This group of six artists will be in residence at Smack Mellon from September 5, 2024 through August 5, 2025. As part of the Artist Studio Program, the artists will be granted a private studio, a fellowship, and access to equipment with which to create new and develop existing work, establish relationships with arts professionals, and grow in community with their peers—all with the financial, technical, and administrative support of Smack Mellon.
The public is invited into the studios to meet the artists during Open Studio events twice per year. The studios are located on the lower level of our building at 92 Plymouth Street in the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn. Check back on our Public Programs page or subscribe to our mailing list for updates on these events.
The Artist Studio Program was launched in 2000 in response to the crisis of available affordable space for artists living and working in New York City. The program provides six eligible artists working in all visual arts media with 24/7 access to a free private studio space, a state-of-the-art digital production lab, and a fabrication shop for an eleven-month period.
Each year, Smack Mellon convenes a panel of arts professionals to select the artists from over 300 applicants. The 2024-2025 Studio Artist Panelists were: Stamatina Gregory, Chief Curator at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art; Gabriela López Dena, Associate Curator of Public Practice at Public Art Fund; and Serubiri Moses, Independent Writer and Curator.
Preliminary panelists were former Smack Mellon Studio or Exhibition artists: Emily Clayton, Itziar Barrio, Tariku Shiferaw, Maya Jefferies, Rebecca Shapass, Gi (Ginny) Huo, Ezra Wube, and Jessica Segall.
2024-25 Studio Artist Panelists:
Stamatina Gregory, Chief Curator at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art
Gabriela López Dena, Associate Curator of Public Practice at Public Art Fund
Gabriela López Dena works across curation and social practice to address the relations between the built environment and its social dynamics. Based in Brooklyn, she is the Associate Curator of Public Practice at Public Art Fund, where she works closely with artists to develop exhibitions, programs, and community engagement initiatives in public spaces. López Dena is also a teaching artist at Swiss Institute/Contemporary Art and a member of the volunteer-run project Interference Archive. She has collaborated with institutions such as the International Studio & Curatorial Program, Cooper Hewitt, the Museum of Arts and Design, and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics. In Mexico City, where she is originally from, López Dena trained as an architect and founded DENA—a transdisciplinary practice to design and build spaces, develop films, and collaborate with artists on architectural-scale installations. She also holds a master’s degree from Parsons School of Design.
Serubiri Moses, Independent Writer and Curator
Serubiri Moses is an author and curator based in New York City. He currently serves as faculty in Art History at Hunter College, CUNY, and visiting faculty at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College. He previously held teaching positions at New York University and the New Centre for Research and Practice (DE/US), Dark Study (US), and Digital Earth Fellowship (NL). As a curator, he has organized exhibitions at museums including MoMA PS1, Long Island City; Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; and the Hessel Museum, Bard College, NY. He serves on the editorial team of e-flux journal.
The Smack Mellon Artist Studio Program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York City Council Member Lincoln Restler, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, the National Endowment for the Arts, and with generous support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund of The New York Community Trust, Jerome Foundation, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation Inc., Select Equity Group Foundation, and Smack Mellon’s Members.
Smack Mellon programs are also made possible with generous support from the Ruth Foundation for the Arts, Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Wolf Kahn Foundation, Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation, Robert Lehman Foundation, The Roy and Niuta Titus Foundation, and an Anonymous Donor.
In-kind donations are provided by Materials for the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs/NYC Department of Sanitation/NYC Department of Education and Sage and Coombe Architects.
Space for Smack Mellon’s programs is generously provided by the Walentas family and Two Trees Management.
