Joan Mitchell Foundation

Meet André Leon Gray, a 2024 Joan Mitchell Fellow.

Gray writes: “I am interested in illuminating the complex duality of remembering and forgetting by constantly rousing the past and present, while disseminating alchemical changes to alter the perception of temporal identity beyond the material realm to an enlightened state of being.”

André Leon Gray was born in 1969 in Raleigh, NC, where he lives and works as a self-trained interdisciplinary artist. Within his installations, paintings, drawings, collages, and sculptures, he explores and investigates social power structures, culture, identity, and history. His artistic practice primarily uses objects charged with sociopolitical meaning to forge links between the past and the present. Gray’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including Dust My Broom: Southern Vernacular from the Permanent Collection, California African American Museum, Los Angeles (2019-20); To the Hoop: Basketball in Contemporary Art, Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2020); and post hip hop? or return of the boom bap!, Sikkema Jenkins & Co. Gallery, New York (2023) and Project Row Houses, Houston (2024). Gray is the recipient of the 2023 21c Research Triangle Artadia Award. Learn more about his work at and andreleongray.art.

Pictured here:

1: André Leon Gray, In the absence of light, flip the script in your mind, 2021. Mixed media, 57 7/8 x 72 x 18 inches.

2: André Leon Gray, Speak, so you may speak again, 2023. Mixed media, 71 1/4 x 63 1/4 x 10 3/4 inches.

3: André Leon Gray, Net Worth, 2024. Mixed media, 38 x 92 1/4 x 145 5/8 inches.

4: André Leon Gray, Don’t hate the player, hate the Game, 2024. Mixed media, 86 x 52 x 13 3/8 inches.

5: André Leon Gray, photo by Renee Cox.

For full captions, visit joanmitchellfoundation.org/andré-leon-gray.

Meet Cora Nimtz, a New Orleans-based textile artist and current Artist-in-Residence at the Joan Mitchell Center.

Nimtz writes: “I am reimagining generationally taught traditional sewing skills with fine art sensibilities in my thread paintings. Deeply inspired by my upbringing in the American Gulf South, I explore the cycles of loss and conviction that consume it.”

Cora Rose Nimtz first embarked on her artistic journey when she began transforming the quilting skills learned from her mother and grandmother into canvases for more dynamic self-expression. She expanded her knowledge of composition and portraiture by adapting a technique called “thread painting,” a method combined with techniques she learned from loved ones in which she recreates familiar faces, gestures, and objects using thread against ornamental quilt blocks. A turning point for her was when she discovered the names of block patterns could offer her pieces subliminal thematic structure: choosing them involves a nod to their historic meanings and natural moods. Her new work aspires to carry craftsmanship beyond the tourist economy and into the fine art world.

Reflecting on goals for her residency, Nimtz noted, “The Joan Mitchell Center has been a catalyst in artists’ careers. I look forward to seeing how relationships developed through the Center, in tandem with the physical access to a studio for creating larger works, will elevate my work and practice.”

Learn more about Cora Nimtz’s work at and joanmitchellfoundation.org/cora-nimtz.

Pictured here:

1: Cora Nimtz

2: Cora Nimtz, Log Cabin, Vernon Florida, 2023. Textile, 23 x 23 inches.

3: Cora Nimtz, Log Cabin, 2023. Textile, 23 x 23 inches.

4: Cora Nimtz, Crosses and Losses, 2022, Textile, cigarette cartons, 56 x 45 inches.

5: Cora Nimtz, Grandmother’s Garden, 2023. Textile, 18 x 22 inches.

Meet Emilie Louise Gossiaux, a 2024 Joan Mitchell Fellow.

Gossiaux writes: “In my practice as a multidisciplinary artist who is also blind, the work that has fulfilled me the most has been translating my inner worlds into the physical realm through drawings, ceramics, and sculptural installations. Currently, my work explores themes of interdependence, Disability joy, and the intersectionality between the experiences of disabled people and non-human species, centering on the decade-long relationship I’ve had with my Guide Dog, London.”

Born in New Orleans, LA, Emilie Louise Gossiaux is now based in New York City. She earned her BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art in 2014, and her MFA in Sculpture from Yale School of Art in 2019. Her solo shows include Other-Worlding at the Queens Museum (2023); Significant Otherness at Mother Gallery Tribeca (2022); Memory of a Body at Mother Gallery Beacon (2020); and After Image at False Flag Gallery (2018). She has shown her work internationally at Tangled Art + Disability, MoCa Cleveland, The John Michael Kohler Art Center, Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt, The Wellcome Collection, The Aldrich Contemporary, MoMA PS 1, The Krannert Art Museum, The Shed, and SculptureCenter, among others. Learn more about her work at and emiliegossiaux.com.

