In BEWILDERNESS, multidisciplinary artist Meg Stein presents new work that explores the connections between our internal and external ecosystems—our spiritual, emotional, and intellectual landscapes and the physical environment. The exhibition includes freestanding ceramic vessels, wall sculptures, drawings, a large-scale mixed-media installation, and a collaborative series of photographic portraits. These works express the complexity of human experience through vibrant, biomorphic, and geological forms, emphasizing the permeability between our inner selves and the outer world. This body of work marks a shift in Stein’s artistic practice towards uncovering the surprises that arise from an embodied experience of self-discovery. Stein’s inventive forms encourage us to engage with the lush and mysterious wilderness that exists both within and around each of us.

BEWILDERNESS is curated by Laura Ritchie and is on view at PORTAL from March 29 – April 27, 2025. PORTAL is located at 1320 Old Oxford Rd, Ste 7 in Durham.

In addition to an opening and a 3rd Friday reception, Meg Stein is organizing two Embodiment Practices workshops with other locally-based practitioners. She will lead a Sculpture and Meditation workshop and host an Artist’s Talk with the curator.
RSVP for BEWILDERNESS events here: bit.ly/bewilderness-2025.

BEWILDERNESS open hours will be each Saturday and Sunday from 2-6p.
RSVP for BEWILDERNESS open hours: https://bit.ly/bewilderness-open-hours.

Stein and Ritchie will be available for weekly meetings by appointment.
Sign up for an appointment here: https://calendly.com/meg-stein.

Events:

Saturday, March 29, 6-9pm: Opening Reception

Sunday, March 30, 11am-1pm: Embodiment Practices Workshop

Sunday, April 6, 11am-1pm: Embodiment Practices Workshop

Saturday, April 12, 7-9pm: Artist’s Talk

Friday, April 18, 6-9pm: 3rd Friday Reception

Thursday, April 24, 6-8pm: Sculpture & Meditation Workshop

Open hours: Saturdays & Sundays, 2-6pm, and by appointment.

Congratulations to Mark Anthony Brown (MFA 2024) and Molly English (MFA 2024) for their acceptance into the 2025 class of Skowhegan!

Founded by artists, for artists, Skowhegan is an intensive nine-week summer program for emerging artists established in 1946.

Skowhegan is located on a 350-acre campus in central Maine. The nine-week summer program provides 65 emerging artists and 11 faculty artists with a collaborative and rigorous environment that is shaped by risk-taking, mentorship, and peer-to-peer exchange. Skowhegan does not consider financial ability or circumstances in its admissions process and, instead, focuses on an individual’s commitment to artmaking and inquiry. Founded by artists, for artists, the program provides an atmosphere in which participants are encouraged to work in contrast to market or academic expectations.

for more info: skowhegan

Hello My Friend,
It has been a while and I have been busy behind the scenes with screenings, publications, and a new exciting piece headed to SFMOMA next month. Read announcements below for details.

The news feels so grim these days, I thought I would offer something to distract you. Consider this an art exercise for the weary. Grab your closest paints and follow along.

I plan to start up monthly tutorials again that I will share with my subscribers. Also, I am slowly building watercolor classes in the background. I will be looking for folks to beta-test these in the spring for free access to the content!

LINK HERE for free tutorial. Guaranteed to relax you. If you try it please let me know if it helped.

xo xo

joy tirade

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I hope this newsletter finds you as well as one can be during these challenging times.  I am still digesting the U.S. election results and the break-up of the coalition in Germany.  Hopefully, we will find a way to get through this together.

In the meantime, I keep myself occupied with exhibitions and book preparations.  Join me for the opening reception of my solo show, The Absence and Presence of the Berlin Wall, at Deutsches Haus this Thursday, November 14, from 6-8 pm.

Moreover, I am continuing to work on my book and can now announce that it will be published in a German and English edition by DISTANZ (Berlin) in Spring 2025, which I am very excited about. In December, I will launch a fundraising campaign.

I wish you all the best. Stay strong!

Warmest wishes, Gesche

Solo Show at Deutsches Haus NYU

The Absence and Presence of the Berlin Wall will be exhibited in a solo exhibition at Deutsches Haus NYU from November 14, 2024, through February 7, 2025.

