Artist Selection Team
Silvia López Chavez
Silvia López Chavez (she/her) is a Dominican-American visual whose community-centered murals form connections across disciplines and cultural boundaries. She uses joy as an act of resistance and celebration through her vibrant work world-wide. Silvia is a proud recipient of a Common Good Award from MassArt, a Leadership in Public Art Award by New England Foundation for the Arts, and The Boston Foundation’s Brother Thomas Fellowship Award. She is a graduate of MassArt the School of Art and Design and Altos de Chavon, Dominican Republic. Silvia continues her studio practice close to the ocean between Boston and DR.
Simon Han
Simon Han (he/him) is the author of the novel Nights When Nothing Happened (Riverhead Books, 2020), which was named an Indie Next Pick and best book of the year by Time, the Washington Post, Harper’s Bazaar, and Texas Monthly. His stories have been published in Virginia Quarterly Review, the Iowa Review, Guernica, Fence, and Electric Literature, and his essays have appeared in The Atlantic, Aperture, Lit Hub, and the Paris Review Daily. He has received support from MacDowell, Willapa Bay AiR, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Born in Tianjin, China and raised in various cities in Texas, he lives in Medford, MA and teaches at Tufts University. He is at work on a second novel.
Ella Jacobson
Ella Jacobson (she/her) is a cultural critic and writer originally from interior Alaska. Her writing has appeared in Slate, The Drift, The Guardian, The Los Angeles Review of Books blog, High Country News, and Real Life, among other publications. Much of her work explores how people metabolize their exposures to violence and death. She holds a masters in Cultural Reporting and Criticism from the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, and she is the recipient of residencies and support from Edith Wharton House, Straw Dog Writers Guild, Monson Arts, I-Park Foundation, Good Hart, and the Ora Lerman Charitable Trust Foundation. She is a former New York University Abu Dhabi Fellow in Writing. You can find her on Twitter @_ellajacobson.
Hogan Seidel
Hogan Seidel (they/them) is a photographer and moving-image artist working in the traditions of experimental film, photochemical abstraction, and botanical collage. Their current artistic research, framed through poetic, political, and personal lenses, delves into contemporary queer discourse, queer history, and queer ecology. Hogan currently teaches experimental analog filmmaking courses at MassArt, and darkroom photography at Simmons University.
Berny Tan
Berny Tan (b.1990, Singapore) (she/her) is an artist and curator who explores the tensions that arise when she applies systems to – and unearths systems in – her subjective experiences. Her strategies often reflect a fundamental interest in language as it is read, written, and spoken by her. In her curatorial work, she nurtures an artist-centred practice grounded in empathy, sensitivity, and collaboration.
Tan holds an MA (Dist) in Contemporary Art Theory from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a BFA (Hons) in Visual & Critical Studies from the School of Visual Arts. Between 2021 and 2024 – while continuing to present her artwork in solo and group exhibitions – she organised 8 curatorial projects in Singapore, including a publicly accessible residency as part of Singapore Biennale 2022. She was awarded the 2022 IMPART Art Prize in the curator category in recognition of her independent practice. In 2024, Tan joined the Singapore Art Museum as Curator of its new Design Collection. (Photo by Charmaine Poh.)
Amanda Machado
Amanda E. Machado (she/they) is a writer, public speaker and facilitator whose work has been published in The Atlantic, Guernica, The Washington Post, Adroit Journal, Slate, The Guardian, and many others. In addition to their essay writing, Amanda also is a public speaker and workshop facilitator on issues of justice and anti-oppression for organizations including Patagonia, The Aspen Institute, HipCamp, and many others. She is also the founder of Reclaiming Nature Writing, a multi-week online workshop that centers the experiences of people of color in how we tell stories about the outdoors.
Amanda has a degree in English Literature and Nonfiction Writing from Brown University, and currently lives on unceded Ohlone land in Oakland.
Laura Sofía Pérez
Laura Sofía Pérez (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist who works in video, film, sound, and installation. She received her MFA in Film/Video from California Institute of the Arts. Her work draws from feminist and avant-garde cinema, phenomenological philosophy, Caribbean Postcolonial theory, and ancestral knowledge. She often works in collaborative settings of experimentation and improvisation with artists of varying disciplines and backgrounds to voice common perspectives on political, cultural, and social issues. Recent film festival selections include Doc Fortnight 2024: MoMa’s Festival of International Nonfiction Film and Media and Third Horizon Film Festival 2024. Recent artist residencies include The Studios at MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA (2023), Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, Canada (2020), the AfA Masterclass: Radical Care with Terike Haapoja (2020), and La Práctica at Beta-Local, San Juan, Puerto Rico (2019). She is Visiting Faculty in Film/Video at Bennington College, Bennington, VT.
