June News 2023
With the arrival of spring, our grounds have transformed once again — teeming with life. The song of warblers, chattering orioles, and the flight of unmistakable woodpeckers is our cue that the spring season is surging ahead.
It is always an inspiration preparing for the next lineup of Artists-in-Residence (AIRs) with the shift of the season. In addition to new residents moving in, a variety of programs are now in the works for the remaining months of 2023. Stay tuned for details on upcoming field trips curated in collaboration with our cultural partners, which have been designed specifically to the interests our Lab alums. Performance dates are also now etched into the calendar, and open studio gatherings are being penciled in for the months that lie ahead.
In June we welcome interdisciplinary artist Vick Quezada - and in autumn, we will host visual artists Mamie Tinkler and Martha Lewis, as well as theremin performer Dorit Chrysler, all joining us for the balance of 2023. The common thread that continues to unite our artists-in-residence is the invaluable opportunity to immerse oneself fully in their craft, unburdened by the demands of daily life. This respite from the ordinary offers the artists the time and space to embark on uncharted journeys of discovery.
Part of the experience in being at the Lab is access to a growing selection of books in the Lab Library — AIRs are invited to select publications for inclusion in the Library, a collection that now fully embodies the interests of all the artists who have taken retreat here. As the collection expands, we have created a virtual bookshelf, documenting the contents held on these shelves. Take a look!
Thanks to all of you who join us here on site celebrating the works in progress coming from all the Lab’s artists-in-residence.
Vick Quezada | June Artist-in-Residence
We welcome interdisciplinary artist, Vick Quezada, to the Lab!
Vick Quezada (they/them) is a mixed media artist exploring hybrid forms in Indigenous-Latinx history and the function of these histories in contested lands, primarily in the U.S.-Mexico Border. They work with a variety of mediums: video, performance, sculpture, and ceramics. They incorporate found objects (man-made) and natural elements, like dirt, soil, flora, corn and combine them with found objects like bricks, reclaimed trash, chains, cans, and barbed wire.
Quezada’s work explores liberation through an approach that is rooted in queer and Indigenous knowledge, histories, and aesthetics. They draw on an Aztec-Nahuan religious doctrine that affirms a “two-spirit” tradition in order to make the Latinx and Indigenous transgender body visible through history, trauma, and pleasure.
Quezada received an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship co-sponsored by the Ford Foundation. Their work has been featured in Hyperallergic, BOMB Magazine, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, Art News, Trans Studies Quarterly, and Remezcla. From 2020-21 they served as a Leslie Lohman Museum Fellow. In 2020 Quezada was featured in El Museo del Barrio's groundbreaking, La Trienal.
Quezada holds a BA from the University of Texas at El Paso and an MFA from UMASS Amherst.
To learn more about Vick Quezada, please visit: vickquezada.com
Table Remains, mixed dimensions, ceramics, cafeteria table, mixed media, 2018.
Upcoming…
Artists-in-Residence 2023
JULY / AUGUST
Mamie Tinkler
A painter of intimately scaled, meticulously observed watercolor still lifes that incorporate objects with past lives.
SEPTEMBER
Martha Lewis
A visual artist, curator, educator and radio presenter, Martha's artistic practice focuses on drawing, site-specific installation, books, knowledge, and the history of science.
NOVEMBER
Dorit Chrysler
A regular at Caramoor, Dorit Chrysler, is one of the world's most visible Theremenists and cofounder of the NY Theremin Society. Her most recent album, "Calder Plays Theremin," was released in 2023.
A Special Shout Out to Alum Cary Gitter
Last March, the Lab hosted a lively reading of a play written by AIR alum Cary Gitter, inspired by the relationship between Gilda Radner and Gene Wilder. We invite all of you to head over to Stony Point, NY to see the production of Gene and Gilda, which will be mounted in the cozy barn at Penguin Rep Theatre, August 4 - August 27. Break a leg, Cary - and hope to see you all there….
