Young Space, no.10
Balancing the new year.
Hello—Happy 2024!
First things first, this is a preview of a post this week for paid subscribers to kick off the new year. If you’d like to receive twice as many updates with hand-picked opportunities for artists and get access to the regularly updated listing of dozens of upcoming deadlines, become a paid subscriber.
You’ll be directly supporting the research and work that goes into this newsletter and supporting independent arts publishing on Dovetail, where your support has already contributed to commissioning three writers for new stories about contemporary art. Thank you!
On balance
In my little bit of social media scrolling the past few days (I’ve been consciously trying to keep it to a minimum), I’ve run across quite a few posts and videos from artists who all seem to be describing a similar awareness of the importance of slowing down and nurturing creative energy going into the new year. While a couple years ago the buzzword was rest, it seems like something else is built in to this now, something perhaps more closely resembling balance.
I think about this a lot. By this time of the year in 2021, I was burnt the heck out. It was pandemic-related but it was also sheer anxiety associated with social media and working, working, working—remember that other buzzword, hustle? (Bleh.)
On one hand, I was getting all sorts of well-intended advice about how to grow my business and/or expand my project—in art, this can sometimes feel like similar things and sometimes two diametrically opposed things—and after buying into hustle culture for far too long, I was exhausted. Worse, I didn’t like anything that I was working on. I had gotten so tired and so jaded about the “why,” that the thing I had spent years molding and nurturing, and that objectively I knew I loved, I didn’t want to do anymore. All the joy had been sucked out of it.
There were a few reasons for this, one being the hyper-commercialization of social media and a feeling of being on what artist Cherelle Sappleton recently referred to as the hamster wheel. It’s so easy to be distracted by a thousand “shoulds”: I “should” post a Reel every week. I “should” apply to X number of opportunities this month. I “should” go to that art fair or opening or presentation to network. But when your heart’s not in it, it almost never goes well, and it certainly doesn’t feel great.
I remember thinking, All I want is to be enthusiastic about art and this project again. I want to make cool things; I don’t want to be a soulless marketing machine! So I consciously put it all down, and I told myself that the only case in which I could pick it back up was when that genuine enthusiasm—and the motivation and optimism that naturally accompanies it—returned. It took almost two years.
For one whole year, I took to nature walks like spots on dice, read a lot, and spent a lot of time with friends. I worked for a while at Collective, a nonprofit gallery on Calton Hill in Edinburgh, where I met lots of people and sincerely enjoyed talking to all of the tourists that wandered up to see the view. Ironically, most people who came in didn’t even know there was an art space in the old observatory, so we’d be talking about anything from astrolabes to how strong the wind was to what film or T.V. show was filming nearby. I also started contributing on a part-time basis to Colossal, where I’ve been introduced to artists and designers I might not have learned about otherwise.
It turns out, I like to write a lot more than I knew. So, late in 2022, I very slowly relaunched Dovetail, which had run briefly in 2020 and early 2021. And until this newsletter relaunched last fall, for a while I thought Young Space was done and dusted, too. I even told some people it was over. And yet, for some reason, I never deleted any accounts or websites… And one day—it seemed so random and simple—I felt enthusiastic about an idea: this newsletter. And not only that, it was achievable, a natural progression. I know it only felt simple because it was the result of months of rest and reflection.
Taking some time to rebalance priorities and rediscover other things I love to do—being in the outdoors, taking road trips, cooking a lot (sauces are so fun)—taught me a great deal about balance when it comes to approaching creative work and entrepreneurship in a way that is both sustainable and sustaining. We’re so, so fortunate to be able to do what we do, but even doing something we love can take up more time or energy than we have, at times, and one never wants something they love to become something they resent.
Going into the new year, I’m reminding myself of a lot of these little lessons learned, which added up over time, amount to a healthier way of thinking about work and the art life.
Wishing you all the very best for the start of the new year!
—Kate
What you’ll find this week:
Featured artist: Michelle A M Miller
Five exhibitions on view this week in Antwerp, Athens, New York, and Zurich
Twelve opportunities for artists with deadlines coming up soon
A new, all-in-one-place spot to browse opportunities
P.S. Also, I love this list of unique resolutions for the new year—or any time, really—from Rob Walker of The Art of Noticing.
