Columbus, Ohio – The Greater Columbus Arts Council (Arts Council) and the Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2014 Visual Arts Fellowship awards.
The 2014 Visual Arts Fellowship recipients, chosen from 192 applicants, are: Felipe Castelblanco (3-D), Brian Port (2-D), Kaname Takada (Craft), and Ryland Wharton (3-D). Awards were based on the artistic merit of works submitted in the disciplines of Craft, 2- and 3-D Visual Arts and Photography. Each Fellowship recipient will receive $5,000 and be featured in an exhibition hosted by the Columbus Museum of Art in 2015.
The 2014 Visual Arts Fellowship recipient bios:
Felipe Castelblanco
Castelblanco is a Columbus-based multidisciplinary artist. Through video, performance, sculpture and installations, his work creates participatory experiences that engage the public. Castelblanco holds an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University and attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2012. His work has been shown internationally, including the San Diego Museum of Art, California; FAD festival in Belo Horizonte, Brazil; FIVAC festival in Camaguey, Cuba; Urban Arts Space in Columbus and more. Felipe was recipient of the 2013 John Fergus Post MFA Fellowship at The Ohio State University, where he also founded of Mote 078 gallery, dedicated to showing the work of emerging local and international artists in Columbus.
Brian Port
A Columbus native, Columbus College of Art & Design graduate and emerging talent of contemporary realist painting, Port has committed over a decade to perfecting his technique. Port’s paintings combine impressive precision with compelling still life arrangements and striking portraiture. His works have been featured at numerous museum exhibitions and have won several noteworthy awards. Notably, in 2008 the Evansville Museum of Art purchased one of Port’s paintings for its permanent collection. After solely focusing on museum exhibitions, Port recently sought gallery representation and is currently represented by Brandt-Roberts Galleries in Columbus.
Kaname Takada
Takada is a professor in the School of Studio Arts at Columbus College of Art & Design, Columbus. His work has been shown at the Columbus Metropolitan Library, Zanesville Art Center, Lamar Dodd Art Center, Ohio Craft Museum, University of Findley, and in a ceramic mural on CCAD’s campus (Canzani Center). He has exhibited work in France, New Zealand, Japan, and the U.S. He received a BFA from CCAD and an MFA from the University of Notre Dame.
Ryland Wharton
Wharton is an artist who works with circulatory systems of information. His work has been shown at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, LEAP, Berlin, Soloway, New York, and Third Party Gallery, Cincinnati, among others. He has published projects in X-TRA Contemporary Art Journal and White Zinfandel. He holds a BA in computer science from Brown University and an MFA from The Ohio State University. He is co-director and curator of The Center for Ongoing Research & Projects.
The Arts Council’s Fellowship program, established in 1986, recognizes outstanding Franklin County artists. Since the inception of the program, more than 210 awards have been made in a variety of disciplines, including visual arts, crafts, film and video, creative writing, music composition and choreography/movement arts.
The Arts Council would also like to congratulate the finalists for the 2014 Visual Artist Fellowship awards:
2D: Christopher Burk; Alan Crockett; Andrew Ina; Andrew McCauley; Ian Ruffino
3D: Jaime Bennati; Jordin Caudill; Elizabeth Nelson; Melinda Rosenberg
Crafts: Juliellen Byrne; Susan Cavanaugh; Michael Hays
Photography: Noah Addis; Ari Gabel
The awards, recommended in an anonymous review process by panelists, assist recipients in any manner they choose to support the creation of new works and/or the advancement of their careers. All 2014 recipients and finalists will be invited to apply for the Arts Council’s Artist Exchange program in Dresden, Germany. Artists who have participated previously in any Arts Council exchange program are not eligible to apply.
Members of the 2014 Visual Arts Fellowship panel who reviewed all applications and recommended fellowships were Amy Cosier, director at Lehmann Maupin in New York; Rodney Nonaka-Hill, co-owner of Marc Foxx Gallery in Los Angeles; and Brian Sholis, associate curator of photography at the Cincinnati Art Museum.
This year, one of the four fellowships is made possible through the generosity of Annie’s Fund, a foundation created in honor of surgeon, artist and arts patron Anne Miller. Until her untimely death in 1998, Miller was an established member of the medical community and a dedicated artist specializing in the hand-crafted arts—those created by people with little or no formal training and without regard to the mainstream art world’s recognition or marketplace. This special award celebrates Miller’s commitment to this art form’s visionary quality and the recipient’s work is meant to embody this bold concept. Felipe Castelblanco received the Annie’s Fund award.
A reception in honor of the 2014 Visual Arts Fellowship recipients will be held in conjunction with the exhibition hosted by the Columbus Museum of Art in 2015.
For more information contact Ruby Harper, Grants & Services director at rharper@gcac.org.
About the Greater Columbus Arts Council: Through vision and leadership, advocacy and collaboration, the Greater Columbus Arts Council supports art and advances the culture of the region. A catalyst for excellence and innovation, the Arts Council funds exemplary artists and arts organizations and provides programs, events and services of public value that educate and engage all audiences in our community. The Arts Council thanks the City of Columbus and the Ohio Arts Council for their continued support. The Arts Council has been recognized as one of the “5 NonProfits to Watch” in 2014 by The Columbus Foundation. www.gcac.org
About the Columbus Museum of Art: The Columbus Museum of Art creates great experiences with great art for everyone. The Columbus Foundation, the Greater Columbus Arts Council, Nationwide Foundation, and the Ohio Arts Council provide ongoing support. CMA and the Museum Store are open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM, and until 8:30 PM every Thursday. The Palette Express is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. For additional information, call (614) 221-4848 or visit www.columbusmuseum.org.
# # #
CONTACT: Jami Goldstein
(614) 221-8492
jgoldstein@gcac.org