Please join me for the opening reception this Thursday, November 14, from 6-8 pm.  You may RSVP here. Address: Deutsches Haus NYU, 42 Washington Mews, New York, NY 10003.

Neue Landschaft 2 / New Landscape 2 (2024)
Collaged archival pigment prints, acid-free tape, bookbinding glue
7.67 x 10.43 inches
Quelle/Source: BArch MfS+HA_I+-Fo+349+Bild_0063+mast (and 0097, 0058, 0064, 0083, 0035)

You may wonder about what’s happening in this image.  The Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS) (“Stasi”) documented the Wall and Death Strip in great detail since its inception in 1961.  I received copies of 160 panorama images from the Bundesarchiv and cut out the Wall and the Death Strip.  I then collaged the remains of the images to envision 23 new landscapes without the Berlin Wall.

NYFA Fiscal Sponsorship – Book

DISTANZ will publish The Absence and Presence of the Berlin Wall in German and English editions in the spring of 2025.  In December 2024, I will run a fundraising campaign where you can pre-order a copy of the book

If you are already interested in supporting the relatively expensive book production, you may make a fully tax-deductible donation (this only applies to U.S. taxpayers) through my NYFA Fiscal Sponsorship page.  Thank you in advance if you decide to do so.  I genuinely appreciate your help.

Deans’ Faculty Research Grant

I am grateful that I was awarded an NYU Tisch Dean’s Faculty Research Grant for my upcoming book, “The Absence and Presence of the Berlin Wall,” which will be published by DISTANZ in Spring 2025.

Neue Landschaft 8 / New Landscape 8 (2024)
Collaged archival pigment prints, acid-free tape, bookbinding glue
3.7 x 10.5 inches
Quelle/Source: BArch MfS+HA_I+Fo+1+Bild_0043+mast, MfS+HA_I+Fo+349+Bild_0023+mast (and 0065, 0073, 0090, 0092)

Oppressive Architecture (ICE Detention Centers)

I started thinking about this project during the 45th U.S. presidency, and with the current migrant crisis and deportation plans of the incoming administration, the topic is even more relevant.  With support from the NYU Undergraduate Research Assistants Program, Vallery Orr and I used Google Street View to document the hundreds of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) facilities across the U.S.  According to the Border Report, roughly 40,000 migrants are currently held in ICE detention centers.  Screenshots from each facility will be compiled into a photographic installation to show the vastness of the inhumane system of housing thousands of migrants.  This project is a work in progress.

Congratulations to PhD alumna Carlee Forbes, who recently started her new position as Associate Curator of African and Oceanic Art at the Baltimore Museum of Art!

Mark Anthony Brown Jr. (MFA 2024!) has a solo exhibition that just opened up at Artspace in Raleigh, as a culmination of his residency there this past summer. The exhibition, Sing About Me, will be showing until September 29th with a reception on September 6th at 6 pm.

Sarah Walker received a BFA degree from the California College of the Arts and an MFA degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Walker has attended the MacDowell Colony, Ucross Foundation, Virginia Center of Creative Arts, and the American Academy in Rome. She was the recipient of a Joan Mitchell fellowship and a Rappaport Foundation Fellowship. Walker is a member of the National Academy of Art and Design.

Her work has been exhibited abroad recently at Galerie Joli (Netherlands), Gropea Kunstraum (Germany), Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder (Norway), and in the US at: Pierogi, Gregory Lind Gallery, DC Moore, McKenzie Fine Art, The Rose Museum, The Frist Art Museum, Weatherspoon Art Museum, The Crocker Museum, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

The NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship makes unrestricted cash grants of $8,000 to New York State-based artists working in 15 disciplines, recognizing five disciplines per year on a triennial basis. This program is administered by New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), with leadership support from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).

Please click here for the full announcement

Image: Sarah Walker, Headdress, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 52 x 48 inches, courtesy of the artist

Read the latest studio news in Joy’s Joy Mail Newsletter.

Here is Ethan’s latest update: Studio News Summer 24 He has a solo show at Winston Wachter in NYC coming up in September–check it out if you are there!

Congratulations to all of our graduates of the Class of 2024! Here are a few images of the celebrations that were held in the Friday Center in May.