COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Greater Columbus Arts Council (Arts Council) has selected the two artists for its annual international artist residencies in Dresden, Germany on behalf of the Arts Council’s Artist Exchange Program. The 2022 Artist Exchange Program recipients are Christopher Burk and Nick Larsen.
Christopher Burk (43215) is a painter living and working in Columbus, represented by Brandt-Roberts Galleries. He studied at Columbus College of Art & Design and the Myers School of Art at the University of Akron. His work has appeared in solo and group exhibitions at Brandt-Roberts Galleries; Columbus Museum of Art; Talon Gallery in Portland; George Billis Gallery in New York; Springfield Museum of Art; EVOKE Contemporary in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Gallery 19 in Chicago; and many others. He applied for the Dresden exchange program as his first opportunity to participate in an artist residency abroad. With a growing interest in environmental themes in his work, Burk hopes to explore the beauty that can be found in catastrophic phenomena like floods, which Saxony has experienced multiple times, including in the summer of 2021.
Nick Larsen (43230) studied sculpture at The Ohio State University and printmaking at the University of Nevada, Reno. He serves as a studio assistant at Ann Hamilton Studio in Columbus, and has lectured in art and design at Ohio State. He has exhibited his work in solo and group shows at Dream Clinic Project Space, Skylab Gallery, Columbus Museum of Art, Wild Goose Creative, Hopkins Hall Gallery, the Nevada Arts Council Touring Initiative, Urban Arts Space and many others. He hopes to focus his time in the Dresden residency on the writing, production and assembly of his second book of collages, texts and drawings. He also plans to use the time to study the work of German artist Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, in preparation for an exhibition he will guest curate later in 2022.
Now in its 26th year, the Arts Council’s Dresden Exchange program is offered in conjunction with the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony (Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen). In 1999, the Arts Council launched a website to document the Columbus artists who have participated in the program since 1995. Visitors can learn about all of the Columbus artists who have traveled to Dresden through biographies, images and quotes about their experiences at dresden.gcac.org and learn more about the German artists who have visited Columbus at columbusdresden.de.
“Despite the challenges of the pandemic, our Dresden artist exchange program continues to flourish, thanks to our strong relationship with the Saxon State Ministry,” said Tom Katzenmeyer, president and CEO of the Arts Council. “Christopher and Nick join the ranks of the previous 49 artists as excellent ambassadors of Columbus’ cultural community. We can’t wait to see what they create and how they are inspired by their time in Dresden.”
Recipients of a Visual Arts Fellowship, Media Arts Fellowship, Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson Fellowship and finalists for those awards are invited to apply for the Artist Exchange Program. The artists will travel to Dresden sometime in 2022 between March 1 and Nov. 30, for 60 to 90 days. The Artist Exchange Program provides an extended period of time for artists to concentrate on research and production so that their artwork benefits significantly. Various work and research facilities are made available to the artists. The Arts Council also supports the artists by providing living spaces, a monthly stipend and travel accommodations, and by fostering a relationship between the artists and the Saxon State Ministry for Higher Education, Research and the Fine Arts. While in Dresden, the artists act as ambassadors for the Greater Columbus Arts Council and the city of Columbus.
The Arts Council will welcome German artists Geeske Jansen and Alexander Endrullat between May 1 and July 31, 2022.
Mission of the Greater Columbus Arts Council: To support and advance the arts and cultural fabric of Columbus. www.gcac.org
The Greater Columbus Arts Council receives major financial support from the City of Columbus, Franklin County Commissioners and the Ohio Arts Council.
For translations of this release and other pages, please see the dropdown menu at the top right corner of gcac.org.
# # #
CONTACT: Jami Goldstein
(614) 221-8492
jgoldstein@gcac.org
