2014/15 Jerome Fellowship Exhibition

The College Art Gallery Collaborative presents the 12th annual tour of local college and university art exhibitions.

The Minneapolis College of Art and Design and the Jerome Foundation are pleased to present an exhibition of new work by recipients of the 2014/15 Jerome Foundation Fellowships for Emerging Artists: Miranda Brandon, Regan Golden-McNerney, Jess Hirsch, Sieng Lee, and Jason Ramey, all of the Twin Cities.

The Jerome Foundation has generously supported this fellowship program since its inception in 1981.

INFORMATION PANEL

EXHIBITION CATALOG

2014/15 Jerome Foundation Fellowships Exhibition Catalog (PDF)

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Miranda Brandon explores the entangled relations and shared spaces between human and non-human species in her most recent DIY Animal Populator series. Die-cut printed images of animals with accompanying text educate viewers on the range, habitat, conservation status and history of the island fox, Indiana bat, road runner, gopher tortoise, hummingbird, and prairie dog. Gallery visitors are invited to cut out and position the images in a natural environment and document them with a camera.

Brandon has been a Showcase Artist at the Bell Museum of Natural History and participated in multiple group shows, both local and national, while also teaching in the greater Twin Cities area. She has a BFA from MCAD and an MFA from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

Regan Golden-McNerney celebrates in her work the often overlooked natural spaces that are scattered throughout the city. From lush ferns to withered plastic bags, she transforms the plants and waste found in an urban prairie across the street from her home in St. Paul into materials for her collection of botanical prints and a large-scale (25 x 10 ft.) wall drawing. Golden enlarges these elements by scanning, photographing, and drawing them to create a vivid landscape that is both real and imagined.

Golden's hand-cut photographs and large-scale drawings have been exhibited in solo and group shows both nationally and internationally, including Gallery 44: Centre for Contemporary Photography, Harvard University's Fisher Museum, The Cue Foundation and the Midwest Photographers Project at the Museum of Contemporary Photography. Golden is also currently an art critic for Modern Painters and ARTPulse. She has a BA from Grinnell College and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Jess Hirsch examines alternative healing practices and beliefs through a range of interactive sculptures. Her newest project, Death Wish, is an installation that houses her last will and testament, a gold death ring made from her braided hair, and gold and (future) diamond essences that gallery visitors can contract to receive and consume. She will also present results from her Energetic Flower Arrangement (EFA) project, wherein Hirsch selects appropriate healing flowers to match participants’ maladies. The flower bouquets are delivered to the participant with the expectation that the individual will document any energy shifts that he or she experiences while the flowers are alive.

Hirsch is the co-founder of Powderhorn Kitchen, a radical school/gallery/store that offers handmade objects, home-brewed medicine, and socially engaged installation with the art community. She received a BA from Lewis and Clark College and an MFA from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

Sieng Lee understands being at the point of intersections—between fine art and design, between Hmong American communities and art communities, between tradition and the desire for the next new thing. His forthcoming installation confronts disparate and changing cultural traditions: a large box, the emblem of minimalist sculpture and constructivist industry, hangs from the ceiling, spilling out or sucking up its contents in a large cone made from thousands of sheets of folded gold and silver spirit money and decorated with various objects (some of which are identifiably Hmong, and others of which are not).

He is a National Addy winner and helped design the We Are Hmong exhibit at the Minnesota Historical Society. Lee holds a BS in Graphic Design from Herzing University in Madison, WI, and an MFA from MCAD.

Jason Ramey creates sculptural installations where ambivalence abounds. The conjoining of disparate elements that characterized his earlier furniture pieces is now centered on the human body and its connection to the space it once inhabited. His most recent pieces, Mantel and Built In #2, utilize digital fabrication processes along with traditional construction materials and techniques. Each piece includes a life-size figure that was once a G-scale figure commonly found in model railroading and architectural models.

Ramey received a BFA from the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis, and an MFA and MA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. After teaching for a year at UW–Madison, Ramey moved to Minneapolis to teach at MCAD, where he is currently teaching in the fine arts department.

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