Sonya Lara
Sonya Lara (she/her)is a biracial Mexican American writer. She received her BA in Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her MFA in Poetry from Virginia Tech. Her work appeared or is forthcoming in The Maine Review, Frontier, Shenandoah, Ninth Letter, AGNI, The Los Angeles Review, The Acentos Review, and elsewhere. She was accepted for the Peter Bullough Foundation Residency, the Blue Mountain Center Residency, the Good Hart Artist Residency, the Shenandoah National Park Artist-in-Residence Residency, and others. Sonya was the recipient of Wisconsin’s Own Library Poet in Residence Fellowship and the Studios Fellowship through The Studios at MASS MoCA. Additionally, she was a finalist for the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing Poetry Fellowship, the Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship, and the Outpost Residency Fellowship, and was shortlisted for The Eavan Boland Emerging Poet Award and runner-up in Shenandoah’s Graybeal-Gowen Prize for Virginia Poets.
Quique Lee
Quique Lee (he/him) is a contemporary artist from Guatemala, specializing in textile and fiber art. His work explores social themes such as masculinity, collective memory, and societal change. His recent project, “Embroidery Circles for Men,” uses embroidery as a medium to address traditional masculinity, opening spaces for critical dialogue and fostering collaboration within communities. Quique’s practice also incorporates interdisciplinary approaches, merging textile art with social activism. Through his art, he engages with complex cultural and social issues, aiming to generate meaningful conversations and reflections on these pressing topics.
Ruth Owens
Ruth Owens (she/her) is a figurative painter and video artist from New Orleans, where she is represented by the Ferrara Showman Gallery. She is a participant of the Prospect.6 Triennial and exhibited a solo show at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art. Artist residencies include the Joan Mitchell Center, the Studios at MASS MoCA and the International Studio and Curatorial Program in NY. She is in the permanent collections of the 21c Museums, Ackland Art Museum at UNC-Chapel Hill, the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Dale Center for the Study of War and Society, and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. (Photo by Jonathan Traviesa.)
Epiphany Couch
“Epiphany Couch (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist exploring generational knowledge, storytelling, and our connection to the metaphysical. Using mediums such as bookmaking, beadwork, photography, and collage, she re-contextualizes these forms to examine our pasts, the natural world, and our ancestors. In 2024 she was a Studios at MASS MoCA resident, recipient of a 2024 Ford Family Foundation Oregon Visual Artist Fellowship, and a commissioned artist for Oregon’s Percent for Art in Public Places. Her work has been shown in galleries, museums, and fairs across the U.S.
Couch is spuyaləpabš (Puyallup), Yakama, and Scandinavian/Mixed European and grew up in caləłali (Tacoma, Washington) in the shadow of təqwuʔməʔ (Mount Rainier). She now resides in Portland, Oregon, where she is a member of Carnation Contemporary. “
Carolyn Clayton
Carolyn Clayton (she/her) is an artist and residency director living in North Adams, MA. She is the co-founder of the Walkaway House, where, with her partner Benjamin Westbrook, she lives, works, and operates the Tend and Center of Gravity artist residencies. In addition to being their home, the Walkaway House provides physical space and opportunities for visiting artists, overnight guests and the local arts community to make meaningful work and connections in downtown North Adams.
Clayton uses the framework of her 1850’s historic home and the facilitation of an artist residency within its walls as a social practice from which to consider the melding and overlap of art and life. Through this lens she makes installations, participatory systems, and sculptural displays. Her work examines the allure of cleanliness and order in contrast to the human drive to accumulate, hold close and imbue objects with meaning. She received her MFA from University of Michigan in 2016 (with a certificate in Museum Studies) and her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 2009. She was awarded the Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship in sculpture in 2016 and a National Arts Strategy Creative Community Fellowship in 2018, where she began to develop the concept for the Walkaway House.
