2009/10 Jerome Fellowship Exhibition

MCAD and the Jerome Foundation are pleased to present an exhibition of new work by recipients of the 2009/10 Jerome Foundation Fellowships for Emerging Artists. 2009 MCAD/Jerome fellows are Steven Accola, Caroline Kent, the collaborative team of Tynan Kerr and Andrew Mazorol, and Tony Sunder. 

Steven Accola is primarily a painter but also works with collage and drawing. Irrespective of the medium, Accola works spontaneously, creating fantastic figures and dreamlike landscapes culled from his imagination that in style and content also pay homage to a wealth of historical art sources. Largely a self-taught artist, Accola has exhibited work in shows sponsored by Interact Center for the Visual & Performing Arts and VSA Minnesota. 

Caroline Kent, a graduate of the University of Minnesota’s MFA program, draws upon her experiences living abroad to shape the direction of her recent work. Her newest body of sculptural painting developed after she lived in Iceland for a month in 2009, as an artist-in-residence. Using the striking Icelandic landscape as a point of departure, Kent constructs large, stark mountainous forms that are surprisingly devoid of paint and instead rely upon colored light for shadow and hue.

Tynan Kerr and Andrew Mazorol are collaborative painters, whose figurative, enigmatic work involves constant negotiation. Using ordinary hardware-store house paint and a medley of characters culled from a variety of books, magazines, and newspapers, these two painters work and rework canvases so that neither knows where they might wind up. Kerr graduated with a BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and Mazorol received his BA from the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities.

Tony Sunder, who has a BFA in painting from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, works in a wide variety of media, exploring the relationship of art, artist, and viewer. His “drawings”—a term he uses to encompass his installations, videos, photographs, and works on paper—are often based on pre-existing objects or encounters he has set up.

This year’s MCAD/Jerome fellows were chosen from a field of 292 applicants. The selections were made by a panel comprising Kris Douglas, chief curator at the Rochester Art Center, MN; Michelle Grabner, professor and chair of the painting and drawing department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL; and Lane Relyea, associate professor of art theory and practice at Northwestern University, IL. 

About the Jerome Foundation Fellowships for Emerging Artists 

The Minneapolis College of Art and Design is honored to have been the administrative home for this fellowship program since its inception in 1981.The 2015/16 Jerome fellows were selected out of a pool of 220 applicants by a panel of arts professionals that included Ken Lum, artist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design; Monica Ramirez-Montagut, director of the Newcomb Art Museum at Tulane University; and Anne Dugan, executive and artistic director of the Duluth Art Institute.This competitive fellowship provides $12,000 awards to each recipient. In addition, the fellows have the opportunity to meet with visiting critics over the course of the fellowship year and have access to various MCAD facilities. 

About the Jerome Foundation

The Jerome Foundation, created by artist and philanthropist Jerome Hill (1905-1972), seeks to contribute to a dynamic and evolving culture by supporting the creation, development, and production of new works by emerging artists. The Foundation makes grants to nonprofit arts organizations and artists in Minnesota and New York City. The focus of the Jerome Foundation is to support emerging professional artists who are the principal creators of new work, and:

• who take risks and embrace challenges
• whose developing voices reveal significant potential
• who are rigorous in their approach to creation and production
• who have some evidence of professional achievement but not a substantial record of accomplishment
• who are not recognized as established artists by other artists, curators, producers, critics, and arts administrators