Featured artist: Michelle A M Miller
“My visual vocabulary traces energy flows, follows photons, and re-imagines the subatomic particles of which all matter is composed,” says Michelle A M Miller, whose monochromatic drawings on handmade paper use crushed oyster shells that the artist salvages from restaurants near her home in West Palm Beach, Florida. “These works are embedded with my experiences working in an environmental testing laboratory, filtered through my dreams and memories,” she says.
Loosely symmetrical motifs draw their geometric shapes and waveforms from early navigational charts and scientific diagrams, evocative of the spiritual or sublime similarly captured by spiritualists like Hilma af Klint. Miller describes each work “as a meditation that skirts ideas of entanglement and interconnectedness but hints at something more.”
Through a process of salvaging, curing, crushing, grinding, blending, tearing, burning, and mixing, Miller creates hand-made paper surfaces for drawing with a palette of neutral earth tones derived from the oysters and ash. She works in series and may have several drawings ready to be worked on, but she typically only draws on one at a time. She says:
My process includes a great deal of quiet reflection, reading and research. Once things have had sufficient time to marinate, the ideas flow and I must release them into the world. It's a mix of slow and fast, with some steps like making the paper taking a few days, to the curing of the oyster shells taking months.
Miller’s latest artist book, Erebid/Materia, was published in 2023 by Women’s Studio Workshop, and some pieces from her Ouroboros series are on view at IS Projects in Miami through February. Find more on the artist’s website.
Exhibitions
ATHENS | ALLOUCHE BENIAS
Alexandros Vasmoulakis: Smashing Games
I’ve long been a fan of Alexandros Vasmoulakis’s work, ever since seeing some of his much earlier work on the side of a wall in Athens. The entire wall continues to have a unique influence on his vibrant paintings, which are often installed on wallpaper-like surfaces. In Smashing Games, the artist continues to explore the interplay between figuration and abstraction.
Runs through January 13
NEW YORK CITY | MARLBOROUGH
Benedict Scheuer: Doubt and Love
I don’t think I’ve ever responded to a blurb in a press release more than the first line in Marlborough’s for Doubt and Love: “Benedict Scheuer practices a quiet spirituality—felt while sitting on his porch, tending his dahlias, and working in the studio.” I particularly love the moth-like pieces on Habotai silk.
Runs through January 13
ZÜRICH | GALERIE FABIAN LANG
Xiao Guo Hui: Le Théâtre du Paradis
Xiao Guo Hui's largest solo exhibition and first in Switzerland is a feast. Paintings made over the past two years reference the artist’s childhood in Guangzhou and tap into the unmistakable characteristics of Renaissance landscapes and still lifes. Since 2010, the artists has collaborated with his wife Chen Wenqing, who designs the costumes work by figures in the fresco-like paintings.
Runs through January 20
ANTWERP | OFFICE BAROQUE
Lauren Satlowski: Please Allow the Pipes to Function
L.A.-based artist Lauren Satlowski’s oil paintings of carefully arranged items like flowers, tchotchkes, pins, glass, and other objects seem to glisten in plays of light and shadow.
Runs through January 27
NEW YORK CITY | KASMIN
Mark Yang: Birth
Mark Yang’s Birth is the artist’s first solo show with Kasmin, which emphasizes Yang’s enigmatic merging of figuration and abstraction that resist clear narrative. I really enjoy his use of the line as a bold formal element, almost stained glass-like or redolent of postmodern poster design in the way they contain fields of washy color.
Runs January 11 to February 17
Artist Opportunities
Deadlines are coming up soon to apply for these grants, fellowships, residencies, and more.
ICART Artistik Rezo Prize
Deadline: January 5
French artists or artists living and working in France, who are also under the age of 35, are eligible to apply for this grant of €3,000. Applicants must be either: a recent graduate, a student enrolled in an art-oriented course, or have proof of professional status.
Submission fee: none
Yale Center for British Art Residential Awards
Deadline: January 5
Yale Center for British Art Residential Awards are offered in three categories:
Residential Artist Awards: These awards are open to visual artists who are working in any field related to British visual and material culture and are intended to support the research phase of creative practice.
Residential Curatorial Awards: Open to curators worldwide who are engaged in significant curatorial work in any area of British art.
Residential Scholar Awards: These awards are open to academics, independent scholars, and doctoral students working in any field related to British visual and material culture.
Awards cover the cost of a J1 visa, travel to and from New Haven, and include accommodations and a living allowance.
