Sample-Studios/SFAS Residency Exchange 2025 Open Call
Deadline: 11am Mon 16 September 2024
Context
Sample-Studios is one of Ireland’s largest artist studios, supporting over 130 artists in Cork. San Francisco Artists Studios is an artist collective and studios, located in the American Industrial Center, San Francisco. Artists work out of individual studio spaces to pursue their creative goals. SFAS has been working in partnership with Sample-Studios since 2021 including annual professional development programmes, reciprocal research visits and an exhibition of San Francisco Artist Studio members in our gallery, The Lord Mayor’s Pavilion, Feb-Apr 2024 to mark the 40th anniversary of Cork and San Francisco being Twinned Cities.
In 2021, Sample-Studios Cork and San Francisco Artist Studios formed a new partnership with the support of Cork City Council’s Twinned Cities Scheme to deliver a transatlantic online professional development and peer learning programme for our members, which would support artists on both sides of the Atlantic to upskill and be resilient in the face of shared challenges. This now annual programme includes a series of Group Crits whereby members present about their work and are offered constructive feedback from their peers. The programme has included professional development workshops which explore topics pertinent to artists in Cork and San Francisco, delivered by both Irish and American tutors. The latest programme deepened connections between our memberships, supported their creative practices through shared skills development and demonstrated the potential of in-person engagement. In Spring 2024, to mark the 40th anniversary of Cork and San Francisco being Twinned Cities, we presented a group exhibition of the San Francisco Artist Studios in The Lord Mayor’s Pavilion. SFAS Artists Nate Mahoney and Emily Eunnuri Lee Dobbs travelled to Cork for the exhibition and gave artist talks. This was also an opportunity for our members to meet them, discuss their work and to show them arts organisations throughout Cork.
In Summer 2025, Sample-Studios will host an 8-day residency by SFAS members in Cork and SFAS will host an 8-day residency by Sample-Studios members in San Francisco. The residencies will include provision of spaces for individual work, group work and engaging with the wider member/artistic community. The residents will be facilitated in a series of preparatory online workshops in advance. Residents will have the opportunities to engage in site visits to arts organisations during their visit and guest lecturer/facilitator or peer learning sessions to inform work. It is envisaged that the visit by SFAS members to Cork will coincide with Cork Midsummer Festival in mid June 2025 and that the visit by Sample-Studios members to San Francisco will take place in July 2025. This residency is funded by the Arts Council of Ireland International Residencies Scheme.
Eligibility
- Studio-based, Associate and Creative Network members are welcome to apply.
- Selected members must be in a position to continue their membership up to and including June and July 2025.
Applications will only be considered from members who participated in our collaborative activity with SFAS including our online professional development programme in 2021, 2022 and 2023 and/or the Opening Reception and Artist Talks held as part of the SFAS group exhibition hosted in Spring 2024.
Terms & Conditions
- 4 members from each studio will be selected.
- What is covered by the residency fund: Flights, Accommodation, Per Diem for 8 days of residency abroad, Residency Workspace, Speakers/facilitators fees.
- Please note that additional luggage, additional travel undertaken during the residency, art materials, transport of art materials or artworks are not covered.
- It is encouraged but not mandatory for selected members who travel to host studios to be available during their host’s visit for occasional group activity.
- All Sample-Studios members will be welcome to participate in some group activities with our visiting artists during their residency.
How To Apply
Applications should made in one pdf document and be emailed to programme@sample-studios.com with your name and ‘San Francisco Residency’ in the subject line.
Applications must include:
- C.V: Max 2 pages
- Artist Statement: Max 300 words
- Examples of up to 10 works in one PDF (Work in Progress and/ or previous work is acceptable)
- Link to your website and/or social media platforms
- Confirmation of the event(s) you attended (online and/or in person) as part of the San Francisco Artist Studios Programme with Sample-Studios to date and in what year(s), 2021/2022/2023/2024.
- A 400 word (max) statement about why you think this residency opportunity will benefit your practice.
- A 300 word (max) statement about which of the following SFAS studio members’ practices as outlined below are of particular interest to you in terms of synergy with your own practice.