Pictured here:

1: Emilie Louise Gossiaux, Whitecane Maypole Dance, 2023. Papier-mâché, PVC pipe, polystyrene foam, acrylic paint, matte gel varnish, epoxy resin, felt, Tyvek paper, wire, and dyed linen tablecloths, dimensions vary.

2: Emilie Louise Gossiaux, Londons Dancing with Flowers, 2023. Ballpoint pen and crayon on paper, 23 x 35 in.

3: Emilie Louise Gossiaux, Fingers and Tongue, 2023. Oil paint and cold wax medium on ceramic, 17 x 5.5 x 4.5 in.

4: Emilie Louise Gossiaux, True Love will Find You in the End, 2021. Papier-mâché, polystyrene foam, wood, aluminum tubes, epoxy resin, and acrylic matte varnish, 62.5 x 46 x 38 in.

5: Emilie Louise Gossiaux

Meet Sharif Farrag, a 2024 Joan Mitchell Fellow.

Farrag writes: “In my work, symbols and subjects arise not only from my mind but also from the physical process of using clay. Using a maximalist approach, I layer monumental ideas with the everyday stories I confront.”

Sharif Farrag is a ceramic artist who blends traditional styles with his own techniques to express his hybrid Syrian-Egyptian-American identity. His work features bold iconography and intricate characters in an exploration of growth, decay, inner psychology, and personal experience. Farrag has exhibited internationally, including at the Rubell Museum and the Hammer Museum, and is the recipient of a United States Artists Fellowship. He lives and works in Los Angeles. Learn more about his work at and shariffarrag.com.

Pictured here:

1: Sharif Farrag, Big Dog (Guardian), 2021. Glazed ceramic, 40.5 x 29 x 26 inches.

2: Sharif Farrag, Garden Egg, 2023. Glazed ceramic, glass, silver, 15 x 10 x 7.5 inches.

3: Sharif Farrag, Weighing of the Heart (angel of LA), 2023. Glazed ceramic, glass, silver, bronze, synthetic gemstones, labradorite, copper, lapis lazuli, and moonstone, 40 x 42 x 35 inches.

4: Sharif Farrag, Stinger Cycle, 2023. Glazed ceramic, 12 x 7 x 18 inches.

5: Sharif Farrag

Meet Ruby Chishti, a 2024 Joan Mitchell Fellow.

Chishti writes: “My exploration revolves around the melding of found garments and social memory, intimately engaging with ‘fashion detritus’ to spark conversations about the passage of time and collective experiences of love, loss, and being human. I dismantle unknown people’s clothing, re-figure, and hand-sew layers creating evocative structures that prompt reflections on our emotional and physical connections to architecture, reminiscent of the sedimentation of history and the geological phenomena of ‘deep time’ documented in layers of rocks deposited over billions of years.”

Chishti received her formal education from the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan, and is now based in New York City. Her art is characterized by haunting and enigmatic forms that explore the transformation of fabric from discarded mass-produced clothing into the reconstruction filaments of artistic imagination. Chishti’s work has been exhibited at the Asia Society Museum, New York; the Queens Museum, Queens, NY; Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong; Aicon Contemporary, New York; Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi; and Canvas Gallery, Karachi. Learn more about her work at and rubychishti.com.

Pictured here:

1: Ruby Chishti, An Intangible Sanctuary Of Ocean And Stars II, 2018. Mens 1940’s wool overcoat, tricycle (hidden), scrapes of fabric, thread, wood, plaster, metal wire, flocking powder, paint, adhesive, 101 x 83 x 16 inches.

2: Ruby Chishti, Stratigraphy Of Cloth, 2023. Recycled cloth, wood, 54 x 36 x 3 1/2 inches.

3: Ruby Chishti, All Her Calves Were Slaughtered, 2022. Cast plaster, recycled cloth, polyester, thread, gold leaf, paint, 5 ½ x 15 x 11 inches.

4: Ruby Chishti, In The City Of Children (Audiovisual), 2024. Recycled clothing, doll’s clothing, wire mesh, pieces of 1/8” thick cut stained Sintra sheet, 69 x 72 x 11 inches.

5: Ruby Chishti

Meet Peggy Chiang, a 2024 Joan Mitchell Fellow.

