Brooklyn-based Caroline Falby’s mixed media work examines how power manipulates historical memory and transforms it into folklore. Her artwork uses layers of drawing, collage, digital print and painting to interweave historical events and personal experience into new cultural narratives. Falby earned a BA from Eugene Lang College, The New School, in NY; a BFA from Parsons School of Design, NY; and her MFA from Hunter College, NY. Her work has been exhibited at The Drawing Center, the Spring/Break Art Show and The Bronx Museum of the Arts, all in NY; NurtureART and Associated Gallery, both in Brooklyn; and the Queens Museum. She was granted a Swing Space Residency by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council; a Project Fellowship from the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, NY; and completed the Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) Residency at The Bronx Museum of the Arts. (carolinefalby.net)

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Michelle Claire Gevint is an Israel-born, Brooklyn-based artist whose images, videos and installations address the failure of Utopian visions. Her work explores individual and social relationships that emerge through architectural spaces and built environments focusing on displacement, alienation and failure. She received her BFA from Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem; and her MFA from Parsons School of Design at The New School in NY. Gevint’s work has been included in exhibitions at the New York Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, St Paul’s Cathedral, and Fridman Gallery, all in NY; as well as Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn. She has completed the Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) Residency at The Bronx Museum of the Arts; as well as the New York Foundation for the Immigrant Artist Program (IAP); and the Vermont Studio Center Residency. (michellegevint.com)

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David Kennedy Cutler is a Brooklyn-based artist who is currently involved in a project in which he is converting basic materials from his life (his tools, clothes, food, and even body) from digital scans into sculptures that recreate their source at 1:1 scale. This allows Cutler to more accurately reflect how an individual traverses the real and virtual existence of our world. Kennedy received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. He has had solo exhibitions at Derek Eller Gallery and Halsey McKay Gallery, both in NY; The Center for Contemporary Art Estonia, Tallinn, Estonia; and Nice & Fit Gallery, Berlin. He has participated in group exhibitions at D'Amelio Terras, Postmasters, Rivington Arms, Kate Werble Gallery, all in NY; among others. He has received grants and residencies from Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, and Dieu Donne, all in NY. (derekeller.com/artists/david-kennedy-cutler)

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Born in Scotland, Jemila MacEwan is a New York-based multidisciplinary artist who works predominantly with performance and sculpture, seeking ways to be in intimate communication with her environment. MacEwan received her BFA and MFA from the University of Melbourne, Australia. She has had solo and two-person exhibitions and performances at Pioneer Works and VICTORI + MO, both Brooklyn; The Australian Consulate-General and The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, both NY; Flux Factory, Queens; C3 Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia; and Arquetopia, Oaxaca, Mexico. She has been part of group exhibitions and collaborations at No Vacancy, Brooklyn; Flux Factory, Queens; and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, NY; among others. MacEwan has received grants from the Australia Council for the Arts, the Dame Joan Sutherland Fund - American Australian Association, and the Ian Potter Cultural Council in Australia. She completed New York Foundation for the Arts’ Immigrant Artist Program, as well as residencies at This Will Take Time, CA; and Salem Art Works, Salem, NY; among others. (jemilamacewan.com)

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Alison Nguyen is a New York-based artist working in video and installation. She received her B.A from Brown University. Nguyen’s work has been featured in screenings at Ann Arbor Film Festival, True/False Film Festival, Crossroads presented by SF Cinemateque/SF MoMA, San Diego Underground Film Festival, Unseen Film Festival, Leeds International Film Festival,  L’Alternativa, Microscope Gallery, and Tai Kwun Contemporary. Her work has been exhibited at Centre des arts actuels Skol, The University of Oklahoma, San Francisco Art Book Fair, BOSI Contemporary, and Satellite Art Show, Miami. She has participated in group performances at The Whitney Museum of Art: Dreamlands Expanded, Parrish Art Museum, and Mana Contemporary (with Optipus). Nguyen has received residencies and fellowships from the International Studio and Curatorial Program, The Institute of Electronic Arts, Squeaky Wheel, BRIC, Signal Culture, and Vermont Studio Center. (alisonnguyen.com)

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Born in Denver, Colorado, Julie Petrusak is a Brooklyn-based artist whose multimedia immersive storytelling experiences combine dance, video projection, and visual art. Her mission is to make the performing arts accessible to all by bringing the concert stage into the everyday lives of people who enjoy movement and stories. Petrusak graduated from the Ailey/Fordham B.F.A. Dance Program after studying at the Maryland Youth Ballet. She has created work for Dixon Place, NY; Southern Vermont Dance Festival, Brattleboro, VT; and Harlem Arts Festival, Chashama, Riverbank State Park, and Fashion Week 2013, all in NY. (jpdancegroup.org)

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New Jersey-born, Brooklyn-based multimedia artist Kamran Shahnavaz creates work that centers around the aesthetics of kitsch, drawing from Shiite Muslim religious iconography, queer camp, and digital graphics from the early internet period. Shahnavaz has a formal educational background in video production and earned his BA and BFA from New York University and has been part of group shows at Concordia University, Montreal; and La MaMa, NY. He has completed residency programs at Al-Muneer Foundation, Hollis, NY; and EmergeNYC: Hemispheric Institute of Performance Art and Politics, NY. Shahavaz has professional experience as an Archival Producer for VICE and MTV International. The artist is currently a Station Manager at Raham TV, an Urdu-language satellite channel in Queens.  

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Brooklyn-based Pacifico Silano is a lens-based artist whose work focuses on the exploration of print culture and constructs of masculinity. His art practice is centered on the circulation of mass produced imagery and how the meanings of those images shift over time. He received his BFA from the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, Lancaster, PA; and his MFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts, NY. Silano has had solo exhibitions at Rubber Factory Gallery, VOLTA NY, and Baxter St at CCNY, all NY. His work has been part of group exhibitions at The Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA; Light Work, Syracuse, NY; Colorado Photographic Arts Center, Denver, CO; and Oude Kerk, Amsterdam. Silano has completed residencies and fellowships at the Lower East Side Printshop, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts, all in NY; as well as Light Work, Syracuse, NY. (pacificosilano.com)

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The 2018 BRIC Media Arts Fellowship is Sponsored by B&H Photo Video

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