Natessa Amin painting in her studio, July 2019
All of our residency applications are evaluated by our review panel, our Co-Directors, and our Director of Artistic Programming. Our panelists are established artists, curators, gallery directors, and writers (among other things). Most of them have passed through Wassaic themselves, and all of them are dedicated to giving emerging artists the space to explore and expand their practices.
Residents are selected based on the quality of their work, commitment to their practice, and ability to interact positively with the community at large.
Mark Thomas Gibson's (b. 1980, Miami, FL) personal lens on American culture stems from his multipartite viewpoint as an artist, a professor, and an American history buff. These myriad and often colliding perspectives fuel his exploration of contemporary culture through the language of painting and drawing, revealing a vision of America where every viewer is implicated as a potential character within the story.
In 2016, Gibson co-curated the traveling exhibition Black Pulp! with William Villalongo at 32 Edgewood Gallery, Yale School of Art. The show examined evolving perspectives of Black identity in American culture and history from 1912 to 2016 through printed media and artworks. Gibson released his first book, Some Monsters Loom Large in 2016 with funding from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Gibson’s second book Early Retirement was released in 2017 with Edition Patrick Frey in Zurich and was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In 2021, Gibson was awarded residencies at Yaddo and the Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency as well as a Fellowship from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Philadelphia, PA and a Hodder Fellowship from the Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ. In 2022, Gibson was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship from the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, New York, NY and in February 2023 he had his most recent solo exhibition Whirylgig! At Sikkema & Jenkins Co. Mark Thomas Gibson is represented by M+B, (Los Angeles, CA) and Loyal, (Stockholm, Sweden). He is currently an Assistant Professor of Painting at Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University and lives and works in Philadelphia, PA.
Camila Palomino is a curator and researcher from New York City. Her research is invested in aesthetic relationships between urban infrastructures, social memory, and imaging technologies. She is currently Curatorial Assistant at the Vera List Center for Art and Politics. Most recently, she was the 2021-2022 Curator in Residence at Abrons Art Center, and the 2022 In Practice Curatorial Fellow at SculptureCenter. She has previously held curatorial positions and contributed research to exhibitions at the 58th Carnegie International, The Drawing Center, MoMA PS1, and The Whitney Museum of American Art. Camila has also been a visiting lecturer in The Photography Program at Bard College. She holds a BA from the University of Chicago and an MA in Curatorial Studies from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College.
Alisa Sikelianos-Carter is a mixed-media painter from upstate New York. She has been awarded residencies at Fountainhead Residency, Millay Arts, NXTHVN, Vermont Studio Center, Wassaic Project, Yaddo, Art Omi, Headlands Center for the Arts, and The Golden Foundation. Select exhibitions include group shows at James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY; the Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY; with solo exhibitions at Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, IL, Fridman Gallery, Beacon, NY, and the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art (forthcoming October 2023). She earned her MA from SUNY Albany in Studio Art. Sikelianos-Carter asserts that Black features are a manifestation of a sacred and divine technology that has served as a means of survival, both physically and metaphysically. She envisions a cosmically bountiful world that celebrates and pays homage to ancestral majesty, power, and aesthetics. Inspired by traditionally Black hairstyles, Sikelianos-Carter uses web and catalog-sourced images to construct new archetypes. Through her exploration of opulent, luminescent materials she is creating a mythology that is centered on Black resistance and utilizes the body as a site of alchemy and divinity.
Ryan Turley is a New York based artist producing work that deals with issues relating to social conditions, sexuality, and politics. Turley has completed large-scale public artwork in New York, New Jersey and in Minnesota with a Jerome Foundation Fellowship Grant awarded by Franconia Sculpture Park. Ryan has shown in the United States and abroad. He was named a finalist for the Chicago Transit Authority Public Art Project and has completed numerous residencies including The Bronx Museum, I-Park, Connecticut, and JustMad Residency in Spain.
Ryan is also the Director of Turley Gallery, in Hudson, NY. The gallery is focused on emerging and established artists, specifically those who push the boundaries of their respective mediums and create work that is fresh, relevant, and significant to the contemporary art world. Ryan is a working artist and understands the need for galleries to consider the art business from the artist’s perspective, while simultaneously navigating the challenge of operating a successful contemporary art gallery. Ryan founded and directed the program, Art Austerlitz, in upstate New York for the three years preceding the opening of Turley Gallery in late 2021. This program put a spotlight on contemporary artists from the Hudson Valley.
Jeffrey Yang is the author of the poetry collections Line and Light; Hey, Marfa (winner of the Southwest Book Award); Vanishing-Line; and An Aquarium (winner of the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award). He is the translator of Bei Dao’s autobiography City Gate, Open Up; Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo’s June Fourth Elegies; Ahmatjan Osman’s Uyghurland, the Farthest Exile; and Su Shi’s East Slope. He is the editor of the poetry anthologies Birds, Beasts, and Seas and Time of Grief, a volume of Walt Whitman’s poetry and prose, The Sea Is a Continual Miracle, and an expanded edition of Mary Oppen’s Meaning a Life: An Autobiography. Yang has received fellowships from the DAAD artists-in-Berlin program, the Lannan Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Omina Freundeshilfe Foundation. He edits books for New Directions Publishing and New York Review Books.
