This group of six artists will be in residence at Smack Mellon from September 1, 2023 through August 15, 2024. 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 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 2023-2024 Studio Artist Panelists were: Eriola Pira, Curator & Director of Programs at Vera List Center; Prerana Reddy, Artist Community Fellow at Recess; and Gee Wesley, Curatorial Assistant, Dept of Media and Performance at MoMA.
Preliminary panelists were former Smack Mellon Studio or Exhibition artists: Leah Beeferman, Jesus Benavente, Moko Fukuyama, Domenica Garcia, Bang Geul Han, Sara Jimenez, Victoria-Idongesit Udondian, and Anne Wu.
2023-24 Studio Artist Panelists:
Eriola Pira, Curator & Director of Programs at Vera List Center
Eriola Pira is the Curator and Director of Programs at the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School, where she works closely with artists to commission and present new work and ideas on art and its politics. Most recently, as Director of Programs, Pira led Art in General’s international collaborations, residencies, public events, and fellowship programs, building on her professional networks and experiences as Program Director and Curator at the artist-founded NARS Foundation and as Program Director for The Foundation for Culture and Society. She has organized and participated in several international exhibitions, performances, publications, and symposia and collaborated with institutions worldwide, including most recently, Contemporary And (Berlin), BAK (Utrecht), Asia Art Archives (Hong Kong), High Line Art (New York), The Clemente (New York), Center for Imagination in the Borderlands (Tempe), Creative Time (New York), UnionDocs (New York), and BRIC (New York). A native of Albania, Pira has an MA in Visual Culture Theory from New York University.
Prerana Reddy, Artist & Community Fellow at Recess
Prerana Reddy is a cultural producer based in New York City working at the intersection of art, civic engagement, and social movements. She is currently the Artist & Community Fellow at Recess, managing the Session and Critical Writing programs both of which resource radical thinkers challenge dominant social narratives around resilience and safety. Previously she was the Director of Programs at A Blade of Grass, a nonprofit that advances the field of socially engaged art through financial support for artists, public programming, research, and content creation. She also acted as the Director of Public Programs & Community Engagement for the Queens Museum from 2005-2018 where she organized both exhibition-related and community-based programs with such renowned artists as Damon Rich, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Mel Chin, and Pedro Reyes.
Gee Wesley, Curatorial Assistant, Dept of Media & Performance at MoMA
Gee Wesley is an arts organizer born in Monrovia, Liberia, and based in New York where he works as a Curatorial Assistant in the Department of Media and Performance at the Museum of Modern Art. Prior to joining MoMA, Wesley held roles as Program Director at Recess (Brooklyn, NY), Curatorial Fellow at SculptureCenter (Queens, NY), Curatorial Fellow at the Institute of Contemporary Art (Philadelphia, PA), visiting instructor at Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY), and adjunct faculty in the Curatorial Practice MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art (Baltimore, MD). Wesley is a co-founder and board member of Ulises, a nonprofit art bookshop based in Philadelphia. His work explores the relationship between publics and publications and how independent arts initiatives incubate new modes of curatorial and artistic practice. Wesley received his M.A. from the Center for Curatorial Studies, at Bard College.
2023-2024 Studio Visitors:
- Andrea Monti & Elle Burchill, Co-Directors, Microscope Gallery
- Alison Burstein, Curator, The Kitchen
- Vivian Chiu, Curator, Pioneer Works
- Miguel Luciano, Artist
- Stella Cillman, Associate Curator, Artists Space
- Etienne Frossard, Smack Mellon Photographer
- Serubiri Moses, Curator & Writer
- Stamatina Gregory, Chief Curator, Leslie Lohman Museum
- Rahul Gudipudi, Senior Curator, CARA (Center for Art, Research, and Alliances)
- Dustin Yellin, Founder and Director, Pioneer Works
- Hitomi Iwasaki, Curator, Queens Museum
- Yelena Keller, Curatorial Assistant, Studio Museum
- Anna Harsanyi, Assistant Curator & Community Engagement, Creative Time
- Indira Abiskaroon, Curatorial Assistant, Brooklyn Museum
- Eriola Pira, Curator & Director of Programs, Vera List Center
- Jody Graf, Assistant Curator, MoMA PS1
- Rachel Vera Steinberg, Curator & Director of Exhibitions, Smack Mellon
- Claire Sammut, Associate Director, Maxwell Graham Gallery
- Alyssa Alexander, Independent Curator
- Sara Reisman, Chief Curator, National Academy of Design
- Amy Rosenblum Martin, Curator, Bronx Museum
- Alessandro Facente, Curator, Artists Alliance Inc
- Mathilde Walker-Billaud, Curator of Programs and Engagement, Folk Art Museum
- Jasmin Hernandez, Writer, Gallery Gurls
- Nora Lawrence, Director, Storm King Art Center
- Emily Henretta, Artist
- Mitra Khorasheh, Curator, Signs and Symbols
- Dulcina Abreu, Independent Curator
- Caitlin Chaisson, Curator/ Critic, MoMA
- Claire Kim, Manager of Programs and Collections, Asia Art Archive in America
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.
