About JAF: Grantees

Artadia Atlanta Awardees - 2014, 2011, 2009

2014

PAUL STEPHEN BENJAMIN

Paul Stephen Benjamin received his BA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his MFA from Georgia State University. Benjamin is a recipient of the 2014 Artadia Award. In 2016 Benjamin's video installation Black is the Color can be viewed at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA through May 14, 2016. Feb-April 2016 Benjamin will be exhibiting his solo exhibition Come Over at The Mayors Office of Cultural Affairs Gallery 72 in downtown Atlanta, GA.  His work has been on exhibit at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center in the exquisite Corpse  and the Coloring exhibitions. He was also featured in the group exhibition Emerging Artist Award Winners 15th Year Retrospective Exhibition at The Swan Coach House. Among his awards to date are the Winnie B. Chandler Fellowship, Diasporal Rhythms Artists Recognition Award, Hambidge Fellowship, The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center Studio Program, and the Forward Arts Emerging Artists Award.

Click here for more information about Paul Stephen Benjamin and Artadia

BETHANY COLLINS

Bethany Collins (American, b.1984) is a multidisciplinary artist whose conceptually driven work is fueled by a critical exploration of how race and language interact. In her Contronyms series, for instance, Collins transposes definitions from Webster’s New World Dictionary of American Language onto American Masters paper, then aggressively obscures much of the entries with an eraser. What remain are specific snippets of meaning that are poetically charged through their isolation, as well as the crumbled paper bits left behind by her erasing. As Holland Cotter noted writing in The New York Times, “language itself, viewed as intrinsically racialized, is Bethany Collins’s primary material.” Her works have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions nationwide, including the Studio Museum in Harlem, the High Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, and the Flint Institute of Arts. Collins is a former Hambidge Center Fellow and currently serves on the Board of Trustees. Collins has been recognized as an Artist-in-Residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem and was awarded the Artadia Award in 2015 and the  Hudgens Prize in 2015. 

Click here for more information about Bethany Collins and Artadia

ROBBIE LAND

Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Robbie began working in film and time-based media, producing 8mm and 16mm animations and live action experiments for exhibition and installations in 1990. He has worked on a variety of projects from cinematographer at the Florida Lightning Research Facility to teaching college level photography, performance, film and sound production. Currently he resides in Atlanta, Georgia and continues to experiment with various photo-based and sound projects. Robbie’s work has been exhibited at Kunst Film Biennale in Cologne, Germany, Museum Do Chiado in Lisbon, Portugal, The International Experimental Cinema Exposition in Denver, Colorado, Scientifical Center Espace Mendès in Poitiers, France, Mono No Aware in Brooklyn, NY, Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia in Atlanta in addition to a variety of screenings and exhibitions.

Click here to learn more about Robbie Land and Artadia

LAURI STALLINGS

Atlanta-based artist Lauri Stallings has fostered an expanded practice that includes public choreographies, place building, green economy, and civic actions with many communities.  Founding artist of glo, Stallings is currently Visiting Artist of School of the Arts at Georgia Tech.

Stallings has exhibited and performed her work at Central Park, New York; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Art Basel Miami, South Beach; Museum Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta; City Center, New York; Howard Finster's Paradise Garden, Summerville; Royal Opera House, London; Jacob's Pillow, Beckett; Laban Conservancy, London; Goat Farm Arts Center, Atlanta; Atlanta Contemporary, Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw; among others.

Stallings has received awards and grants from Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Creative Time,
American Academy of Arts, Possible Futures Foundation, Bogliasco Foundation, Vasser Woolley Foundation, Chicago Music & Dance Alliance, Emory Center for Creativity and Arts, Atlanta Beltline Urban Development, and Artadia. 

Stallings makes all of her work in a 117-year old factory space at The Goat Farm Arts Center. 

Click here to learn more about Lauri Stallings

2011

SARAH HOBBS

Sarah Hobbs received her MFA in Photography from the University of Georgia, Athens, GA in 2000 and her BFA in Art History from the University of Georgia, Athens, GA in 1992. She has received numerous awards including the Walker Evans Focus Fellowship AIR Serenbe in 2016, the Dave Bown Projects Photography Competition Grand Prize in 2015, and the Atlanta Artadia Award in 2011. Recent exhibitions include What is Near: Reflections on Home, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, 2016 and Flight in Place (an installation in the home of writer Carson McCullers), Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians, Columbus, GA, 2015.