Chiang writes: “My work draws on the potential of ordinary and benign objects to agitate—to derail with physical and emotional fluidity. Recent works of sculpture are animated by sound, smell, or touch in ways that document time: oil-burning lamps, ringing bells, evaporating water, diffused fragrances, and lit ci******es.”

Peggy Chiang has recently exhibited at Laurel Gitlen, New York (2024), Klaus von Nichtssagend, New York (2023); hatred2, Brooklyn (2023); Moss Arts Center, Blacksburg (2023); 80WSE, New York (2022); april april, Brooklyn (2022); and Prairie, Chicago (2022). She received an MFA in Visual Arts from Rutgers University and a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Chiang teaches at the City College of New York, CUNY and lives in Brooklyn, NY. Learn more about her work at and peggychiang.info.

Pictured here:

1: Peggy Chiang, Toss in the asphalt, 2023. Motor oil, grease, and dust on rusted and painted steel, aluminum, wood, rubber, grommets, lenses, hardware, transducers and stereo audio, shown with fall leaves, ci******es and incense, 88 x 80 x 37 inches, audio run time 40:32 minutes. Photo by Charles Benton.

2: Peggy Chiang, It’s atavism, 2023. Ceramic, acrylic polymer paint, steel, electric diffuser, synthetic fragrance, 36.5 x 13 x 19 inches. Photo by Coco Klockner.

3: Peggy Chiang, WITHOUT BREAK WITH ALL POWER, 2023. Steel, cast aluminum, hardware, magnets, 19 x 8 x 6.5 inches. Photo by Coco Klockner.

4: Peggy Chiang, The cat in my brain is walking, 2022. Flexible polyurethane foam, cat doll, wood, plexiglass, steel can, glazed porcelain, 19.5 x 14 x 14 inches. Photo by Prairie, Chicago.

5: Peggy Chiang

Meet Victoria Burge, a 2024 Joan Mitchell Fellow.

Burge writes: “Within special collection libraries, I study accounts of invisible, often radical labor by women. The work I have produced in response to this research is not only an homage to pioneering women but to the importance and study of visual languages, analog archives, and tangible data.”

Victoria Burge creates small-scale sculpture and works on paper. Her prints and drawings are in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New York Public Library, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and British Museum, among others. Burge is a recipient of a studio apprenticeship at The Fabric Workshop and Museum, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, and residencies awarded by MacDowell, Yaddo, and the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. In 2022, she was a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome. Burge is a 2024-2025 Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow. Learn more about her work at and victoriaburge.com.

Pictured here:

1: Victoria Burge, Graphs & Grids (detail), 2023 - ongoing. Typewriter and various papers, Various dimensions; image configuration shown here: 2 x 3 feet.

2: Victoria Burge, STAR DATA, 2023. 8 hand-cut digitally printed black paper mounted to Rives BFK paper housed collectively in a clamshell box, Each piece measures 8 x 10 inches, 38 x 22 inches when displayed.

3: Victoria Burge, Distraction, 2022. Pencil on found slate, 9 x 6.5 inches.

4: Victoria Burge, Weaving Forms, 2022. Painted wood and wool, dimensions variable; highest height is 15 inches.

5: Victoria Burge

Meet Michaela Pilar Brown, a 2024 Joan Mitchell Fellow.

Brown writes: “I am interested in peering beneath things. I use racially identified signifiers to twist and turn mythologies about the body and the spaces, places, and histories that it occupies, often landing at the concept of home as both physical structure and repository for history, memory, and myth.”

Michaela Pilar Brown trained as a sculptor at Howard University, though she cut her teeth in the halls of a museum in Denver, CO, where her mother worked as a security guard. She has been immersed in the culture of objects for her entire life. Brown’s practice includes photography, sculpture, installation, performance, and social intervention through moderated public discussion. Brown’s relationship to her community is an active and urgent part of her practice. She serves as a facilitator with Artists U, an incubator for changing the working conditions of artists, and has served on multiple boards. She is the owner/director of Mike Brown Contemporary, a contemporary art space and gallery based in Columbia, SC.

Brown has been an artist-in-residence at the McColl Center for Art and Innovation, Sedona Summer Colony, and Kunstlerwerkgemeinschaft, Kaiserslautern, Germany. She is one of six American artists selected to participate as a Resident Artist for OPEN IMMERSION: A VR CREATIVE DOC LAB, produced by the CFC Media Lab, The National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and and JustFilms | Ford Foundation. Learn more about her work at and michaelapilarbrown.com.