Jade Yumang
Jade Yumang (he/they) was born in Quezon City, Philippines, grew up in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, immigrated to unceded Coast Salish territories in Vancouver, BC, Canada, and has been living in the traditional unceded homelands of the Council of the Three Fires in Chicago, IL. They have exhibited their work in several museums and galleries nationally and internationally. Jade has received grants from the Illinois Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the BC Arts Council. He has been an artist-in-residence at the Fire Island Artist Residency, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Swing Space Residency, and Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. They earned an MFA with Departmental Honors from Parsons School of Design in 2012 and a BFA with Honors from the University of British Columbia in 2008. Jade is an Associate Professor in the Department of Fiber and Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Sean Desiree
Sean Desiree (they/them) is a conceptual and interdisciplinary artist, born and raised in the Bronx. Their interest includes social engagement and disruptive interventions that counter biased societal structures. In addition to being an artist, they are an educator facilitating the BIPOC Builders Immersions at Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, NY. In 2024, they attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. In 2022 they were awarded fellowships at Leslie Lohman, and Socrates Sculpture Park. They have attended residencies at More Art, MASS MoCA, and Wave Hill. While an Artist in Residence at More Art, they debuted their socially engaged public art sculpture, BEAM ENSEMBLE in collaboration with the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
Janhavi Khemka
Born in 1993 in Varanasi, India, Janhavi Khemka (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist who graduated with a B.F.A. in Painting from the Faculty of Visual Art, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi in 2015, and an M.F.A. in Graphics from Kala Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan in 2017 and a Studio Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA in 2023.
With her impaired hearing, Khemka looks at disability not as a disadvantage, but as a lens through which one can see, understand, and negotiate with the world in a different way. Each work is an expression of her unique ways of interacting with the world without acoustic sensation.
Khemka’s art practice is characterized by her thoughtful choice of medium to translate her perception. Most of her work is rooted in personal memories, her physic and physical life. She calls her works small dots in the vast map of mind and memory, constituted by the particular use of the medium. Presently working from Chicago, USA, Khemka has been creating live performances that question the meaning of language and how we understand it.
Mokha Laget
Mokha Laget (she/her) is a New Mexico-based interdisciplinary artist and researcher whose work explores themes of displacement and perceptual instability through geometric abstraction, animation and performance of visual scores, large shaped canvas, printmaking and sculpture.
Born in North Africa, she studied Fine Arts at the Corcoran College of Art and Design (BFA) in Washington DC. She holds a CCI from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in simultaneous interpreting and translation and has spent much of the past 25 years traveling parts of Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
Formerly a Curatorial Assistant for the New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts, Mokha has extensive experience as an independent curator. Her writings and reviews have been published in The Santa Fe Reporter, THE Magazine, Sculpture Magazine and the New Art Examiner.
In 2022, Mokha’s survey exhibition covering the last 10 years of her career opened at the American University Museum in Washington DC. She is included in numerous museum collections and actively represented by several galleries in the US, including in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Fe and Houston.
She was awarded a Pollock Krasner Foundation grant in 2019 and visiting artist residencies at the American Academy in Rome, Mass MoCA, Millay Arts, and the Golden Foundation.
She currently lives and works in an off-grid studio in the mountains of New Mexico.
Calvin Gimpelevich
Calvin Gimpelevich (he/him) is an NEA Fellow, the recipient of a Lambda Literary Award, and the author of Invasions (Instar 2018). His work has been recognized by Artist Trust, Jack Straw Cultural Center, 4Culture, CODEX/Writer’s Block and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts; it has appeared or is forthcoming in A Public Space, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, and The Best American Essays 2022. He is at work on several novels.
Feda Eid
Feda Eid (she/her) is a Lebanese diaspora visual artist and photographer living in the occupied lands of Wampanoag and Massachusett People- so called Quincy,MA. Her work explores the expression of heritage, culture, identity and often tense but beautiful space between, what is said, what is felt, and and what is lost in translation. Using the everyday, passed down and reimagined as portals to ancestral wisdom and the Sacred. She captures these emotions through her bold use of color, textiles, adornment and pop culture linking the past and present. Feda is guided by her family’s journey as Lebanese immigrants who fled the country’s civil war in 1982 and her childhood growing up as an Arab and Muslim in the US.
Feda studied Sociology at Regis College and photography at New England School of Photography. Her work has been exhibited at the Peabody Essex Museum, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Lesley University, and The Shed NY among others. She was 2019 Luminary and Visiting Studio Artist at The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2022 Massachusetts fellowship Artist in Residence at Mass MoCA Studios, 2022 Collective Futures Fund grantee, 2024 Foundation For Contemporary Arts grantee and awarded WBUR’s 2024 The Makers, Boston’s 10 artists of color whose work you should know.
Felipe Shibuya
Felipe Shibuya (he/him) is a Brazilian ecologist and artist who decided to adventure around the world. His journey began when he completed his PhD in ecology and nature conservation at the Federal University of Paraná. He then decided to explore the visual aspects he had included in his research, beyond the purely scientific perspective. He also holds an MFA in studio art from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he worked with pigmented bacteria, with the intention of understanding how the colors they synthesize could be communication signals for humans. Being a scientist-artist enables Felipe to explore different forms of life, from bacteria to trees, using different methods, from microbiological culture to videos. However, all of his work involves aspects of his own identity, and he always highlights the visuality of nature. Currently, Felipe is an Assistant Professor in the Experimental and Foundation Studies Department at Rhode Island School of Design.