Submission fee: none
Urbane Künste Ruhr Residency
Deadline: January 5
This residency in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, is aimed at professionally-working international and national artists and collectives who are interested in social, situational, and site-specific contexts in their artistic work. The residency will run April 2 to June 30, 2024, and artists receive a fee of €4,500, accommodation, cover for transportation costs for arrival and departure, and shared workspace.
Submission fee: none
Vermont Week at Vermont Studio Center
Deadline: January 7
Thirty fully-funded fellowships are available for Vermont-based artists and writers for residencies at Vermont Studio Center from May 6 to 13, 2024. All residents are provided with private accommodations, private studio space, all meals, and access to local amenities.
Submission fee: $25
HUG 100 Artists to Watch Open Call
Deadline: January 8
HUG is accepting entries for a juried publication titled 100 Artists to Watch, which will be published in hardcover. This opportunity is open to artists of all mediums and experience levels.
Submission fee: none
Booooooom Photo Awards
Deadline: January 12
Photographers are invited to submit images in one of five categories, each with a $1,000 top prize. The winners, plus 20 shortlisted photographers, will be featured in and receive a copy of a special mini-photo publication.
Submission fee: none for first image, then $15 to submit up to ten images in one category
L.A. Quinn Emmanuel Artist Residency
Deadline: January 14
This residency is open to emerging and mid-career artists working in all disciplines across Greater Los Angeles. For four months, the artist-in-residence will be given a studio in the Quinn Emanuel Los Angeles office to support their existing practice or a new project as appropriate. The artist-in-residence will receive $5,000 per month over the course of four months, for a total of $20,000. In addition, Quinn Emanuel will provide an allowance of up to $1,500 for purchase of art materials.
Submission fee: none
FLAD Scholarships for Portuguese Artists-in-Residence in the U.S.
Deadline: January 15
FLAD Scholarships aim to support the development and training of artists between the ages of 25 and 25, of Portuguese nationality or resident in Portugal for more than five years, who wish to undertake an artist residency in the U.S. FLAD will support the chosen artists with up to €1,200 per week, up to a maximum of four months, for artistic residencies starting during 2024.
Submission fee: none
StudioWorks Artist-in-Residence Program
Deadline: January 15
The StudioWorks Artist-in-Residence Program at the Tides Institute & Museum of Art (TIMA) in Eastport, Maine, offers residency opportunities to visual artists from the U.S. and abroad to deepen and develop their practice within a community setting. Residencies include a financial stipend ($2,000 stipend for a 4-week residency or $1,000 for a 2-week residency), housing, access to museum and research collections, and can include access to printmaking/letterpress equipment.
Submission fee: $25
Folger Institute Artistic Research Fellowships
Deadline: January 15
The Folger Institute’s Artistic Research Fellowships are open to all artists whose work would benefit from significant primary research related to the histories, concepts, art, and objects of the early modern world (ca. 1400-1800) and its legacies. Applicants may apply for one, two, or three months of research support on-site at the Folger Shakespeare Library (Washington, D.C.), with a stipend of $4,000 per month.
Submission fee: none
Generation Brussels Open Call
Deadline: January 15
The Generation Brussels exhibition, part of Brussels Gallery Weekend in September 2024, aims to provide visibility to artists living and/or working in Brussels.
Submission fee: none
Chicago Individual Artists Program Grants
Deadline: January 16
The Individual Artists Program (IAP) aims to assist Chicago's practicing artists in creating work that develops their craft and elevates their careers, while adding to the cultural vitality of the city of Chicago. IAP grants support artists across all artistic disciplines including Film & Media Arts, Literary Arts, Music, Performing Arts (Theater/Dance), and Visual Arts/Design. Between 200 to 250 grants are expected to be awarded, and requests for amounts up to $6,000 are accepted.
Submission fee: none
Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation 2024 Individual Support Grants
Deadline: January 17
These grants are available to individual painters, sculptors, and printmakers who have worked in a mature phase of art for 20 years or more. Last year, the Foundation awarded grants of $25,000 each to 20 artists.
Submission fee: none
See all opportunities
I’m happy to share that as a paid subscriber, you can access a full list of all current opportunities without having to search back through earlier issues to find information and links—it’s all in one place: yngspc.com/opportunities.
Email kate@young-space.com if you have already subscribed and need the password!
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Mark Yang at Kasmin looks great. It's nice to see the gallery featuring younger artists