Biographies of Kimmel Harding Nelson Residents

2009 Session 1: January 5 - June 19, 2009

Karina Hean, visual artist, Mayo, Maryland

January 5 – February 27, 2009

Karina Noel Hean is a drawing and printmaking artist who is currently an artist in residence at various national and international art centers. She most recently resided in Durango, CO and was a Visiting Instructor of Art in the Art Department at Fort Lewis College for the last three years. Hean received her Master of Fine Arts degree from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, NM. She has participated in several solo and group juried and invitational exhibitions, both regionally and nationally, including: Western Oregon University in Monmouth, OR; The Foundry Art Center in Columbia, MO; Hera Gallery in Wakefield, RI; Durango Arts Center in Durango, CO; University of Colorado in Boulder, CO; Gerald and Stanlee Rubin Center for the Visual Arts and Art Junction in El Paso, TX; New Mexico State University and the Las Cruces Museum of Fine Art in Las Cruces, NM; the Museum of Fine Art, Zane Bennett Contemporary Art, Deloney NewKirk Fine Arts, and Santa Fe Community College in Sante Fe, NM; Crown Center Gallery in Chicago, IL; Bobbie De Matteis Gallery, St. John’s College, and the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis, MD; McDaniel College in Westminster, MD and will exhibit at Yavapai College in Prescott, AZ in 2010.

Her artwork is concerned with revering nature and understanding nature as a source of spirituality in that it serves as a metaphorical reflection of the human condition. In some works tangled, overlapping organic imagery presents the layered contexts and confusion with which we daily struggle while in other works there is a general examination of the visual character and kind of knowledge presented in the diagrammatic language we use to construct a coherent order for the natural world and consequently our lives. One of the enduring elements throughout her various bodies of work is the desire to communicate the impact of the landscape on the body and psyche.

Born and raised on the Chesapeake Bay in Mayo, Maryland, Hean spent most of her time walking in the woods, combing the beach, fishing, crabbing, and swimming in the Bay. Her early connection to the natural world and the images gathered from her birthplace continue to inform her work as much as her current interest in hiking.

Hean attended St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD, which is a small, discussion-based, liberal arts college that focuses on the Great Books Program. Examining the history of Western thought and philosophy offered a well-rounded foundation from which to begin a life and study in the concerns of historical aesthetics and contemporary art. During the summers, Hean took studio and art history courses at Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore, MD. After graduating from St. John’s, she spent a year in Florence, Italy at Studio Art Centers International earning a Post-Baccalaureate Degree in Drawing. Hean has also worked in the non-profit arts sector as the Visual Artsand Artist-in-Residence Coordinator at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis, MD.

She has completed eight artist residencies over the last six years, including Harper’s Ferry Historical National Park in Harper’s Ferry, WV, Vermont Studio Centers in Johnson, VT, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska City, NE, I-Park in East Haddam, CT, Jentel Foundation in Banner, WY, Aspen Guard Station Artist Residency in Durango, CO, Soaring Gardens Artist Retreat, Lerman Charitable Trust in Wyalusing, PA, and Buffalo River National Park in Harrison, AR. During the Fall of 2008 she will complete a two month Artist Fellowship at the Ballinglen Arts Center in Ballycastle, Ireland and another two month residency at the KHN Center in Nebraska in the Winter of 2009. These generous institutions provide an uninterrupted environment and support that allows for the development of new questions, ideas, and work.

Julie Lequin, visual artist, Quebec, Canada

January 5 – February 27, 2009

Julie Lequin (Born in Laval, Quebec in 1979) is a French Canadian artist. She received a BFA from Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec) in 2001 and an MFA from Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, CA) in 2005. Julie's multidisciplinary practice interweaves personal history with fictionalized events and circumstances in a manner that constantly blurs the line between the artist as individual and the artist as self-consciously constructed persona. Julie's first book and DVD project was published in 2007 by 2nd Cannons Publications. This Fall, she presented a new project at Art-in-General in New York City.

Robert Stewart, writer, Lincoln, NE

January 5 – January 16, 2009

Robert Stewart is a native Nebraskan- & citizen of Lincoln. he has been writing plays since the turn of the century. his most recent productions include– speed & a red interior (Rough Magic Productions) in 2007 & the mutants (Rough Magic Productions) in 2008. the mutants was selected for a reading at the Great Plains Theatre conference in May of 2008. he became co-artistic director of Rough Magic Productions in October of 2008.