The deadline for proposals is 11am, Monday 16th September 2024. Late applications will strictly not be accepted. Applications will be assessed by a panel and members will be notified of the outcome of their application. If you have a query, contact: director@sample-studios.com
About San Francisco Artist Studios Members
Emily Eunnuri Lee Dobbs is a Korean-American interdisciplinary research artist currently based out of San Francisco. Born in Seoul, South Korea then adopted by her aunt to America after the sudden passing of her birth parents in the Korean Air Flight 801. This loss fractured her identity, and spurred feelings of fragmentation, loss, and yearning. Lee incorporates these feelings of fragmentation and loss to recreate ideas of identity on the canvas addressing themes of cultural diaspora, Asian-American hybridity whilst alternating between personal narrative and social activism. She uses her practice as a medium to investigate media, race and intersectionality. Lee’s approach utilizes a diverse range of techniques and materials from collaging different forms of media, to incorporating both philosophic and historic rhetoric to her paintings, sculptures and performance pieces. In 2020 Lee graduated with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the California Institute of the Arts.
In 2021, she lost her life’s work in a fire during her first artist residency at the Little Tokyo Arts Collective in Downtown LA. Later that year she moved to San Francisco and re-created an at home studio. Last year, she had her first solo exhibition at Uzay Gallery and has an upcoming exhibition this year at SoHo House. She thinks of her artwork as a conduit to interpret all the different experiences in her life. From her adoption to dismantling forces of systematic oppression to reconnecting to her Korean heritage, she uses her practice to create connections she sees in the world.
She/her/hers @eunnuri_lee
Nate Mahoney creates work inspired by dualities. Design and Art. Video and Still Photography. Nature and Urban. The work is centered on compassion for others trying to survive in our complex and inhospitable world. As a queer artist, Design Researcher, and urban dweller, Mahoney reacts to the city with inspired work that communicates connections between people, time, nature, place, and space. Nate Mahoney’s art practice delves into dualities between urban and rural, art and design, moving images and still photography to create a variety of work. Mahoney’s works often result from a research practice and collaborative process.
As a Design Researcher, Nate has worked on many innovative experiences including pandemic COVID websites for SF.gov and UX research on early cancer molecular diagnostics for ExactSciences. Nate received a MFA in Design from California College of the Arts, a MFA in Cinema and Photography from Southern Illinois University, and a BA in Liberal Arts from The Evergreen State College. Nate is the founder of TheUrbanistSF.com and regularly hosts pop up events in collaboration with Larkin Street Youth, Sunday Streets, and donates a part of all sales to Larkin Street Youth Services. Nate lives and works in downtown San Francisco, California.
He/Him/His @natemahoney Natemahoney.com
Alexandru Salceanu received his BA in 2004 from the University of San Diego in San Diego, California and his MFA in 2021 from Mills College in Oakland, California. In 2020, during his graduate studies, he was awarded a Cadogan Scholarship by the San Francisco Foundation. His work has been exhibited at the de Young Museum, Root Division, Kala Art Institute, Mills College, SOMArts, University of San Francisco, Kaleid Gallery, City of Brea Art Gallery, University of San Diego, Art Academy of San Diego, Millepiani, in Italy, CICA Museum, in South Korea, among others.
“My artistic concerns revolve around micro and macro tensions: narratives of power and vulnerability; fear and resilience; cultural identity and the homogeneity of globalism. These themes arise from reconciling my cultural identity as someone born in Communist Romania. Assimilating into other cultures after the 1989 revolution keenly influences my approach to the world. I search for the ways in which the past has influenced the present and its impact on the immigrant experience. Some aspects I address deal with the legacies of political ideologies, systemic effects of legislation, and cultural impact of globalization. Juxtaposing the dissonance of political and economic theory and the intimacy of lived experience, I layer historical facts, aesthetic references, and personal accounts together through a variety of media—photography, video, projection mapping, painting, and mixed media.
