BRIC Announces Artists Selected for Summer Residency Program

BRIC, the leading provider of free cultural programming in Brooklyn, announces the eight recipients of the annual BRICworkspace visual artistresidency program for the summer of 2017. BRIC was able to double the number of artists in residence this summer, from four to eight, due to a new donation of space at 505 State Street in Downtown Brooklyn, courtesy of Alloy Development. The summer 2017 awardees will be an all-female roster, including Nicole Awai Esperanza Cortés, Lucia Cuba, Phoebe Grip, Katya Grokhovsky, Katherine Toukhy, Jamie Warren and Monika Weiss. The residency program is now in its fourth year and is open to artists who live, work, or were born in Brooklyn.

Leslie G. Schultz, President of BRIC, said, "Supporting the work of Brooklyn artists is core to BRIC's mission. We commission work by Brooklyn filmmakers, nurture new performing arts work through our BRIClab program, and provide vitally needed workspace for visual artists to explore and expand the possibilities of their work. Thanks to this generous donation of space from Alloy, we are able for the first time to offer visual artist residencies year-round, greatly increasing our impact."

Elizabeth Ferrer, Vice President of Contemporary Art at BRIC, said, "I hear again and again from artists in Brooklyn how difficult it is to secure studio space. Increasingly, artists rely on programs such as this one to provide them with space to create their work. Artists are part of the lifeblood of New York, and I'm both excited and grateful that we will be able to provide more artists with workspace over the coming year."

BRICworkspace recipients were selected by a panel consisting of BRIC's curatorial staff and a past residency artist. The professional, practicing artists receive studio space free of charge, a stipend for materials, and visits with curatorial staff from BRIC and other local institutions. At the end of the residency, an open studio event where artists engage with the public takes place.

The BRICworkspace program takes place at three prime Downtown Brooklyn locations of varied size: BRIC House (647 Fulton Street) and two satellite spaces at Saint Ann's School (33 Clinton Street) and 505 State Street (the corner of State Street and Flatbush Avenue). Due to Alloy's inaugural sponsorship of BRICworkspace at 505 State Street, the visual artist residency program will also run year-round for the first time, divided into an eight-week summer session and five-month fall and spring sessions.

Past recipients of the prestigious residency program include ruby onyinyechi amanze and Miryana Todorova in 2014; Carl E. Hazlewood, Troken Nagbe and aricoco (Ari Tabei) in 2015; and Aisha Tandiwe Bell, Ilana Harris-Babou, Tahir Carl Karmali and Jakob Steensen in 2016.

BRIC is will be accepting applications for the fall session (September through December) between June 15 - July 15, 2017. Learn more and apply here.

2017 BRICworkspace Artists

Nicole Awai is a Brooklyn-based artist who creates multi-media installations. Her work focuses on the negotiation of multiracial identities and labeling, blending traditional and non-conventional materials including nail polish, glitter and found objects. Awai earned her Master's degree from the University of South Florida. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at PS1/MoMA, the Brooklyn Museum and the Queens Museum in New York, and at the Kemper Museum in Kansas City, MO. She had solo exhibitions at the Lesley Heller Workspace and The Vilcek Foundation, both in New York City; and at Five Myles in Brooklyn. Awai received the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant in 2011 and an Art Matters Grant in 2012.

The work of Colombian-born, Brooklyn-based artist Esperanza Cortés includes installation, watercolor and collage. Her project, Sonata Oscura, works to criticize the underbelly of the Colombian emerald industry that is rife with corruption and violence. Cortés has received a Creative Engagement Grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and a Painters & Sculptors Grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation. Her work has been part of exhibitions at the American Embassy in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico; the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, NY; and at the the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Queens Museum of Art and PS1/MoMA. esperanzacortes.com

Brooklyn-based Lucia Cuba was born in Lima, Peru. Her work focuses on issues of health, politics and global fashion. Her project, Exercises of Health, uses garments to raise criticisms and discussions of health and its absence. Cuba received her MFA from Parsons School of Design, as well as a BSc in Psychology and an MA/PhD in Public Health Studies. Her work was featured in the Material Cultures exhibition at BRIC, as well as at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands; the Museum of Art and Design, NY; and the Albuquerque Museum in Albuquerque, NM. Cuba is currently an artist-in-residence at the Museum of Arts and Design, NY, and an Assistant Professor of Fashion at Parsons School of Design, NY. luciacuba.com

Phoebe Grip is a Brooklyn-based sculptural artist, originally from Peterborough, NH. Her works include a series of woven and wire sculptures of snare traps that address themes of predation and gender. She received her BA from Colorado College in Colorado Springs. Grip's work was included in the BRIC Biennial Volume II exhibition at BRIC in fall 2016, as well as in the Re: Art Show housed in an old Pfizer Pharmaceutical building in Brooklyn. Grip has been awarded residencies and fellowships at the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT; The Lehrman Trust at Soaring Gardens, Laceyville, PA; and The Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY. phoebegrip.com

