Key Dates:
June 1, 6-9p.m. (opening of Rites of Passage – opportunity to meet the artist)
July 13, 6-9p.m. (inaugural reception for the Residency program)
Manifest is very pleased to introduce the recipient of the first Manifest Artist Residency Award: Tyler Wilkinson Manifest Artist in Residence 2012/13
Earlier this year Manifest announced the establishment of its residency program (the M.A.R. award). Each year the program will award one artist free 24/7 use of a 500 sq. ft. north lit studio adjacent to Manifest Gallery in the Victoria Building on Woodburn Avenue in East Walnut Hills, Cincinnati (Ohio) for the period of one year at no cost. The artist will also receive free access to Manifest’s Drawing Center life drawing sessions, and consideration for the opportunity to teach or assist with teaching courses at the Center. During every exhibition opening held at Manifest Gallery the Residency space will also be open, as an invitation for the public to meet the resident artist and see his or her work progress over the course of a year’s time. Goals for the Manifest Artist Residency Program include:
-Provide an ideal space for the creation of new work. Greatly increase the likelihood of future success for the resident artist.
-Offer the opportunity to develop drawing or other art-making skills relative to the consistent availability of life drawing models, or to explore how life-drawing can relate to other art-making activities. (Applicants are NOT required to be figurative artists.)
-Create a supportive environment for development as a teaching artist, if appropriate. Place the artist in a vital and growing arts community in Cincinnati, with a location ideal for visiting and learning from other artists and arts organizations in the city.
Expand how Manifest’s programming impacts individual artists, our community, and artmaking in society.
-Establish a broad view into contemporary art by providing the public with insights into both art production (exhibits) and processes (studio) under one roof.
-Manifest received applications for this inaugural residency from 16 different states and two countries outside the U.S. Applicants ranged from recent graduates to well established mid-career artists. A committee of nine jurors participated in the deliberate and thorough review process, which resulted in one clear finalist. The inaugural reception for the Manifest Artist Residency will be held during the opening of the 6th Annual Master Pieces exhibition on Friday, July 13th from 6-9p.m. Coincidentally Tyler Wilkinson also has one painting included in the Rites of Passage exhibition opening at Manifest on June 1 from 6-9p.m. and he will be on-hand to meet the press and provide a preview of the residency space.
-Tyler Wilkinson is a 2012 graduate of Centre College, a nationally ranked liberal arts college in Danville, Kentucky. At Centre he studied drawing and painting, becoming adept in the use of oil paints, pastel, charcoal, and graphite. The majority of Wilkinson’s time at Centre consisted of diligent study of the human form and still life objects. As a student he had the opportunity to work closely with his mentor, Professor Sheldon Tapley.
During his senior year, Wilkinson had the opportunity to travel throughout Europe, studying language, culture, and art. While abroad, he kept a travel sketchbook and journal. Also during this year Wilkinson created a self-designed course with Professor William Andrus titled “Arts Professions” in which he sought out and applied for juried exhibitions and residency awards as part of his course work. Wilkinson has presented classroom demonstrations in portrait drawing from life and in the use of toned supports. He has extensive study in the history of picture making spanning the range of antique to the contemporary. His work has clearly benefitted fromhis study of the history of art both in the U.S., in various American cities and museums, and while abroad in Europe. Also while at Centre, he had the opportunity to meet and discuss painting with several contemporary painters, including Alan Feltus, Lani Irwin, Alex Kanevsky, Daniel Ludwig, David Jon Kassan, and Costa Vavagaiakis. Wilkinson was born in Stanford, Kentucky, in 1990.
Artist’s Statement:
My paintings are reactions to the deluge of stimuli I encounter on a day-to-day basis. It is my goal, to express the essence of these experiences through paint. I want to capture the subtleties in daily experience to communicate something poignant to the viewer. My hope is to clearly capture the impetus that inspired the creation. Moreover, I make art for the love of process, the love of sharing, and the love of creation. My task as an artist is to discover inspiration. It could be anywhere, but recognizing and using it is difficult. I ingest and mull over the stimuli I confront each day, from the mundane to the bizarre. The catalyst for creative motivation can be found just as readily among the sublime as it can in the mundane. The process of picture making is a strong motivation,for it is my love of process that keeps me coming back to the easel.
My goals for development are simple: be honest and resist complacency. Honesty in one’s desires, and motivations is, in my opinion, the catalyst of growth and development. A creator can’t really develop artistically if he doesn’t allow the opportunity for flexibility. Too often, artists limit themselves artistically in hopes of ushering in consistency and marketability. Change of taste and desire is inevitable. The ability to accept and celebrate the change of desire through honest picture making facilitates the development of vibrant art and virtuous creators. Objectivity, a consequence of honesty, allows me to judge and modify paintings based on the need of each particular creation. Resisting complacency prevents me from becoming too comfortable with my paintings, allowing me to continuously search for better ways of fulfilling my goals for creation. Paintings are conversations between creator, subject matter, and painting. The most poignant creations are completed ‘conversations’ where the artist has reacted to his subject matter and has continually expressed that reaction on canvas until each individual part contributes to the whole. This is only attainable if the artist spends many hours working, scrutinizing, and re-working until the conversation is complete. I’m usually faced with several unfinished works at once. This is a deliberate practice that allows me to keep my responses to my paintings fresh. Also, I find it essential that the studio is tidy. A well-ordered studio creates an environment that promotes both the creation of work and grants the space needed to think critically.
Meet the artist at the 8th Annual RITES OF PASSAGE exhibition reception on June 1, 6-9p.m.
Official inaugural reception for the Manifest Artist Residency: July 13,2012 6-9p.m.
View more of Tyler Wilkinson’s artwork submitted as part of his M.A.R. application:
http://www.manifestgallery.org/lists/lt.php?id=YkReAgoMAgoJSg1QAEVVDFxT
About Manifest:
Founded in May of 2004 by students and professors from area universities, Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization headquartered in the historic urban neighborhood of East Walnut Hills in Cincinnati, Ohio. Now in its 8th exhibit season the 1000 square foot museum-quality street level gallery offers three distinct exhibition spaces, and is minutes away from downtown Cincinnati, and the many academic institutions of higher learning in the region. Its central location in the Woodburn Avenue district places it within an energetic, creative, and revitalizing community that includes other galleries, shops, restaurants and artists studios. Manifest is within easy walking distance of a diversely populated historic neighborhood with residents from all walks of life. The galleries are free and open to the public five hours a day, five days a week, presenting works of all kinds by artists from around the world. The Manifest Drawing Center Studio is located in the nearby urban village of Madisonville and offers hundreds of hours of instructed and uninstructed life drawing and other courses each year.
Manifest is supported by grants and public donations and has the goal to support student professionalism, integrate the arts into the urban residential community and raise the bar on artistic standards.
Manifest Gallery, 2727 Woodburn Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45206
For info contact: Jason Franz, Executive Director, jason@manifestgallery.org