Click here to learn more about Sarah Hobbs and Artadia

GYUN HUR

Gyun Hur has performed and exhibited in Atlanta, New York City, Chicago, Seattle, Vancouver, Italy, Turkey, and Hong Kong. Gyun’s work has been widely recognized for her floor installations comprised of hand-shredded silk flowers. Through her menial process of making and transforming materials, the artist constructs a visual landscape to evoke a sense of labor, loss, and memories.

Gyun completed New York City residency through Elizabeth's Foundation for the Arts in 2009. She attended Vermont Studio Center (2008 and 2013), The Vytlacil Campus of The Art Students League of New York (2011), Ox-Bow Artist-in-Residence (2010), Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (2010), and Pilchuck Glass School (2008). She is the recipient of The Hudgens Prize (2010), Artadia Award (2011), and Joan Mitchell Foundation Scholarship (2010). She is participating in the Artist-in-Residence housing program with The Creatives Project next two years. Her works have been featured in Art In America, Art Paper, Sculpture, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Pelican Bomb, Creative Loafing, Jezebel, and The Atlantan. She was listed as the Best Emerging Artist (2011) by Creative Loafing and selected in Oxford American’s “100 Under 100: Superstars of Southern Art” issue. Her interest in art-making in public space led her to various artist presentations at the TEDxCentennialWomen, the international street art conference Living Walls: The City Speaks, the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, and many others.

Born in South Korea, she moved to the United States at the age of 13. Gyun attended the University of Georgia (Painting, BFA) and Savannah College of Art and Design (Sculpture, MFA). She currently lives and works in Hong Kong. 

Click here to learn more about Gyun Hur and Artadia

JASON KOFKE

Jason Kofke understands a culture through media that has been abandoned, discarded, or abrogated. He uses art as salvage ethnography to attribute meaning to events and artifacts of the past. His projects empathize with communal historical experiences and attempt to make sense of the present through a re-exploration of a common history.

Kofke is a recipient of a 2011 Atlanta Artadia Award and a 2009 Idea Capital Grant. He has been awarded residencies at The Arctic Circle Project in Svalbard, Norway, Milkwood Residency in the Czech Republic, ARCUS Project in Japan, Odysseys Residency in Costa Rica, Long Stories Project in Perm, Russia, ArtPrint Residence in Barcelona, Spain, Living Walls Conference in Atlanta, USA, the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, China, and the Elizabeth Foundation in New York City.

Kofke’s work has been exhibited at the A4 Center for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney, Australia, the HIGH Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Telfair Museum in Savannah, GA, Jack the Pelican Gallery in Brooklyn, NYC, FLUX projects in Atlanta, Kai Lin Gallery in Atlanta, The Elizabeth Foundation in NYC, Fuse Gallery, NYC, The Gallery of China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, China, Arthouse Gallery in Brooklyn, NYC, ARCUS Studio in Moriya, Japan, Artspace Gallery in Richmond, VA, and RED Gallery in Savannah GA.

He earned his BFA in 2005 and MFA in 2010 from Savannah College of Art and Design as well as Visiting Scholar Recognition from the China Academy of Art. Though Kofke’s studio is based in Atlanta, he travels frequently for residency programs and photography expeditions abroad.

Click here to learn more about Jason Kofke and Artadia

LYNN MARSHALL-LINNEMEIER

An extraordinary creative spirit, Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier is a Visual Mythologist, A Memory Keeper who works in a variety of mediums including photography, video, sculpture, painting, drawing, and writing.  In 2010 she created the Journey Projects, which uses community collaboration to address the notion of ancestry as envisioned through the Agan, a fiber-based costume worn during Ifa Egungun masquerades. Ifa, a West African belief system, is based on the veneration of ancestors. Marshall-Linnemeier's work weaves together stories, memories, myths, and visions from the past to the present in a spiritually settling way that is universal. The community joins in this effort, through participation and dialogue. 

Marshall-Linnemeier has created permanent and temporary site-specific artwork for both public and private institutions, including Wolf Creek Library in South Fulton County, Georgia, First Congregational Church, Atlanta, GA; Old Church, Emory University at Oxford, Georgia; Ennis Gallery, Georgia College, and State University, the Zora Neale Hurston Museum, Eatonville, Florida,  and the University of Central Florida in Orlando. 