Natalia Sánchez
Natalia Sánchez (she/her) was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico in 1992. She received her BFA at Columbus College of Art and Design in 2015 and based herself in Columbus, OH for seven years. During this time , she had her studio at Blockfort Columbus, participated in organizing artistic and cultural events, exhibited in group shows, and grew a network of colleges, patrons and collectors. After Hurricane Maria, she returned to Puerto Rico re-rooting herself in the town of Arecibo where she continues to develop her painting, multimedia and community engagement practices. These expressions are influenced by architecture and urban planning in her immediate landscape and by the psychological implications of the built environment and the human psyche.
Sánchez received the NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant in 2019 and with it developed an audiovisual documentary titled “País Espejo” about Arecibo’s history focused in its urban planning or lack thereof. It integrates the narratives of elders in the community, as well as historians and other community leaders. She had a solo show in Arecibo’s Casa Ulanga where together with a body of paintings showcased “Pais Espejo” back to her community. In 2021 she exhibited in the group show “ A Diasporic State of Mind” at Praxis Gallery in Chelsea, New York. In 2022 she had a solo show at Kilometro 0.2 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Shortly after exhibiting in the Kilometro 0.2 group show “Once Upon a Time” In 2023. She was awarded the MASS MoCA Fellowship for Artists from Puerto Rico, where she was a resident artist in August – September 2023. In 2024 she’s exhibited in a group show at Marshall Gallery in Santa Monica, Los Angeles titled “Structural” and another group show at Master’s Gallery in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico titled “Bajo Otro Sol”.
Funlola Coker
Funlola Coker is a sculptor from Lagos, Nigeria. Funlola’s work follows research threads in the realm of recollection, imagination, and the surreal. Embracing the literary style of biomythography, Funlola builds narrative sculptures that call on nostalgic memories and moments of the mundane held dear. Liminal spaces are explored in the context of Yoruba cosmology and Africanfuturism. Using materials and techniques based in craft, these sculptures suggest dream-like and half-remembered spaces, yet sacred.
Coker’s work has been exhibited at the Fuller Craft Museum, TONE Gallery, the National Ornamental Metal Museum, including a solo exhibition at Brooklyn Metal Works. Collections include Brooklyn Metal Works and the National Ornamental Metal Museum. Coker has received awards such as the Thayer Fellowship from the SUNY Rockefeller Institute of Government (2022), and the Society of Arts and Crafts Craft Innovation Jumpstarter Award (2023), and the Boston Center for the Arts Coker holds an MFA in Studio Art from the State University of New York at New Paltz.
Lily Xie
Lily Xie (she/they) is a Chinese-American artist and educator whose socially-engaged work explores desire, memory, and self-actualization for communities of color. In collaboration with local residents and grassroots organizers, she facilitates creative projects with a focus on public space, housing, and racial justice. The work they create together often takes shape in illustration, print media, video, and installation. Lily was a 2023 City of Boston Artist-in-Residence and she holds a Masters in City Planning from MIT.
Carlos Vielma
Graduated as an architect, Carlos Vielma is a Mexican visual artist. His work in painting, video, and installation deals with subjects like migration, the landscape and its monuments, and the US-Mexico border. He has participated in several residency programs, including the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in Maine, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Nebraska, the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá, and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada, among others. Vielma has exhibited his work at institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the El Paso Museum of Art in Texas, Museo Anahuacalli, and La Nao Galería in Mexico City, among others. His works are part of collections including the Servais Family Collection, Colección Fundación Casa Wabi, and the Mexican State, which recently honored him with a membership in the National System of Art Creators (SNCA). He lives and works between Mexico City and Houston Texas where he is currently a fellow of the Core Program at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.
Portrait by Harland Bozeman
Ash Eliza Williams
Ash Eliza Williams (they/them) grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains in SW Virginia. Ash makes work about interspecies communication, non-human language, and exploring alternative and more vibrant ways of engaging with the sensory worlds of plants, creatures, and each other. Recent exhibitions include Denver Museum of Contemporary Art, Wasserman Projects, and Chautauqua Institute. Ash often works with scientists, including as an artist-in-residence at Shoals Marine Laboratory, Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and Mountain Lake Biological Station as a Lucille Walton Fellow. Ash is a lecturer at Smith College.