Born in Odessa, Ukraine, and raised in Australia, Katya Grokhovsky is a Brooklyn-based artist who combines sculpture with video and photography. Her newest project, The Future is Bright, explores her own experience with migration, re-discovery and alienation through this media. Grokhovsky holds a MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a BFA from Victorian College of the Arts in Australia. She has exhibited work at Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe, NM; EFA Project Space and Lesley Heller Workspace, both NY; NURTUREart, Brooklyn; and the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, NY. She has completed the BRIC Media Arts Fellowship, and residencies at Studios at MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA; and the Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY. katyagrokhovsky.net

Katherine Toukhy is a first-generation Egyptian, born in Rhode Island, and is now Brooklyn-based. She works in the mediums of collage, installation and painting, reflecting on militarism, buried histories and the collective narratives of displaced and immigrant groups. She uses a layering technique in her work to reference ancient Egyptian art, militarism and Islamic patterning. Toukhy earned her BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, and her BA from Boston College. She is a four-time recipient of a Brooklyn Arts Council Grant, and was recently commissioned by The Laundromat Project to create a public installation. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the Skylight Gallery in Brooklyn; the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, MI; and the Charles Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, MI. katherinetoukhy.com

Jamie Warren was born in Waukesha, WI, and currently lives and works in Brooklyn. She is a video and performance artist who creates sets and costumes based on Internet memes, pop culture, and art history. Her work expands on traditions of self-portraiture, re-creating famous artworks through performative tableaus. She has had solo exhibitions at The Hole and Higher Pictures, both in NY; The Kemper Museum, Kansas City, MI; and the Miami Dade Museum, Miami, FL. Warren is co-creator and co-director of the community-engaged, artist-led fake television show Whoop Dee Doo, which works with undeserved youth to create and develop projects consisting of installations and live performances. She was a featured artist in the Art21 documentary New York Close Up, a 2014 recipient of the Baum Award for an Emerging American Photographer, and a 2017 Brooklyn Arts Council SU-CASA Artist-in Residence. dontyoufeelbetter.com

Born in Warsaw, Poland, and now New York-based, Monika Weiss explores relationships between body, history and collective memory through filmmaking and music composition. Her current work focuses on the experience of post-memory-living in the wake of generational trauma, without firsthand memory or survivorship-and how women's bodies serve as vessels for public remembrance. Weiss has had solo exhibitions at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland; the Museum of Memory, Santiago, Chile; and the Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL. Her work has been included in group shows at the Stavros Niachros Foundation, Athens, Greece; Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, FL; and the Montanelli Museum, Prague. She earned her MFA from Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts and has completed residencies at Yaddo, Saratoga Springs and New York Foundation for the Arts, NY.

monika-weiss.com

Support for BRIC

Special thanks to Alloy Development andSaint Ann's School for partnering with BRIC to provide space for the BRICworkspace program.

BRIC's contemporary art program benefits from generous private funding from Alloy, Astoria Bank, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, The Bay and Paul Foundations, Bloomingdale's, City Point, Con Edison, Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, The Educational Foundation of America, Ford Foundation, Forest City Ratner Companies, The Hearst Foundations, Lambent Foundation, The Robert Lehman Foundation, Laurence W. Levine Foundation, The New York Community Trust, the Oppenheim Family Fund, TD Bank, Tiger Baron Foundation, Pia and Jimmy Zankel, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, as well as numerous individual supporters.

Generous public support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts; the Institute of Museum and Library Services; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl; Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams; the Brooklyn Delegation of the New York City Council; New York City Council Members Inez Barron, Robert Cornegy, Laurie Cumbo, Mathieu Eugene, Vincent Gentile, Brad Lander, Stephen Levin, Darlene Mealy, Mark Treyger, and Jumaane Williams.

About BRIC

BRIC is the leading presenter of free cultural programming in Brooklyn, and one of the largest in New York City. We present and incubate work by artists and media-makers who reflect the diversity that surrounds us. BRIC programs reach hundreds of thousands of people each year.

Our main venue, BRIC Arts | Media House, offers a public media center, a major contemporary art exhibition space, two performance spaces, a glass-walled TV studio, and artist work spaces.

Some of BRIC's most acclaimed programs include the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival in Prospect Park, several path-breaking public access media initiatives, including BRIC TV, and a renowned contemporary art exhibition series. BRIC also offers education and other vital programs at BRIC House and throughout Brooklyn.

In addition to making cultural programming genuinely accessible, BRIC is dedicated to providing substantial support to artists and media makers in their efforts to develop work and reach new audiences.

BRIC is unusual in both presenting exceptional cultural experiences and nurturing individual expression. This dual commitment enables us to most effectively reflect New York City's innate cultural richness and diversity.

Learn more at BRICartsmedia.org.