Travis Austin, musician, Austin, TX

January 5 – January 30, 2009

Kate Wolf , writer, Los Angeles, CA

January 19 – February 13, 2009

Kate Wolf is a fiction writer and journalist. She is the recipient of a 2008 MFA in writing from the California Institute of the Arts. Her nonfiction has appeared in the LA Weekly, Swingset Magazine, Bidoun Magazine and Photographer’s Daily News Online. She currently lives on Mt. Washington in Los Angeles where she is at work on a collection of short stories.

Janis Mercer, Musician, San Francisco, CA

February 2 – February 13, 2009

Janis http://home.pacbell.net/catmcman/biography.htm is an American pianist/composer living in San Francisco. She was the founder and former artistic director of schwungvoll, a new music chamber ensemble, with whom she performed for several years. She performed Anthony Braxton's solo piano music in California, Illinois, and New York through lectures at colleges and in public concerts. She has a strong interest in the music of the Second Viennese School but also performs living composers and has commissioned solo works. Her compositions have been mostly for single instrument, chamber music and/or voice, and use serial techniques and structured improvisation, but now she is composing more electro-acoustic works. Some of her compositions feature social and leftist political views in their structuring. Ms. Mercer holds artist residencies at Villa Montalvo Center for the Arts (California), Ragdale (Illinois), and Centrum (Washington). Her current compositional projects involve new works for piano and tape, as well as the release of her first CD on Centaur Records (www.centaurrecords.com).

Ms. Mercer has performed solo piano concerts of new music throughout the United States. As a result of her concert on the New Music Circle Series, her performance of Paul Rudy's Church Keys appears on the New Music Circle's Season Highlights Volume I: 2002-04 CD. Her recording of Brian Belét's Four Proportional Preludes appears on SCI's Chamber Works CD, available on Capstone Records. Her most recent chamber piece, Beloveds, is featured on einklang records. Her percussion solo, Air is published by Media Press. Daniel Adams featured the composition for his paper on drum set works, published in the American National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors Journal, Spring, 2004 No. 3.

Her piano teachers include Blanche Leigh, Albertine Votapek, Robert Thomas, Ian Hobson, and Bill Sorenson. Her composition teachers include Zack Browning, Herbert Brün, Salvatore Martirano, David Liptak, Sever Tipei, Morgan Powell, and David Sheinfeld.

Sarah Wang , writer, Los Angeles, CA

February 16 – March 6, 2009

Sarah is a fiction writer who recieved her M.F.A. from California Institute of the Arts.. She has written for weekly newspapers around Los Angeles. In addition to being a contributing editor for Animal Shelter, an art and literary journal, she is an associate editor at Semiotext(e). Sarah is at work on her new novel, The Black

Field.

Christian Patterson, visual artist, Brooklyn, NY

Feb. 23 – March 6, 2009

Christian Patterson (b. 1972) is a photographer born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin and based in Brooklyn, New York. His work is represented in numerous public and private collections, and has been featured in exhibitions in France, Japan, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Switzerland and the United States. Patterson has been nominated for the 2007 Santa Fe Prize for Photography, best fine art series at the 2008 New York Photo Awards, and for the 2009 Baum Award for Baum Award for Emerging American Photographers. His first monograph, Sound Affects, was published in 2008.

Matthew Barnson, musician, New York City, New York

March 2 – March 27, 2009

Matthew Barnson is emerging as an exciting new voice in both the United States and Europe. His work was featured at the 2007 MATA Festival and the 2006 ISCM World New Music Days in Stuttgart at the special invitation of Wolfgang Rihm. He has been in residency at Acanthes (2005-2007), Aspen (2004-2005), June in Buffalo (2005, 2007) and Ostrava Days (2007). His works are performed by top veteran new music ensembles, venerable orchestras and some of the most exciting emerging artists, including the Arditti String Quartet, Quator Diotima, the Manson Ensemble, the Knights, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre national de Lorraine, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, the Yale Philharmonia, the Janacek Philharmonic, the New York Virtuoso Singers, Seraphic Fire, singers Nicole Cabell, Ian Howell and Erin Morley, violist John Graham, cellist Jason Calloway and conductors Simon Bainbridge, Peter Eötvös, Sarah Hicks, Shinaik Haim, Roland Kluttig, Jacque Mercier and Zsolt Nagy. After winning several minor competitions, he became the youngest recipient of a Barlow Commission at the age of 22; in 2007 he received his second Barlow Commission. He was recently awarded a 2008 Jerome Commission. His teachers have included Joseph Schwantner, Augusta Reid Thomas, Christopher Rouse, Steven Stucky and in extensive masterclasses: Wolfgang Rihm, Kaija Saariaho and Toshio Hosokawa. He studied at the Eastman School of Music, the University of Pennsylvania and is currently pursuing a doctorate at Yale with Martin Bresnick, Ezra Laderman, David Lang and Ingram Marshall. A native of Salt Lake City, he currently lives in New York City. Up and coming projects include a major new work for Third Coast Percussion, a song cycle for countertenor Ian Howell, a percussion solo for James Dietz, a large triptych of violin sonatas, and a collection of sacred music.