She has won awards from Artadia, Idea Capital, Fulton County Arts Council, State of Georgia, and the NEA, and has taught at Emory University, Spelman College, and Agnes Scott College.

Her work is held in both public and private collections including the High Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She has worked in communities in South Africa, Australia, England, and Kenya.   

Click here to learn more about Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier and Artadia

Click here for an interview with the artist and Cinque Hicks, Creative Loafing, September 7, 2010

JOHN Q

John Q is an idea collective interested in public scholarship, interventions, and memory. Through our projects, we seek to expand notions of archival research, as well as experiment with different ways we might be in relation to the past.

The collective’s name references “John Q. Public.” The “public” is left understood, though the work is considered a kind of public scholarship, and the “Q” is left hanging to reference our interest in queer tactics. The collective was founded by Wesley Chenault, Andy Ditzler, and Joey Orr. 

Click here to learn more and here to download the John Q Catalogue: Projects 2009 - 2014

ROCÍO RODRÍGUEZ

Rocío Rodríguez has been in over twenty-five solo exhibitions in contemporary art centers, museums and private galleries. In addition, she has participated in over ninety national curated exhibitions. Ms. Rodríguez is the recipient of an Artadia Award (Atlanta, 2011), a Cintas Fellowship, an Affiliated Fellowship Visiting Artist Award at the Academy of Art in Rome, Italy, and two SAF/NEA Fellowships. Her work was recently featured in two books; Out of the Rubble and NOPLACENESS: Art in a Post-Urban Landscape. Most recently her work has been exhibited at Marfa Contemporary, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts in NYC, the Mobile Museum of Art, the High Museum of Art, and the Huntsville Museum of Art. In 2014, she was the recipient of an Artist Residency at Marfa Contemporary in Marfa, Texas. Her work is in various national public and private art collections. Recent reviews of her work have appeared in Art in America, Art Forum, artsatl.com, burnaway.org. She is affiliated with the Kathryn Markel Fine Arts Gallery in NYC, Carl Solway Gallery in Cincinnati and the Zolla Lieberman Gallery, in Chicago. Rocío lives and works in Atlanta.

Click here to learn more about Rocío Rodríguez and Artadia

MICAH STANSELL

Micah Stansell is an Atlanta-based video/filmmaker and installation artist. He received an MFA in Digital Filmmaking and the Arts from Georgia State University. His work has been screened in galleries and film festivals across the United States and internationally. Stansell has received several awards for his work, most recently a 2011 Artadia Award, 2010 Working Artist Project Award from the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, a Special Jury Prize for Innovative Filmmaking at the 2009 Atlanta Film Festival, and a 2008 Student Academy Award Nomination for his graduate work. Stansell's work has been reviewed in numerous publications including Art in America, Moviemaker Magazine, Atlanta Art Now: Noplacencess (book) and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 

Click here to learn more about Micah Stansell and Artadia

2009

TRISTAN AL-HADDAD - FORMATIONS STUDIO

Formations Studio is the creative practice of Tristan Al-Haddad and is engaged in acts of art, architecture, science and research by working across multiple disciplines and with many collaborators. The work is currently focused on projects at the scale of furniture, fragments, spatial installation, sculpture and landscape; all of which are understood both in terms of discrete objects/spaces and in terms of a particular creative methodology, which is scale-less and can be applicable in various projects and at various scales. The work is bound by a common theme of creating visceral experiential sensations and exploring concepts of matter-energy transformations.  

Click here to learn more about Tristan Al-Haddad, Formations Studio and Artadia

DON COOPER

Don Cooper was born in Texas, grew up in Georgia and has lived primarily in Atlanta since 1976. He received his MFA from the University of Georgia and is the recipient of a Fulbright Artist Grant, a MOCA GA Working Artist Project Grant, and the Judith Alexander Artadia Award. He has had thirty-one solo exhibitions and 70 group exhibitions. His work is in the collection of the Albright Knox Gallery, the High Museum of Art, the Atlanta International Airport, MOCA GA, Coca-Cola, USA, and the Morris Museum of Southern Art. His meditative, ritualistic paintings are inspired by universal symbols such as the bindu, a Sanskrit term for a central dot which represents consciousness, being, and the sacred point of origin and return.