As social practice, I work in and with communities to make collaborative artwork that facilitates autobiographical storytelling. The question of authorship is a key element in my photography and videography and is a way of challenging myself and the standards of the media. Through my work, I seek art’s transformative power to humanize immigration issues, challenge perspectives and encourage a more personal encounter. I investigate the quiet characteristics of resilience and dignity, power and joy present within pervasive cycles of struggle and the ways people overcome them.”
he/him/his @Alexandrusalceanustudio alexandrusalceanu.com
Ebti is a multidisciplinary artist, a self-taught photographer and a translator living between Cairo and San Francisco. She has an MA in translation and intercultural studies from Johannes Gutenberg Universitat, Mainz, and an MFA in Fine Art from California College of the Arts. Ebti is part of “Right window” collective, “Off Hours” collective and is sitting on the curatorial council at Southern Exposure Gallery in San Francisco. Her work was shown in galleries around the US and Egypt. She currently teaches visual arts and photography at Performing Arts Workshop in San Francisco, Bay Area.
“My practice is informed by translation, languages, theatre, literature, music and my family’s making-traditions I never got to learn. Through this multifaceted, dislocated lens I look at the idea of home, belonging, and attachment. Though my work is rooted in photography, I am constantly looking for new materials and methods that will best translate my ideas. Once I start working on a project, I embrace notions of accident and failure. My practice is ever-evolving and is influenced by my restlessness.”
she/her @Ebti_shedid ebti.art
Daniel Valenza primarily works in sculpture and assemblage. He uses a mix of found and new materials to create visually engaging musical objects. Valenza earned a BS in Architectural Design from Arizona State University in 2010; he currently lives and works in San Francisco. He joined the SF Artists Studios in August of 2016.
“This assemblage gives joy in the surprise offered upon closer inspection. Constructed to look as if the flashlight began life as a speaker and not the outdated, non-functional spotlight it was, the viewer is invited to move closer and spend an extra minute taking in the details.
As a whole, my “Sound Machine” collection celebrates the beauty of audio components. Often beauty is a side effect of better functionality – gold plated jacks and plugs for better conductivity, woven speaker cones for strength and resilience. For this piece, I worked to hide the hand of the artist from firstlook to better showcase the precision and aesthetics of the kevlar speaker. Don’t be fooled, the transformation is not merely superficial; the “Spotlight” is a fully functioning bluetooth speaker.”
He/Him @danv1221 sfartistsstudios.com/daniel-valenza
Ingrid V. Wells enjoys using playful subject matter to address complex topics including resilience, radical compassion, joy and being. Her artwork has been shown in New York at the Untitled Space, PULSE Miami with Treat Gallery, internationally in South Korea at the CICA Museum, with Voss Gallery in San Francisco and online with PxP Contemporary. Her work has been featured by The Jealous Curator, The Huffington Post, Daily Mail, BUST Magazine, Create! Magazine and Teen Vogue, among others. Her oil painting was invited to be featured in El País representing the international women’s movement in 2019. Wells is a multiple-time grant recipient from the Center for Cultural Innovation.
She runs San Francisco Artists Studios, a multidisciplinary artist studio space in the Dogpatch district of San Francisco. There she facilitates programming including ongoing artist professional development series with Sample-Studios (Cork, Ireland) that began during the pandemic with grant funding from the Cork City Council Twinning Cities. Wells directs TWIRL: A Decade of Artists Interviews, a 10 year annual interview project that began with 40 artists. The project focuses on studying artist resilience and the survival of artist communities despite unforeseen difficult circumstances. The project launched in February 2020.
Wells is happy to serve the Bay Area arts community in her role as the Fine Arts Division Assistant Director for California College of the Arts. She was awarded a Certificate of Honor from the City and County of San Francisco Board of Supervisors in October 2020 for painting uplifting murals in the city’s COVID overflow hospital space in the Presidio.
In May of 2022, Create! Magazine named Wells #7 on the list of Top 15 Emerging Artists to Follow on Social Media. Her work was recently on display in southern California at Brea Gallery with the Pure, Unadulterated Joy exhibition, which was extended for three additional months due to popularity. She earned her MFA from San Francisco Art Institute and her BFA from Arizona State University. Her studio is located in Yelamu, also known as San Francisco, on the unceded territories of Ramaytush Ohlone peoples.
she/her @ingridvwells Ingridvwells.com