Pictured here:

1: Michaela Pilar Brown, Migratuse Ataraxia - Modjeska Monteith Simkins House, 2021. Mixed media (costume) performance.

2: Michaela Pilar Brown, Conterminous Elegies, 2022. Mixed media installation, artificial turf, wood, glass, pine, polyester, taxidermied rooster.

3: Michaela Pilar Brown, Voluminous Care, 2022. Mixed media installation, found objects, glass, salt.

4: Michaela Pilar Brown, Materteral, 2023. Mixed media installation, cedar, braid steel cord, tar paper, video, canvas, rubber.

5: Michaela Pilar Brown

Last month, we announced the 2024 cohort of Joan Mitchell Fellows. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be introducing each of them and their work here. First up is Scott Anderson, a painter based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Anderson writes: “Painting is an act that marks how it feels for me to be making something in the world at a given moment. My paintings are material negotiations between the perception of the exterior world and my own interiority.”

Anderson received his BFA from Kansas State University, his MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He is currently a Professor of Painting and Drawing at University of New Mexico. His most recent solo and two-person exhibitions include “Biotech” at Denny Dimin Gallery (New York), “Streaming by Lamp and by Fire” at Denny Gallery (New York), “Lovers and Thinkers” at Galerie Richard (Paris, France), and “Supper Club” at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Overland Park, KS). Anderson is the recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and The William and Dorothy Yeck Award. Follow his work at .

Pictured here:

1: Scott Anderson, Small and Large Swimmers with Mushrooms, 2019. Oil, ink, and flocking powder on canvas, 75 x 50 inches.

2: Scott Anderson, Theory and Law, 2020. Oil, oil crayon, ink, colored pencil, gouache, and sawdust on canvas, 57 x 50 inches.

3: Scott Anderson, Sauna Stones, 2023. Oil, enamel, and collage on canvas, 35 x 42 inches.

4: Scott Anderson, Vat-thing, Vat-thing, 2022. Oil on canvas, 42 x 35 inches.

5: Scott Anderson

Joan Mitchell with her dog Patou at her home in Vétheuil, France.

Joan Mitchell lived with and loved at least 10 dogs over the course of her life. Dogs were the only “people” Mitchell let into her studio when she painted, and the Brittany Spaniel Patou, pictured in slide 1, kept her company in Paris and Vétheuil from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s. She painted “Salut Patou” (slide 2) in 1977, around the time that Patou died, and it was shown in her December 1977 – January 1978 exhibition at Gallery Xavier Fourcade in New York.

The French word “salut” can be used as a warm, informal greeting or goodbye among friends, similar in spirit to the use of the Italian “ciao.” Mitchell made three paintings with “Salut” in the title, all referring to close relationships: “Salut Sally” (1970), referencing her sister; “Salut Patou;” and “Salut Tom” (1978), named for her dear friend, art critic Tom Hess, who died that year shortly after visiting Mitchell in Vétheuil.

Mitchell titled her works after they were finished, often including names of places, people, and dogs. Such titles did not mean that she intended for the work to capture or say something directly about the person (or dog). Instead, these titles are best understood as indications that she had drawn on memories of the named subject as motivation, or even as acts of homage.

Pictured here:
1 - Joan Mitchell with her dog Patou in Vétheuil, date unknown. Photographer unknown, Joan Mitchell Foundation Archives.

2 - Joan Mitchell, Salut Patou, 1977. Oil on canvas, 86 3/4 x 71 inches (220.345 x 180.34 cm). Private collection. © Estate of Joan Mitchell.

Artists: What does rest look like for you? How do you recharge? Read on for more context on these questions, and drop your response in the comments below.

We’re launching a new series— —sharing topics that the Joan Mitchell Fellows are discussing in their monthly Artist Exchange sessions. As the Fellowship community has grown and evolved over the last four years, we’re hearing from the artists that these opportunities for exchange and peer learning are as valuable as the monetary support the program provides. We have been wowed by the wisdom and resources that we see being passed from one artist to another, and are curious if that approach could ripple out to other artists in our community through this space.

For this month’s prompt, we’re reflecting on August as a time when many take a break from their work to rest, travel, or otherwise recharge. We recognize that this can be difficult when you are an artist, as it is a non-traditional career path, and many feel called to keep working, even if they are tired and know that they need a break.