Click here to learn more about Don Cooper and Artadia

RUTH DUSSEAULT

Ruth Dusseault is a cross-disciplinary media artist who works in digital media and installation. Her work falls at the intersection of geography and social psychology, reflecting utopian expressions as they enter the built environment. She has curated exhibitions that merge art and architecture for the District of Columbia Art Center, the Contemporary in Atlanta, and the Avery Center at the Carnegie Museum of Art. She designs special topics courses that merge visual thinking, science and design for Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology. She has received over a dozen awards and recognitions from institutions including Artadia, the Forward Arts Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Center for Land Use Interpretation. Her work is exhibited and collected internationally and has shown at London’s Chelsea College of Art, Boston Center for the Arts, High Museum of Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, Houston Center for Photography, Bemis Center for the Arts, and Emory University.

Click here to learn more about Ruth Dusseault and Artadia

FAHAMU PECOU

Dr. Fahamu Pecou is a visual artist and scholar whose works combine observations on hip-hop, fine art and popular culture. Pecou’s paintings, performance art, and academic work addresses concerns around contemporary representations of Black masculinity and how these images impact both the reading and performance of Black masculinity.

Fahamu received his BFA at the Atlanta College of Art in 1997 and a Ph.D. from Emory University in 2018. Dr. Pecou exhibits his art worldwide in addition to lectures and speaking engagements at colleges and universities. As an educator, Dr. Pecou has developed (ad)Vantage Point, a narrative-based arts curriculum focused on Black male youth. Dr. Pecou is also the founding Director of the African Diaspora Art Museum of Atlanta (ADAMA).   

His work is featured in noted private and public national and international collections including; Smithsonian National Museum of African American Art and Culture, Societe Generale (Paris),  Nasher Museum at Duke University, The High Museum of Art, Paul R. Jones Collection, Clark Atlanta University Art Collection and Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia.

Click here to learn more about Fahamu Pecou and Artadia

Click here for ARTS ATL article, by Gavin Godfrey, September 7, 2016

JERRY SIEGEL 

Siegel was born and raised in Selma, AL, and graduated from the Art Institute of Atlanta. His first monograph, Facing South, Portraits of Southern Artists was published by the University of Alabama Press in 2011 and features portraits of 100 Southern artists. This body of work has been featured in solo exhibitions at 6 Museums in Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana. 

His work has been shown in solo exhibitions at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia in Atlanta, Montgomery Museum of Art in Montgomery, AL, The Jule Collins Smith Museum in Auburn, AL, the Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL, The Morris Museum in Augusta, GA, Telfair Museum and Jepson Center for the Arts in Savannah, GA. A commissioned body of work for the Columbus Museum in Columbus, GA was featured in the 2009 solo exhibition, Now and Then, Snapshots of the South.

His work is in many private and corporate collections, including the Ogden Museum, GA Museum of Art, Birmingham Museum of Art, and 11 other southeastern US museums. 

Click here to learn more about Jerry Siegel and Artadia

LARRY WALKER

Walker utilizes painting, drawing, collage, and mixed materials as the primary processes for his work. His career spans 50+ years and includes an extensive exhibition record: more than 200 invitational and juried group presentations and sixty solo exhibitions in galleries, museums, and art centers in various parts of the country.

Walker’s work is included in the permanent collections of numerous museums, private collectors, and corporations including: The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA GA); The Studio Museum in Harlem; The Huntsville Museum; The Los Angeles County Museum; The Collection of Hallmark Cards Inc.; The High Museum; The Georgia Museum of Art; The African American Museum in Dallas and other publicly accessible sites.

Walker, the youngest of eleven was born in Franklin, GA. Following the death of his father in 1936, Walker’s formative years were spent in New York City. There, he graduated from the High School of Music & Art before relocating to Detroit, MI for college. He has a BS in Art Education and an MA in Drawing and Painting from Wayne State University.

His 42-year academic experience included six years in Detroit Public Schools, 19 years at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA (7 years as Department Chairman), and 17 years at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA (11 years as Director of the School of Art and Design).

Now retired as a Professor Emeritus, Walker continues to add credits to his substantial accomplishments as an artist, visual arts supporter, juror, and curator.

Click here to learn more about Larry Walker and Artadia

ANGELA WEST

Angela West received her BFA from the University of Georgia and her MFA from Yale University. Ms. West’s work is included in the public collections of The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, The Ogden Museum of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, and The Hirshhorn in Washington DC. Ms. West’s work is held in private collections nationally and internationally.

Click here to learn more about Angela West and Artadia