Nasher Sculpture Center Announces 2018 Artist Microgrant Winners

Five North Texas Artists to Receive Grants to Support Studio Practices

DALLAS, Texas (June 6, 2018) – The Nasher Sculpture Center announces the winners of the Nasher 2018 Artist Microgrants, a program which provides annual financial support to North Texas artists through the distribution of small-sum grants which may be used to fund the purchasing of equipment and materials, travel or research, or even studio space. The 2018 Artist Microgrants are made possible by additional gifts from Nasher Members and Patrons.

The 2018 Nasher Microgrant awardees are: Nida Bangash, DADE (Angie Reisch, Ellen Smith,  Diana Antohe and DS Chapman), Arnoldo Hurtado, Jonathan Molina-Garcia, and Colton White.

The winners were chosen by a jury which included artist Eileen Maxson, Senior Lecturer, Photography, Southern Methodist University and 2017 microgrant awardee; lauren woods, artist, Southern Methodist Visiting Lecturer, and 2016 microgrant awardee; Thomas Feulmer, Director of Educational Programming, Rachofsky Collection; Chicago-based artist Devin Mays, who also collaborates with Theaster Gates and the Rebuild Foundation; as well as Nasher Assistant Curator Leigh Arnold, and Nasher Curator of Education Anna Smith. Each Nasher Microgrant awardee will receive $2000 to realize projects related to his or her studio practice.

“The Nasher is proud to contribute to furthering the practice of North Texas artists,” says Curator of Education Anna Smith. “This year’s awardees represent the important creative work that artists do to shed light on critical social issues and to create meaningful dialogue with our community.”

2018 Nasher Microgrants will go towards the realization of the following projects by the award recipients:

Nida Bangash, McKinney

Nina Bangash will use her microgrant to purchase equipment for executing an interactive video installation tentatively called Projection that embodies the complex relationship between viewers, patrons, and institutions that engage objects with deep colonial histories. Using vision motion detection to trace viewers’ interaction with a projected image on the floor, the original video image—a colorful, illuminated medallion painting, a motif sourced from Indo-Persian miniature paintings and Persian carpets—will shift over time to be completely subsumed by white paint, exploring the paradoxical issues of loss, dislocation, displacement and territoriality associated with colonialism.

DADE (Angie Reisch, Ellen Smith & Diana Antohe DS Chapman), Dallas

The Dallas-based artist collective DADE—founded in 2017 by Diana Antohe, Angie Reisch, DS Chapman, and Ellen Smith, a group of women and femme artists—will use the Nasher Microgrant to produce an issue of Holding Pattern, a publication that serves as a platform for those artists and writers underrepresented by mainstream art spaces and art discourse. This second edition of Holding Pattern will contain images of artwork from female and non-binary artists, as well as essays and criticism focused on the artists’ practice and work within the arts, examining holding patterns therein. The project will also consist of an exhibition of the artwork included in the publication and a public reading of selected writings.

Arnoldo Hurtado, Fort Worth

Artist Arnarldo Hurtado will use the microgrant funds to form a social sculpture, tentatively named Acceso Northside: Arte y Cultura, that seeks to create a new model for how cultural incubators can provide better dialogue with the communities they serve. Offering cultural activities ranging from the visual arts, music, performance, and creative enterprise to transform communities, Hurtado plans to activate the historic Franko’s market in the Northside of Fort Worth—an underserved Spanish-speaking community—for the duration of one year. Offerings in the space will include four major exhibitions featuring the works of regional artists, music events, and arts education workshops, such as lectures and classes.

Jonathan Molina-Garcia, Dallas

Prompted by recent controversial legislation on immigration policies for Central Americans, El Salvadorian native Molina-Garcia will use his microgrant to fund an interactive PDF project called “Hyperpassport.” The project uses Molina-Garcia’s original passport as a template to create fictional passports which mimic all original anti-forgery patterns and designs, but that rewrite the interior and back

cover language to shield Salvadoran citizens from foreign abuses. Ideally, this project is meant to be experienced as a kiosk while Molina-Garcia performs as a receptionist in a gallery, assigning visitors to queue lines and producing passports in under an hour.

Colton White, Dallas

Colton White will put his microgrant toward the production of a film that will serve as the artist’s second coming-out as part of the queer community. Presented in documentary format, the film takes viewers through a roller-skating tour of Dallas neighborhoods that will highlight the need for changes in certain environments, as well as reveal the multitude of lives and histories that make up the city. Viewers will be pulled in to experience the themes of absence as presence, awareness of one’s environment, camp, and acceptance.

For high resolution images, please follow this link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/q7n831be24v9bu9/AACPNwbICWvW0tLrL4sUzoTQa?dl=0

The next open call for Nasher Artist Microgrant applications will be in April 2019.

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About the Nasher Sculpture Center:

Located in the heart of the Dallas Arts District, the Nasher Sculpture Center is home to the Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection, one of the finest collections of modern and contemporary sculpture in the world, featuring more than 300 masterpieces by Calder, de Kooning, di Suvero, Giacometti, Gormley, Hepworth, Kelly, Matisse, Miró, Moore, Picasso, Rodin, Serra, and Shapiro, among others.The Nasher Sculpture Center is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm, and from 10 am to 5 pm on the first Saturday of each month. Admission is $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, $5 for students, and free for children 12 and under and members, and includes access to special exhibitions. For more information, visit www.NasherSculptureCenter.org.