Michael Giron, visual artist, Omaha, NE

March 2 – March 13, 2009

Michael Giron was born in New Orleans, LA, in 1970. Although recognized for drawing skills since childhood, he began formal training in college, graduating with a BFA from the University of New Orleans. He went on to study and teach as a graduate student at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he received his MFA. There he met his wife, Nicole, and began a family with two children, Rhianna and Noah. They moved to Omaha in 2000 to remodel his wife’s childhood home. Mike has been teaching drawing and design, life drawing, and illustration for graphic design at Metropolitan Community College, as well as, painting, mural painting, printmaking, art appreciation and such at Bellevue University, where he is also gallery director.

Elizabeth Smith, writer, Brooklyn, NY

March 9 – 20, 2009

Frank Sheehan, visual artist, Ridgewood, NY

March 9 – 20, 2009

Frank Sheehan grew up in rural Ireland in the 1960s where people smiled a lot regardless of whether they were happy or not; as a result his artwork is cautionary and introspective. He studied Classical Art at Trinity College Dublin, the Moderns at Pratt Institute in New York City and Venetian Renaissance Painting at Scolazzi Internationale in Venice, Italy.

He currently lives and works in New York City and has been included in many group shows in West Chelsea and beyond. His work is included in several important private collections and he has had numerous commissions. His drawings have been published in a book by Bruno Gmunder, and in New York Home magazine, and also in Western Interiors magazine. After a successful showing of his vortex paintings an extensive blog feature article followed on ‘French Soiree’ website. He was subsequently interviewed by Yann Arthus Bertrand for the ‘1 Million People on Camera’ project at the Centre Georges Pompidou, in Paris. 

His medical photographs have been published in Time, Newsweek, US News & World Report, and in textbooks worldwide. Photo by George Konz, 2006

Seung Jae Kim, visual artist, Chicago, IL

March 16 – April 24, 2009

Seung Jae Kim was born in South Korea and has finished his BFA in Korea. He got an MFA in

photography from the School Art Institute of Chicago. He has had shows in LA,

Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Toronto, Azerbaijan ,China and in Korea. Kim was awarded a fellowship from Nippon steel and the Vermont studio center. He also as had residencies in New York and Vermont. He is working as an artist in Chicago.

Kate Blakinger, writer, Philadelphia, PA

March 23 – April 10, 2009

Kate Blakinger received her MFA from the University of Michigan, where she was awarded the Meijer Postgraduate Writing Fellowship. Her fiction has appeared in The Iowa Review, The Southeast Review, Vestal Review, and Flashquake. She lives in Philadelphia, and is at work on a collection of short stories.

Carrie Dickason, visual artist, Deer Isle, ME

March 23 – May 8, 2009

Carrie Dickason is a visual artist whose work involves the collection and accumulation of materials remaining from consumer culture. She investigates relationships between landscape, manufacturing, consumerism, and waste. A scavenger, who collects and re-organizes the excess that makes up the contemporary landscape, Dickason uses familiar materials such as plastic, rubber, foam, and carpet - in an unfamiliar way.

Carrie holds a BFA in studio Textiles from Indiana University, Bloomington, and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI. Her work has been exhibited in Columbus and Cincinnati, OH; Detroit, MI; Jackson, WY and Toronto, Canada- in group and solo shows. In 2005 she was included in the DePauw Biennial: Contemporary Art in the Midwest, curated by Kaytie Johnson – in Greencastle, IN. In the winter of 2009 she was awarded a residency at Yaddo, in Saratoga Springs, NY.

During the residency at Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Carrie will explore the Nebraska landscape, and continue to develop work revolving around her thesis: A Field Guide to Trash and Cultivation. For further information please check: www.carriedickason.com.