Hanif Abdurraqib
Writer
Laylah Ali
Artist
Chad Alligood
Assistant Curator at the Crystal Bridges Museum
Paolo Arao
Artist
Man Bartlett
Artist
Horace Ballard
Assistant Curator at the Williams College Museum of Art
Quang Bao
Owner at 1969 Gallery
Tom Beale
Artist • Founder of Honey Space
Natalie Bell
Associate Curator at the New Museum
Mary Birmingham
Curator at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey
Barbara Bourland
Author • Residency Alum
Bill Carroll
Artist • Director of the Studio Program of The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts
Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw
Artists
Vince Contarino
Artist
Susan Cross
Curator of Visual Arts at MASS MoCA
Anna Maria Cuevas
Director of Cuevas Tilleard
Ben Cuevas
Artist
Annica Cuppetelli
Artist
Jen Dalton
Artist
Joanna R. Demkiewicz
Writer • Marketing Director at Milkweed Editions
Kim Drew
Founder of Black Contemporary Art Blog
Meredith Drum
Artist • Residency Alum
Delano Dunn
Artist • Residency Alum
Anaïs Duplan
Poet • Curator • Artist
Sean Fader
Artist •
Aliza Kelly Faragher
Curator • Writer • Art Consultant
Carley Gaebe
Artist
Asya Geisberg
Owner and Director at Asya Geisberg Gallery
Alex Gingrow
Artist • Residency Alum
Eric Gleason
Director at Paul Kasmin
Rosario Güiraldes
Assistant Curator and Co-Director of the Open Sessions artist program at The Drawing Center
Gabriel de Guzman
Curator and Director of Exhibitions at Smack Mellon
Anna Harsanyi
Curator • Educator
Katherine Hill
Writer
Jamillah Hinson
Curator
Jessica Hong
Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Toledo Museum of Art
Jason Huff
Artist
Maud Jacquin
Independent Curator • Scholar
Roxanne Jackson
Artist • Residency Alum
Eileen Jeng Lynch
Curator of Visual Arts at Wave Hill
Paddy Johnson
Founding Editor of Art F City
Stephanie Johnson-Cunningham
Co-Founder and Creative Director at Museum Hue
Martha Joseph
Curatorial Fellow at MASS MoCA
Yelena Keller
Curatorial Assistant of Exhibitions at The Studio Museum in Harlem
Bora Kim
Director of Artist Residencies at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
Kirstin Lamb
Artist • Residency Alum
Emily Noelle Lambert
Artist • Residency Alum
Zoe Larkin
Curatorial Assistant at Whitney Museum of American Art
Caroline Larsen
Artist
Fabienne Laserre
Artist
Nora Lawrence
Associate Curator at Storm King Art Center
Oshun Layne
Manager of Exhibitions and Programming, Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation
Amanda Lechner
Artist • Residency Alum
Sally Morgan Lehman and Jay Lehman
Owners • Directors at Morgan Lehman Gallery
Peter L’Official
Assistant Professor of Literature, Bard College
Omar López-Chahoud
Artistic Director and Curator of UNTITLED
Jon Lutz
Curator • Director of Sardine
Cybele Malone
Director of Urban Glass • Artist • Assistant Professor of Electronic Arts, Wayne State University
Denise Markonish
Curator at MASS MoCA
Rebecca Matalon
Curator at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
Courtney Maum
Writer
Ashley Mayne
Writer
Kevin McCoy
Artist
Leeza Meksin
Artist • Co-Founder and Director of Ortega y Gasset Projects
Mitch Miller
Artist • Residency Alum
Rebecca Morgan
Artist
Bernardo Mosquiera
Curator • Writer
Brigitte Mulholland
Director at Anton Kern Gallery • Independent Curator
Ryan Murphy
Author • Associate Director of Four Way Books
Bryant Musgrave
Writer
Liz Nielsen
Artist
Amani Olu
Independent Curator
Alex Paik
Artist
Lauren Pakradooni
Artist • Residency Alum
Liz Parks
Art Advisor, Parks Fine Art
Bridget Potter
Writer
Andrew Prayzner
Artist • Residency Alum • Co-Director of Tiger Strikes Asteroid NY
Sharmistha Ray
Artist • Writer • Educator
Elizabeth Rooklidge
Associate Curator at the Katonah Museum of Art
John Ros
Artist • Writer • Residency Alum
Sara Maria Salamone
Artist • Curator • Director of Mrs. Gallery
Hiba Schahbaz
Artist
Molly Schoemann
Writer • Founding Editor of the Barnes & Noble Kids’ Blog
Michael Scoggins
Artist
Julia Sedlock and Mark RownTree
Architects • Artists • Residency Alumni
Steven Sergiovanni
Curator
Pennylane Shen
Artist consultant • Curator • Educator
Arden Sherman
Curator of Hunter College’s East Harlem Gallery
Carolyn Sickles
Artist • Director of Engagement and Visual Arts at Abrons Arts Center
John Silvis
Artist • Curator
Eileen Isagon Skyers
Artist • Writer • Curator • Director of HOUSING
Sable Elyse Smith
Artist • Writer • Educator
Jessica Steller
The Curator Gallery, FLATT Magazine
Stephan Stoyanov
Owner • Director of the Stephan Stoyanov Gallery
Lexi Lee Sullivan
Assistant Curator at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum
Benjamin Sutton
Art Critic • Curator • News Editor at Hyperallergic
Jenny Tang
Curator
Caroline Tilleard
Director of Cuevas Tilleard
Hrag Vartanian
Curator • Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of Hyperallergic
Christina Vassallo
Executive Director at SPACES
Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy
Curator • Writer
Sarah Walko
Artist • Writer • Programs Director at Marble House Project
Jodi Waynberg
Executive Director of Artists Alliance
Jess Wilcox
Programs Coordinator at The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum
James Williams II
Artist • Curator • Educator
Rebecca Wolff
Writer
Katia Zavistovski
Independent Curator