COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Greater Columbus Arts Council (Arts Council) and the Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2019 Visual Arts Fellowship awards.
The 2019 Visual Arts Fellowship, chosen from 86 applicants, are: Christopher Burk, Nathan Gorgen and Molly Jo Burke (collaborative application), Nick Larsen and Laura Larson.
Each Fellowship recipient will receive a $5,000 cash award and be featured in an exhibition hosted by the Columbus Museum of Art in 2020. Additionally, all Visual Arts Fellowship recipients are invited to apply for the Arts Council’s Artist Exchange program to Dresden, Germany after the fellowship is completed.
2019 Visual Arts Fellowship recipient bios:
Christopher Burk, a Columbus native, is a painter known for his documentation of urban environments in the Midwest and Northeast regions of the United States. His work has earned him various recognitions, from the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Greater Columbus Arts Council and numerous Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council. Burk studied at the Columbus College of Art & Design and the University of Akron. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in Columbus, New York, Santa Fe, Cleveland and Chicago. Locally his work is represented by Brandt-Roberts Galleries.
Nathan Gorgen and Molly Jo Burke are an artist and designer couple raising their family in Columbus; they began collaborating on artwork in 2016. Their ongoing project, “Expanding Waste Line,” has been exhibited regionally with upcoming shows in Illinois and Kentucky. Their individual work has been shown throughout the country, including the Toledo Museum of Art; the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts in Wilmington, DE; InLight Richmond in Virginia and the Center for Contemporary Art in Bedford, NJ. Nathan received his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD and his MFA from Columbus College of Art & Design. Molly attended Columbus College of Art & Design for her BFA and received her MFA from The Ohio State University in glass. Locally Burke is represented by Sherrie Gallerie.
Nick Larsen is an artist living in Columbus. He studied at the University of Nevada, Reno (BFA, 2007) and The Ohio State University, where he received his MFA in sculpture. Larsen has had over a dozen solo and collaborative exhibitions and been a part of a number of notable group exhibitions, including Tilting the Basin, a survey of contemporary art in Nevada (Nevada Museum of Art, 2015), and several editions of New American Paintings (NAP #131, #135, #143). Larsen works in a number of different forms, including textile-based sculpture, photography and text. In 2019, he self-published a book of images, drawings and writings that straddled the line between autobiography and fictionalized archeological inventory of Queer Mountain, a real though poorly documented desert wilderness in western Nevada.
Laura Larson has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, including Art in General; Bronx Museum of the Arts; Lennon, Weinberg Gallery; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; SFCamerawork, Susanne Vielmetter/L.A. Projects and Wexner Center for the Arts. She is the recipient of grants from Art Matters, Inc., the Ohio Arts Council and the New York Foundation of the Arts. Her first book, Hidden Mother (2017), was shortlisted for the Aperture-Paris Photo First Photobook Prize.
The 2019 Visual Arts Fellowships were juried in a blind review process by Gianna Commito, Professor of Painting at Kent State University; Courtenay Finn, Chief Curator at moCa in Cleveland; and Gilbert Vicario, The Selig Family Chief Curator at the Phoenix Art Museum.
The Columbus Museum of Art will feature the 2019 Visual Arts Fellowship recipients and Artist Exchange participants in the annual Greater Columbus exhibition next year. A reception in honor of the fellowship recipients will be held in conjunction with the exhibition in 2020.
About the Greater Columbus Arts Council: The mission of the Arts Council is to support and advance the arts and cultural fabric of Columbus. www.gcac.org
About the Columbus Museum of Art: Columbus Museum of Art, located at 480 East Broad Street, creates great experiences with great art for everyone. The Greater Columbus Arts Council, Nationwide Foundation, Ohio Arts Council, and the Richard G. and Mary Jo Seyler; Richard H. and Ann Shafer Fund II; Fund for Columbus; and Paul-Henri Bourguignon and Erika Bourguignon Fund for Visual Arts funds of The Columbus Foundation provide ongoing support. CMA, Schokko Café and the Museum Store are open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. General admission is $18 for adults; $9 for seniors (60+), students (18+) and children 4 and older; free for members and children 3 and younger; $5 on Thursday evenings (5-9p.m.). A separate admission fee for special exhibitions may apply. General admission is free for all on Sundays. CMA charges a flat rate of $5 for parking in the Museum’s East Gay lot. CMA members park for free. For additional information, call 614.221.6801, visit www.columbusmuseum.org, or find us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram @columbusmuseum.
# # #
CONTACT: Jami Goldstein
(614) 221-8492
jgoldstein@gcac.org