Daniel Christian, musician, Tecumseh, NE

April 6 – April 17, 2009

Out of Nebraska comes a singer-songwriter who blends jam-band trends with Beatle-esque pop/rock sensibilities.  Nashville recording artist Daniel Christian (BMI) has toured the nation in a number of performing groups, allowing him to share his music in many great U. S. cities including: Minneapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, New Orleans, Phoenix, Denver and Los Angeles. Daniel has entertained large audiences at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, Nashville's Bluebird Cafe, Knotts Berry Farm, the Warner Brothers cruise line, the Omaha Summer Arts Festival, several Comstock Windmill and Harvest Festivals, and in the Bahamas and Mexico. His diverse experience with a variety of music projects has allowed him to open shows for many internationally acclaimed acts such as: The Fixx, Chris Cagle, Andy Griggs, Gary Allan, Sawyer Brown, Devon Allman's Honeytribe, and Martina McBride.

Daniel Christian was playing drums as soon as he could hold sticks.  His father played drums with local cover act Mayberry Express (which rehearsed in their home), exposing Daniel to a broad range of classic and modern hits.  Musical seeds were probably planted by his father, who, in addition to drumming, sang and played trumpet.  His mother would tell you she plays the radio. 

Years later, like many elementary school students, Daniel's parents "forced" him to take piano lessons, which he dreaded until he quit, then missed them, and started again on his own.  Melodies and lyrics were in Daniel's head as early as age 7, but by age 16 he began writing them down.  In high school, he formed a cover band with friends, who taught him to play the guitar.  This instrument proved to be a fortunate skill in college, since no drum sets and pianos were allowed in campus dorm rooms.  Although Daniel did study music in college, he graduated with a B. S. ed. in English and Humanities, and even spent 5 years teaching high school.  He has worked with choirs, country singers, and rock bands, and now creates and shares his own music with a variety of audiences.  

Daniel was awarded 1st place in the "Miscellaneous" category at the 32nd Annual National Country Music Festival, where he was also 1/3 of the festival's Best Vocal Group. Daniel is a founding member of Nebraska's chapter of the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI).  He penned "No-Money Fun" for Sheila Greenland, once the most-requested song at KNCY-FM in Nebraska City.  The Nebraska City News-Press calls his writing "refreshing" and "adventurous."  

Recently, Christian composed the school song for newly formed high school Johnson County Central in his hometown of Tecumseh, NE.  The Lincoln Journal-Star says that the new school song creates "a unity between the school and its community of patrons. The lyrics pay homage to what had been but also focuses on what is now — and what will be. It focuses on unity, loyalty and pride in the new school." 

On his album, i am merely sand, Christian can be heard singing (of course), and drumming (his first love), as well as playing guitars, percussion, and keyboard instruments.  He is joined on guitar by Nashville session player Pat Bergeson, protégé of legendary guitarist Chet Atkins.  Formerly with Alison Krauss, Bergeson has been heard most recently with Lyle Lovett, and Randy Travis.  

Another session professional, Charlie Chadwick, performs bass guitar responsibilities, and engineers the album.  Chadwick, who has been heard with Pam Tillis, Crystal Gayle, Steve Earle, John Jorgenson, and David Lee Roth (to name a few), has just earned his second Grammy® Award for his work on Peter Frampton's Fingerprints project. Daniel Christian's i am merely sand is available now at CD Baby and on iTunes. www.DanielChristianMusic.com.

Brian Benfer, visual artist, Angola, IN

April 20 – May 15, 2009

Brian received his B.A. in Studio Art from Humboldt State University, and his M.F.A. in Visual Arts from Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts. He has served on the faculties at several institutions, exhibited his work throughout the United States and Europe, and has work included in various international collections.

Recent work has involved the exploration of objects as residue, a documentation of time. He believes that, “Though my work has physically taken many different formats in terms of its final presentation--from prints and paintings, to installations and video, to revisiting again the object itself--regardless of materiality, residue is always the essence of the work. Acting as a physical diary of sorts, the remains speak volumes about my personal exploration, referencing historical aspects and utilizing contemporary mindsets.” www.brianbenfer.com.