At the 2024 Joan Mitchell Fellows Convening, the New Orleans-based Ashé Cultural Arts Center led a workshop entitled “Resist. Rest. Repeat.” The Fellows reflected on what these words meant to them, and how challenging the notion of rest could be: there was no time, too much at stake, always another deadline or need that took priority. But the takeaway was that rest is crucial to creativity, to sustainability, to survival, to living fully and wholly. Rest is not a luxury but a necessity.

Circling back to this idea, we asked the Fellows to set aside one hour last week, not to meet with each other as they normally would for Artist Exchange, but to REST—whatever that looked like for them.

🗣️Let’s hear from the artists: What does rest mean to you? What are you doing this month to recharge for the work ahead? Drop a comment below to share with your fellow artists.

Earlier this week, we announced the 2024 Joan Mitchell Fellows: 15 artists working in a variety of media within the evolving fields of painting and sculpture. As we welcome this new cohort to our growing community of practice, we wanted to share more details about the selection process and fellowship structure.

Artists are nominated and selected for the Joan Mitchell Fellowship through a tiered process. For 2024, 86 nominators—a diverse group from 45 states, 53% of whom identify as artists—each proposed two artists whose work they feel contributes to important artistic and cultural discourse, are deserving of greater recognition on a national level, and for whom the receipt of this award would be meaningful and impactful. The nominating process produced a pool of 154 applicants, narrowed to 60 in the first round review by the jury, and then to the final 15 awardees.

The jurors selecting this year’s Fellows were:
-Valerie Cassel Oliver, , Virginia
-Adriana Corral, artist, Texas
-Michelle Grabner, artist, critic, independent curator, Wisconsin
-Elana Herzog, artist, New York
-Diana Nawi, recently appointed curator at , additionally participated in the first round of application review.

The selected artists enter a five-year program that encompasses long-term financial support, skills development, and community building—all critical resources that artists need to sustain their practices.

“During her lifetime, Joan Mitchell often offered personal assistance to other artists, and her directive for her foundation was to directly support artists,” said Christa Blatchford, the Foundation’s Executive Director. “Throughout our 30-year history of grantmaking, our programs have continued to evolve in response to feedback from participating artists. The relaunch of the Joan Mitchell Fellowship in 2021 is an example of this ongoing process, exploring creative models that fulfill our mission and carry Mitchell’s legacy forward.”

Now in its fourth year, the program has awarded $3.6 million in funding directly to artists. Learn more about this year’s Fellows on our website: https://www.joanmitchellfoundation.org/supported-artists/program/joan-mitchell-fellowship?years=2024

Pictured here: Details of artwork by the 2024 .

We are pleased to announce the 2024 recipients of Joan Mitchell Fellowships! These 15 artists from across the United States will each receive $60,000 in unrestricted funds, distributed over five years. The multi-year financial support is interwoven with regular opportunities for skills development, peer exchange, and network building—all critical resources that artists need to sustain their practices.

The 2024 Joan Mitchell Fellows are:

Scott Anderson, Albuquerque, NM
Michaela Pilar Brown, Columbia, SC
Victoria Burge, Harrisville, NH
Peggy Chiang, Brooklyn, NY
Ruby Chishti, Brooklyn, NY
Sharif Farrag, Reseda, CA
Emilie Louise Gossiaux, New York, NY
André Leon Gray, Raleigh, NC
Joe Harjo, San Antonio, TX
Rebecca Morris, Los Angeles, CA
Gamaliel Rodríguez, Cabo Rojo, PR
Abigail Kahilikia Romanchak, Waiohuli, HI
Rupy C. Tut, Oakland, CA
Yvonne Wells, Tuscaloosa, AL
Sandy Williams IV, Richmond, VA

Read more about the Fellowship, the selection process, and this year's cohort here:

Announcing the 2024 Joan Mitchell Fellows We are pleased to announce the 2024 Joan Mitchell Fellows! These 15 artists from across the United States will each receive $60,000 in unrestricted funds,…

with 2023 Joan Mitchell Fellow William Lamson: “I want viewers to have an experience with my work that’s very direct, but where they can move between the granular details of whatever’s happening inside a piece and an expansive view of the system or the landscape. How can the work bring viewers into something close, but then also give them an experience of themselves in a bigger landscape or in a bigger context?

“I made a piece called Solarium at Storm King that I think does this well. It’s a piece of architecture—a small glass house that looks exactly like a greenhouse, except all the panels are essentially a layer of glass, a layer of caramel sugar cooked to different temperatures, and then another layer of glass. With this project, it was fun to think about a greenhouse almost like a hybrid space, as both a reclusive space that looks a little bit like a mountain chapel, and as an actual experimental space, where we can see what happens when sunlight passes through these yellowish and reddish panels. Will citrus trees that we put there grow?

