Storefront Artist Project, in partnership with Ferrin Gallery and Pittsfield’s Office of Cultural Development, is excited to announce a new residency program featuring artists Irfan Hasan of Pakistan and Tuguldur Yondonjamts from Mongolia. Both artists participated in a 3-week long residency at Art Omi in rural Ghent, NY from late June to mid July, and are continuing their visits to the United States with tailor-made residencies here in the Berkshires.
This is the first states-side trip for Hasan and Yondonjamts. “We are so thrilled to welcome international contemporary artists from Art Omi’s visual arts program into our community. Their presence here is the result of a pilot program and may be a starting point for cultural exchange that will compliment other artist residencies taking place in the Berkshires,” says Ferrin Gallery Director Leslie Ferrin, who organized the program. “Between the residencies through Storefront Artist Project, the Berkshire Museum, Project Art, MASS MoCA, MCLA and Bascom Lodge, these two artists will be introduced to artists and the sites where they are working. It takes a team to pull something like this together and the Berkshires always shine when an opportunity such as this arises.”
Irfan Hasan was born in Karachi, Pakistan in 1982 and graduated from the National College of Arts, Lahore, in 2006. He was awarded the Best Young Painter distinction in 2007 and 2008 by the Alhamra Arts Council, Pakistan. Following his 2008 residency at Studio RM in Lahore, Hasan’s first solo exhibition contained pieces that merged traditional miniature painting techniques he studied as an undergraduate with contemporary compositions and surreal imagery on a large scale. He continues to dive into his subconscious, dreams, and surroundings as the works develop. “The artist’s imagination is not bound by simplicity,” Hasan explains. “It conflicts with common sense. An environment free of common sense invokes the abstract qualities of thoughts, thereby stimulating a uniquely energized dialogue. Each work is a reflection of the self in fragments, like pieces in a puzzle.”
Pittsfield’s Office of Cultural Development, lead by Megan Whilden, has generously supplied Irfan Hasan with an apartment at the Springside House in Springside Park, off Route 7 in Pittsfield, which will serve as his housing and studio space through the end of August. He will spend this residency working on his ongoing series of contemporary paintings, which can be viewed by the public during open studio hours on Saturday afternoons between 10 and 12:30pm. In addition, Hasan will lead a 5-week Mughal painting workshop at Storefront Artist Project, 124 Fenn Street, Tuesday and Wednesday nights from 6-8pm beginning July 27. This free program will explore the process, aesthetics and techniques of traditional Mughal miniature portrait drawing and watercolor painting. It is recommended that participants attend each week’s lesson to fully understand and practice this specialty art form. For more information about Hasan’s residency, call or email Acting Director Julia Dixon at 413-442-7201 or mail@storefrontartist.org. Workshop flyers and details can be found online at www.storefrontartist.org.
Like Hasan, Tuguldur Yondonjamts studied traditional painting techniques, both Mongolian flat painting and Thangka painting, as an undergraduate at the University of Arts and Culture Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. He participated in graduate level studies at the University of the Arts Berlin, Germany in 2004, and will travel to London to pursue an MFA this fall. In his current work, Yondonjamts continues to incorporate complex narrative compositions and fine artisanship that Thangka painting demands. His paintings and drawings explore the dichotomies that often define contemporary society: “tourism and wilderness, actions and consequences, submission and dominance, consumption and environment.” Large in scale and stark in color, he employs shark imagery as well as Mickey Mouse and Bigfoot (or Yeti) characters to compete in invented spaces. “My works express concrete situations including globalization and conflicts, discoveries and innovation of human history, mostly based on current events heard through Mongolian, English, German, Russian and international radio.”
Melanie Mowinski, a painter, printmaker, book artist, curator and educator, is providing Yondonjamts with housing and studio space on her property in Cheshire, MA through Sunday, August 1, after which he will continue his travels to Oregon and New York City before heading to London to complete an MFA. Mowinski regularly participates in artist residency programs throughout the United States and abroad, including a summer 2010 residency at Bascom Lodge, the top of Mt. Greylock in Adams, MA. Her current curatorial project is a series of exhibitions at Gallerie Haiti, a temporary gallery at 49 Main Street, North Adams, as part of DownStreet Art. She will resume teaching as an Assistant Professor of Visual Art at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) this fall.
The Storefront Artist Project is a non-profit arts organization active since 2001. Operating in a gallery/office space in the heart of Pittsfield, it brings art and artists to diverse members of the community by presenting innovative art exhibitions and installations, providing non-traditional, visually accessible studio space to artists and connecting artists with the public through education, opportunities and exposure. Its programs include the Artist Residency Program, the Mentor Program, the Artist Salon and the Intern Program. Visit www.storefrontartist.org for more information.
Tuguldur Yondonjamts Berkshire Residency, July 21 – August 1, 2010
Irfan Hasan Berkshire Residency, July 21 – August 28, 2010
Mughal Painting Workshop
Storefront Artist Project, 124 Fenn Street, Pittsfield, MA
Tuesdays and Wednesdays starting July 27, 6-8 pm
FREE and open to the public
Bring your own materials *List will be provided at sign-up