Paul Olson, writer, Lincoln, NE

April 20 – May 1, 2009

I was born in 1932 and lived through the Dust Bowl and Depression in South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Nebraska. In 1944 my father was struck down with rheumatic fever, and we returned to Nebraska so my mother could support the family by teaching in a one-room school near Ithaca, NE. I worked at a variety of jobs in my youth -- as a farmer's hired man, a construction worker, a house painter, and a library helper -- and I attended little Lutheran colleges in Nebraska and Kansas. In 1951-53, I gained by M.A. at the University of Nebraska, then had a Fulbright in London in 1953-54, and took my PhD. at Princeton in 1954-57. There I specialized in medieval and Renaissance studies. When I completed my PhD, I determined to return to my roots, to work on my scholarly specialty and on the quality of Nebraska education. The latter interest led to my leadership of Project English, the USOE Tri-University project, the national TTT project, and the 1971-75 Study Commission on Undergraduate Education. In 1976, I was asked to form the Center for Great Plains Studies, an area that allowed me again to explore my roots. I have written twelve books on education and on literature and many pieces concerned with writers like Rolvaag, Cather, Neihardt, and Black Elk. I have published 12 books. My most recent a book on Shakespeare called Beyond a Common Joy just came out in November 2008. I taught for fifty years at the university and helped to develop studies in medieval and Renaissance works and studies in Great Plains literature, teaching early African-American, African, and Plains Indian courses and interdisciplinary courses in Great Plains Studies there. I taught at the university for fifty years and from 1968 on, I was Kate Foster Professor of English. In that role, I directed about seventy PhD. D. dissertations.

Ann Weisgarber, writer, Sugar Land, TX

April 27 – May 8, 2009

Ann Weisgarber, raised in Kettering, Ohio, has been fascinated by the gritty spirit of pioneer homesteaders ever since her first childhood trip to the west. After earning a Bachelor of Arts in social work from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, she was a social worker in a psychiatric hospital. She and her husband, Rob, moved to Houston, Texas, where she earned a Master of Arts in sociology from the University of Houston. There, Ann worked as a social worker in a nursing home and eventually taught sociology at a junior college.

Ann has also lived in Boston and in Des Moines, but now splits her time between Sugar Land, Texas, and Galveston, Texas. She and her husband are avid hikers and visit at least one national park every year. Inspired by a cookstove in a South Dakota sod dugout and a photograph of an unnamed woman, Ann spent seven years writing The Personal History of Rachel DuPree. She attended evening writing workshops and was a student at the Writers @ Work Conference in Utah and at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference in Tennessee. She submitted the first chapter of her novel to the National Park Service and received a four-week writing residency at Badlands National Park in South Dakota. Ann’s debut novel, The Personal History of Rachel DuPree, was published in June 2008 by Macmillan New Writing, a division of Pan Macmillan in the United Kingdom. Next summer, Picador will release it in paperback in the UK, and it will also be released in large print and as an audio book. Editions Belfond in France will release the novel next summer as an Avant Premiere selection for the book club, France Loisirs. Ann is currently working on her next novel. www.annweisgarber.com

Steven Wingate, writer, Lafayette, CO

May 11 – May 22, 2009

Steven Wingate's short story collection Wifeshopping won the 2007 Bakeless Prize in fiction from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and was published by Houghton Mifflin in July 2008. His fiction, poetry, reviews, and hybrid-genre work have appeared in such venues as Mississippi Review, Gulf Coast, Colorado Review, Rain Taxi, The Journal, and Brand (UK). Since 1991 he has taught at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  www.stevenwingate.com

Dave Beck, visual artist, Potsdam, NY

May 14 – June 5, 2009

Dave Beck is a multimedia artist teaching digital art at Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY.  He has also taught sculpture and art history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.  Beck's areas of specialization include sculpture, 3D digital design & animation, digital photography and design.  Beck was a distinguished visiting artist at University of Wisconsin-Marathon and his artwork was chosen to represent University of Wisconsin-Madison at the National Big-Ten Conference Center. Beck's artwork is featured in the book "GameScenes. Art in the Age of Videogames" (John & Levi, 2006) the first volume entirely dedicated to Game Art. He has shown his work in exhibitions across the country, including Miami, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Memphis, LA, Minneapolis, Boston, Milwaukee, and San Diego.  In the fall of 2009, he will be showing his work in solo exhibitions at the Overture Center for the Performing Arts (in Madison, WI) and at the State University of New York’s Gibson Gallery. Beck received his B.A. in studio art & ancient studies from St. Olaf College (Northfield, Minn.) and his M.A. and M.F.A. in sculpture & extended media from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. www.davebeck.org.

Suzanne Sorkin, musician, Wynnewood, PA

May 18 – May 29, 2009

Suzanne Sorkin is active as a composer and educator. She has received awards and commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation, Third Millennium Ensemble, counter)induction, ASCAP, and others. Her work has been programmed on Piano Spheres in Los Angeles, Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, Denison University New Music Festival, Chamber Music Quad Cities, Florida State University Festival of New Music, and Vassar Modfest. She has been a composition fellow at the Wellesley Composers Conference, the Ernest Bloch Composers Symposium, the Advanced Masterclasses in Composition at the Aspen Music Festival, and the Oregon Bach Composers Symposium. Residencies include Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Ragdale Foundation, I-Park, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, and Atlantic Center for the Arts. She received her Ph.D. in composition from the University of Chicago, and is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia.

