2009-10 MCAD/Jerome Emerging Artists Fellowship Exhibition


Opening reception: Friday, October 1, 6-8 p.m.

Artist panel discussion: Wednesday, October 6, 6 p.m.

Moderated by Twin Cities arts writer Andy Sturdevant

Minneapolis —
The Minneapolis College of Art and Design is pleased to feature new work by the
recipients of the 2009–10 MCAD/Jerome Foundation Fellowships for Emerging
Artists. The exhibition opens October 1 and runs through November 7, 2010, at
the MCAD Gallery. A reception for the artists will be held on October 1, 6–8
p.m., and an artist panel discussion will be moderated by Andy Sturdevant on
October 6 at 6 p.m. The 2009 MCAD/Jerome fellows are Steven Accola, Caroline
Kent, the collaborative team of Tynan Kerr and Andrew Mazorol, and Tony Sunder.

The MCAD/Jerome Fellowship Program provides each recipient or
collaborative team with a $10,000 stipend, and it gives the artists opportunities
to discuss their work with nationally recognized arts writers and museum
professionals. The yearlong fellowship culminates with the exhibition at the
MCAD Gallery, which is accompanied by a catalog.

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.

The MCAD/Jerome Fellowship Program is nationally recognized
as an outstanding Twin Cities foundation-based grant program for visual
artists. It was established in 1981 with the purpose of identifying and
rewarding emerging visual artists across Minnesota who have not yet attained
professional acknowledgement commensurate with the quality of their work. In
its twenty-nine years, the Jerome program has influenced the careers of more
than 140 artists. Their work, in turn, has enriched the creative life of the
region.

The MCAD/Jerome Foundation Fellowships for Emerging Artists
are generously funded by the Jerome Foundation and administered by the
Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Regional