EAF08: 2008 Emerging Artist Fellowship Exhibition

Socrates Sculpture Park is pleased to announce the opening of EAF08: 2008 Emerging Artist Fellowship Exhibition on Sunday, September 7, 2008, featuring new works by the Park’s current resident artists. This year, Socrates awarded fourteen fellowships: Martin Basher, Chelsea Beck, Kim Beck & Osman Khan, Michael Berens, Sari Carel, Adriana Farmiga, Kimberley Hart, Rajkamal Kahlon, Jason Bailer Losh, Matthew Lusk, Jong Il Ma, Ted McCann, Juniper Perlis, and Harriet Salmon.

Fellowship artists are awarded a $5,000 grant and a residency in the Park’s outdoor studio, and are also provided with technical support and access to tools, materials and equipment to facilitate the production of new sculptures and installations for exhibition in the Park. The fellows develop their projects throughout the summer in the open studio and on site in the landscape, offering visitors the opportunity to experience both the creation and presentation of their works. Representing a broad range of materials, working methods and subject matter, the diverse sculptural works in this exhibition are presented against the Park’s spectacular waterfront view of the Manhattan skyline.

Emerging Artist Fellows are selected annually through an open application process and reviewed by a committee composed of the Park’s Executive Director; past EAF recipients; established artists who have shown a commitment to mentoring and advocating for younger artists; as well as writers, gallerists, and curators who have special knowledge of contemporary art. The 2008 Advisory Committee members were: Hank Willis Thomas, 2006 Socrates Sculpture Park Emerging Artist Fellowship recipient; Kara Vander Weg, author and Director, James Cohan Gallery; Michael Lieberman, Harris Lieberman Gallery; Roxy Paine, artist; and Sylvia Chivaratanond, Curator, Art Salon, Art Basel Miami Beach 2008.

Socrates is undergoing a phased expansion of the EAF program and is incrimentally awarding two additional fellowships per year to reach twenty fellowships as an annual number upon the Park’s twenty-fifth anniversary in 2011. Socrates awarded fourteen fellowships in 2008, and will award sixteen fellowships in 2009, and eighteen in 2010.

This exhibition is made possible by the dedication and support of our volunteers and friends and by the generosity of: Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Inc.; Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; Carnegie Corporation of New York; Charina Endowment Fund; The Cowles Charitable Trust; The Dedalus Foundation; Mark di Suvero; Foundation for Contemporary Arts; Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation; Hugh J. Freund; Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation; Agnes Gund; Harpo Foundation; Jerome Foundation; The Peter T. Joseph Foundation, Gabrielle and Herbert Kayden; Richard and Ronay Menschel; Ivana Mestrovic; National Endowment for the Arts; The New York Community Trust; Ralph S. O’Connor; Brooke Kamin Rapaport and Richard A. Rapaport; Rev. Alfred R. Shands III; Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Smith; Starry Night Fund of Tides Foundation; Ursula von Rydingsvard and Paul Greengard; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs. This exhibition is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. Special thanks to the City of New York, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Queens Borough President Helen M. Marshall, City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan, City Councilmember Eric Gioia, and the Department of Parks & Recreation, Commissioner Adrian Benepe. Socrates Sculpture Park is grateful for the generosity of: Harold H. Anthony, Inc.; Build it Green; John P. Corrieri, Inc.; Garlock East; R & R General Supply Co., Inc.; Materials for the Arts; Plant Specialists; Spacetime C.C.