Clifford Garstang, writer, Staunton, VA

May 25 – June 5, 2009

Clifford Garstang received an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. His work has appeared in Virginia Quarterly Review, Shenandoah, Baltimore Review, and elsewhere. He formerly practiced international law with one of the country’s largest law firms and with the World Bank in Washington, DC. He now lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. http://perpetualfolly.blogspot.com

Kristin Pluhacek, visual artist, Omaha, NE

May 25 – June 19, 2009

Kristin Pluhacek lives and works in Omaha, Nebraska. Her drawings and paintings have been exhibited extensively in Midwestern fine arts galleries and museums, and her work is represented in numerous public and private collections.  She is the illustrator for the book “Send Me Tulips”, recently published by Prisma Press (prismacollaborative.com) and was the featured artist/illustrator for the 2007 Summer Arts Festival. She has participated in numerous public art projects and led many project workshops, including the Lauritzen Gardens Lewis and Clark Interpretive Icon and "Reach for Your Dreams", a collaboration between Mutual of Omaha, Campfire USA and the United States Swimming Association in conjunction with the 2008 Olympic Swim Trials. Kristin is a BFA graduate of Creighton University, and teaches drawing at Metropolitan Community College and Joslyn Art Museum. Currently, her work can be viewed at Anderson/O’Brien Gallery (aobfineart.com) and Dundee Gallery (dundeegallery.com) both in Omaha, NE and on line at www.kkpluhacek.com . In 2009, Kristin’s work will be featured at the Blue Barn Theatre’s Abbot Pinkhoff Gallery in conjunction with their performance of “Wit”.

Sarah Sharp, visual artist, Brooklyn, NY

May 25 – June 19, 2009

Sarah G. Sharp grew up in Northern California. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY where she makes sculpture, drawings and video. She received a BA in Media Studies from The Evergreen State College in 1999 and an MFA in Studio Art and MA in Art History from Purchase College in 2008. Sarah’s work has been shown at The White Box Gallery Annex and 55 Mercer Street Gallery in New York, Real Art Ways in Hartford, ProArts Gallery in Oakland, The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, and The Black Sun in Olympia. In 2008 Sarah received a Library Research Grant from The Getty Research Institute to conduct research in the Marcia Tucker Archives. She also conducted an oral history interview with the Artist Elaine Reichek, which will be published by the Smithsonian Institute’s Archive of American Art in early 2009.

David Macdonald, musician, Ossining, NY

June 8 – June 19, 2009

David Macdonald holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Manhattan School of Music, an MFA degree from SUNY Purchase and a BA from St. John’s College. His composition teachers have included Nils Vigeland, David Noon, Charles Jones and Joseph Webber. He is a co-director of the Locrian Chamber Players contemporary music ensemble. He has been a fellow at June In Buffalo and has participated in master classes with Lukas Foss, George Crumb, Roger Reynolds and others. Commissioners of his music include: The Elements Quartet; The Queen’s Chamber Band; the New Hudson Saxophone Quartet and Zero Gravity. His works have been performed by: The Chappaqua Orchestra; Collegium Westchester; on The Hartford Commissions Concert (in Merkin Hall); Genealogies (in Rock Hall, Philadelphia); and on recitals in Chicago, Santa Fe, Israel and Taiwan. He regularly contributes music to productions of The Actors’ Company Theater in New York, most recently their critically acclaimed off-Broadway revival of “Home” by David Storey in 2006. He teaches at The Manhattan School of Music in the Theory and Composition Departments.

Kimberly Thomas, visual artist, Lincoln, NE

June 8 – June 19, 2009

Kimberly Thomas is from Missouri and now resides in Lincoln, NE. Kimberly received her BFA with an emphasis in Photography from Missouri State University. She will be completing her MFA degree at UNL in the fall of 2008. Recent exhibitions of her work included The River Market Regional Exhibition 2008, Toledo Friends of Photography 2008 National Juried Photographic Exhibition, and PhotoSpiva 2006. Kim received the College of Fine and Performing arts 2008 Graduate Student Leadership Award, the Midwest Society for Photographic Education national conference scholarship, and the Kimmel Fellowship from 2006-08.