Dallas, Texas (May 3, 2016) – The Nasher Sculpture Center announces the winners of the Nasher Sculpture Center 2016 Artist Microgrants, a program which provides annual financial support to North Texas artists through the distribution of small-sum grants. The 2016 Nasher Microgrant awardees are: Timothy Harding, Francisco Moreno, Gregory Ruppe, lauren woods, and Longhui Zhang.
The winners were chosen by a jury which included former microgrant winners, artists Christopher Blay and Margaret Meehan, artist and educator Cam Schoepp, artist and recent Rome Prize winner E.V. Day, as well as Nasher Assistant Curator Leigh Arnold, and Nasher Curator of Education Anna Smith. Each microgrant awardee will receive $2000 to realize projects related to his or her studio practice.
“We developed the Nasher Microgrants as a way of helping North Texas artists to see their ideas through to fruition. While the grants aren’t meant to fund an entire project, very often they can open up possibilities for an artist through the purchasing of equipment and materials, travel or research, or even studio space. Sometimes these smaller necessities make all the difference towards the completion of work,” says Director Jeremy Strick. “This year’s group of awardees is especially exciting, as many of the selected artists will be able to push their practice to new levels through the exploration and resources the Nasher Microgrant will provide. The Nasher is proud to help support these artists that live and work in North Texas, and we know their continued success is shared with this community.”
2016 Nasher Microgrants will go towards the realization of the following projects by the award recipients:
Tim Harding, Fort Worth: Harding will use his microgrant to purchase a Roland Camm-1 GS-24 Desktop Vinyl Cutter. This equipment will be used to create stencils out of digitally generated imagery for the production of paintings and other works which use the grid and basic geometric forms as subject matter. Up until this time, all imagery in Harding’s paintings has been produced through the use of rulers and masking tape.
Francisco Moreno, Dallas: With his microgrant, Moreno will be constructing an immersive painting—14’ high, 16’ long and 12’ wide—modeled after the Hermitage of the Veracruz de Maderuelo at the Prado Museum in Spain. Moreno’s painting/chapel will look to the history of Mexican muralists such as Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siquieros, and will be an extension of previous projects he has completed based on historical works of art.
Gregory Ruppe, Dallas: Ruppe’s grant will go towards the research and development of a prototype for a large-scale installation of a hydroponic sound sculpture. The sculpture will be comprised of a hydroponic garden containing the supply of all essential dietary needs for one human being. This hydroponic system will be self-sufficient, relying on the sun though solar paneling to generate power to the system. Sound will be integrated into the sculpture as a way to direct aural attention to the system’s process and generate a feeling of ‘self-awareness’ within the installation. The hydroponic system will make use of hydrophones, surface sensors and tactile transducers to transmit the sounds of its own process.
lauren woods, Dallas: Artist lauren woods will use her grant to fund the beginning of a series exploring the bluebonnet, Texas history, and the relationship of Black bodies to both the natural landscape and built environment. The project is a photo-based body of work with multiple iterations. Using the tradition of bluebonnet portraiture, she will image and juxtapose Black Texas residents in bluebonnet fields, incorporating anonymous faces and fragmented body parts and images of members of Mothers Against Police Brutality who have lost and had to bury their loved ones in Texas soil due to police violence. woods hopes to produce both large scale photographs for gallery exhibition and billboards that will pepper the landscape of South Dallas. As another iteration of the project, woods plans to plant bluebonnet seeds at various sites around the city with historical and political significance, including the graves of the children of Mothers Against Police Brutality members.
Longhui Zhang, Plano: Zhang will explore themes of immigration in a project that aims to return lost suitcases left in airports to their owners all over the world. The Nasher Microgrant will allow for the shipping of the various pieces of luggage to their destination, as well as travel expenses for Zhang who aims to hand-deliver some of the suitcases to residents in Texas.
The next open call for Nasher Microgrants will be in March 2017.