2012/13 SHIFT RESIDENTS

Francis Estrada was born in the Philippines and moved to America in 1988. He currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. He is a visual artist who works as a Museum Educator at MoMA and as a freelance educator of Filipino art and culture. Estrada’s artwork are realizations of perception- his own and what is presented. His paintings re-contextualize religious and historic imagery to produce new mythologies and icons. He investigates relationships between characters and their environment. By omitting, blurring, or fading some features, he encourages the viewer to form their own perception of people and spaces based on their personal experiences. Most recently, he has found interest in themes of sentimentality and nostalgia. Using personal photographs, he recreates moments he finds precious by redrawing them without providing the complete image.

Jonathan Durham is an artist based in New York City. His sculptures, performances, videos, and 2-dimensional works explore subjects of faith, violence, doubt, humor and the body as a sculptural application. He received his MFA in sculpture from UCLA in 2000 and in 2007 he completed a two-year residency at the Core Program Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. His work has been exhibited internationally including Recess, New York (2011), Mixed Greens Gallery, NY, Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, NY, the Houston Area Exhibition, Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston, Learning by Doing at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Outpost, CTRL Gallery, Material Culture, Fort Worth, Library Project, Galerie fur Gegenwartskunst, Bremen, Germany. He is the recipient of an Aunspaugh 5th Year Fellowship from the University of Virginia where he received a dual BA in Fine Arts and Psychology. Durham’s drawings, sculptures and videos are in numerous private and public collections including the Aurora Picture Show Video Library and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. In addition to his work as a visual artist Durham has published reviews in Modern Painters Magazine and recently curated the exhibitions Insurance Is Not Always Assured, Rick Cary: CREDO, Jayson Keeling: Behind the Green Door and Systemic Riskat NURTUREart. Durham serves as the Director of Visual Arts at Abrons Art Center/Henry Street Settlement in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

Howard Halle has been involved with the visual arts as an artist, writer, teacher, curator, critic and editor for over 35 years. In the late 1970s, he helped to found DC Space, an alternative showcase for performance art and new music in Washington, DC. From 1981 to 1985, he was curator of the Performance Art and Gallery series at The Kitchen in New York City. As an independent curator, he organized shows in the U.S. and in Europe, including 1987′s Les Courtiers du Désir (The Brokerage of Desire), which he co-organized with Walter Hopps at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. From 1992–1995, he was Assistant Art Editor at Grand Street,an art and literary quarterly. In 1995, became the launching art editor for Time Out New York magazine, where he remains chief art critic and Editor-At-Large. His own work has been exhibited widely in U.S. and in Europe.

Elizabeth Hamby uses drawing, video, installation, and participatory workshops, to explore the dynamics of place and the rhythms of everyday urban experience. Recently, she produced, “Boogie Down Rides,” in collaboration with Hatuey Ramos-Fermin as part of No Longer Empty’s exhibition, “This Side of Paradise,” and participated in the Create Change Residency Program at the Laundromat Project. Elizabeth also coordinates the Neighborhood Explorers Program at the Museum of the City of New York, engaging artists, designers, and youth to lead their communities in becoming cleaner, safer, and healthier places to live. She holds a BA in Cultural Studies and Philosophy from Eugene Lang College and a BFA in Studio Art from Parsons School of Design.

Jamie Kim's figurative paintings and portraits are heavily influenced by childhood photographs, expansive landscapes, and traditional Korean folk art imagery. She juxtaposes elements from her personal history with those from a collective cultural memory, blending seemingly disparate elements into imaginary narratives that feel real and familiar. She has exhibited in New York, Chicago, Seoul, Berlin and other major cities. She earned a MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and lives in Brooklyn, New York. Jamie Kim currently works in the Education Department of the Children’s Museum of Manhattan as the Manager of Public Programs.

Naomi Miller is a multidisciplinary artist with a background in photography whose abiding interest lies within her social interactions with her friends and family members. She believes these discussions, shared experiences and emotions, and inevitable conflicts measure her engagement with the world. Her recent projects formalize this interest by creating platforms that solicit a broader, public engagement: The Work Office (TWO), in collaboration with Katarina Jerinic, is a WPA-inspired employment agency for artists, and Iron Maiden Artists Tours is an experiential collaboration with other artists in which her 1978 Volvo station wagon is used to host events and discourse. She has been a resident at The MacDowell Colony and The Wassaic Project, a participant in LMCC’s Swing Space Program, and a recipient of a Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC) grant. Her photography has been included in exhibitions at The Wassaic Festival, NY; Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA; the Bronx River Art Center, Bronx, NY; Steven Wolf Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA; and Printed Matter, New York, NY. She has recently performed at Soapbox Gallery and Present Company, Brooklyn, NY. The Work Office (TWO) was produced in Times Square, New York in October 2011 with support by the Times Square Alliance, and was included in the “Shifting Communities” exhibition series at the Bronx River Arts Center, January–February 2012. She also works as the Program Coordinator at Artadia, a non-profit art organization that supports art making in local communities by providing financial support and networking for artists. Naomi received her BA in English and Studio Art at Clark University, Worcester, MA in 1996 and graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2004 with a MFA in photography. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Sarah Walko is a multimedia sculptor/installation/film artist and writer. She is currently the Executive Director of Triangle Arts Association. El Cadaver Exquisito, an experimental documentary collaboration film she worked on with with director Victor Ruano and Rossemberg Rivas, is currently in festival circuits. Her fiction and non-fiction essays have been published by White Whale Review Literary Journal and Hyperallergic Art Blog where she is a regular contributing writer. Her visual artwork has been published by The Dirty Goat, Redivider, Blood Lotus, Apple Valley Review, 2 River, A Capella Zoo, Awosting Alchemy, 5×5 Literary Magazine, Bathhouse and Host Publications. Her last exhibition Preternatural was at the Museum of Nature, a science museum in Canada. She has participated in several artists residency programs and shows frequently in group exhibitions in New York. She is currently working on new sculpture/installations and is in post-production for a new film to be out this winter.