“Solarium was designed to be viewed from afar and also from within, where you can experience the unusual plays of light. I love that you can get right up to the glass and caramel panels and see all of this detail of sugar that’s changing in the sun, but then you can also see through them to view the entire landscape at Storm King.

“For me, this was such a great project because it touched on materials, it touched on living systems, it touched on the landscape and the way humans connect to it, and to spiritual traditions of reclusive spaces designed for reflection. Like all of my work, it was a true experiment and unplanned things happened. Panels leaked, insects arrived. And yet, despite these challenges, I think it succeeded at giving the viewer the kind of experience that I had hoped for.”

Find the full interview with in our Interviews highlight and on our website in the Journal: https://www.joanmitchellfoundation.org/journal/in-the-studio-william-lamson

Pictured here:
1 - William Lamson, Solarium, 2012. Steel, glass, sugar, citrus trees.

2 - Quote by William Lamson

3, 4 - Solarium, detail

with 2023 Joan Mitchell Fellow William Lamson: “I think about my work as a relational practice with materials and energy. I make a lot of different kinds of things—installations, sculptures, videos, and photographs—that all come out of an interest in engaging with forces and materials and systems. I often work with materials that are fragile or in flux, and the work ends up being a collaboration between something that I initiate and how the material reacts.

“I think of the experience of walking into a slow moving river. You feel this push against you. You look down, you see the resulting effects of the current around your leg. I feel like I’ve constructed a practice that allows me to do that, that allows me to engage directly with some kind of energetic flow. It’s exciting because it is bigger than me and it’s out of my control.

“Some pieces come to me as ideas and are quite clear. And then the process is figuring out, ‘How do I do that?’ Some pieces take years of having an interest in something and seeing where it takes me. For example, what would happen if I filled a bunch of cups and vessels out in Utah with super-salinated water from the Great Salt Lake and just left them in a room for six months? Both of these ways of working involve a lot of testing and seeing what the materials will do. Essentially, almost every work is a prototype.”

Find the full interview with in our Interviews highlight and on our website in the Journal: https://www.joanmitchellfoundation.org/journal/in-the-studio-william-lamson

Pictured here:
1 - William Lamson

2 - Quote by William Lamson

3 - William Lamson, Hydrologies Archaea, 2014.

4 - William Lamson, Mineralogy, 2017. The Center for Land Use Interpretation, Wendover, Utah.

5 - William Lamson, Mineralogy (details), 2017. The Center for Land Use Interpretation, Wendover, Utah.

with 2023 Joan Mitchell Fellow Mikayla Patton: “My process often begins with material. Because I was traveling a lot over recent years, different aspects of materials that I was coming across influenced how I was working. For example, when I was in Roswell, New Mexico, I visited the local museum and found this traditional Lakota dress that I eventually wanted to be in conversation with, which led to collecting books from the library that contained misinformation about Indigenous peoples. This then led to the installation, Visitation.

“While I was in Wyoming for another residency, I was coming across a lot of unfortunately lifeless porcupines on the side of the road. I made my offerings to them and collected their quills and they later became a part of another installation of work.

“Lately, I’ve been very interested in forms and the non-human energies that they take. I am a very spooky type of person, and I grew up listening to powerful stories. They usually exist to teach us things about ourselves, but the people that have these personal experiences were always very chilling.

“Often, I am working off shared themes of growth, healing, and how those bring some kind of renewal not just of materials but within ourselves. I am not a storyteller, but I think that I pull from reality and stories about spirits for my work. I enjoy giving them a sense of agency, believe it or not.”

Find the full interview with .art in our Interviews highlight and on our website in the Journal: https://www.joanmitchellfoundation.org/journal/in-the-studio-mikayla-patton.

Pictured here:
1 - Mikayla Patton, Visitation, 2021. Laser cut and etching on handmade paper, acrylic with glass beads, porcupine quills and deer lace, installed dimensions vary.

2 - Quote by Mikayla Patton

3 - Mikayla Patton, Enduring, 2023. Porcupine quills on handmade paper, leather fringe, ash, and thread, 18 x 15 x 16 inches.

4 - Mikayla Patton working with paper and quills at MASS MoCA’s Assets for Artists residency, 2023.

5 - Mikayla Patton, Enduring (detail), 2023.