Manifest is very pleased to introduce the recipients of the second Manifest Artist Residency Award: Nicholas Mancini and Jeremy Plunkett

MEET THE ARTISTS AT MANIFEST, July 12, 6-9p.m.  (reception for the artists-in-residence, open studio, simultaneous with the opening of Master Pieces 7 at Manifest Gallery)

Manifest announced the establishment of its residency program (the M.A.R. award) in early 2012. Each year the program will award one (or more) artists 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. Each 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 artists and see their work progress over the course of a year’s time. The MAR award was originally intended as a one-artist award, and Tyler Wilkinson was the first resident (2012-2013). However this year provided the opportunity, and willing artists, for the awarding of the residency to two separate artists. Manifest feels that having two residents will bring even more vitality to the program, and the public interaction alongside our gallery activities and Drawing Center offerings. 

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 residency from 13 different states and four countries. Applicants ranged from recent graduates to well established mid-career artists. A committee of several jurors participated in the deliberate and thorough review process, which resulted in two clear finalists. The reception for the Manifest Artist Residency will be held during the opening of the 7th Annual Master Pieces exhibition on Friday, July 12th from 6-9p.m. Both artists will have each of their spaces open to the public, and will be present for this reception. Each exhibit opening at Manifest across the next several months will also be an open house for the MAR space and resident artists.

Nicholas Mancini (Swampscott, Massachusetts)
Manifest Artist in Residence 2013/14

Nicholas Mancini grew up with dreams of hockey stardom. He also came of age during a time when his family experienced many deaths, events that can only be comprehended later in life. When he was thirteen years of age Nicholas shattered his leg during a hockey game, ending his sports career. It was through this injury, laid-up and immobile for two years, that he discovered drawing. He began taking lessons on weekends with a man by the name of Kenneth Herwitz. Studying portraiture, anatomy and caricatures, Nicholas realized his appreciation for the human form early on. During Nicholas’ sophomore year Herwitz passed away, reminding him of the family deaths that had impacted his early childhood. Although Herwitz was not related to Mancini, they had shared a vocation. As a result, Herwitz’s death bound the emotion of loss to Nicholas’ artwork. Though his teacher had died, the passion to work remained.

During his college years Mancini found it hard to stay in one place. Changing colleges twice, looking for new teachers and different methods, he discovered each school had a different overarching philosophy. He studied in programs at Tufts University, the School of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Art Students League in New York City, Towson University, and the Maryland Institute College of Art. After graduating, Nicholas began showing work both in one-man shows and group exhibitions. He received a grant to live with, apprentice to, and study under Odd Nerdrum in Stavern, Norway for half a year. Days were spent painting and assisting Nerdrum, and at night they spoke of philosophy and art. Nicholas continued his travels in Italy the following year, living in Florence and experimenting with watercolor by observing the landscape. He moved back to his hometown, continuing to make work directly related to his surroundings, but with new inspiration from his travels and memories.

Artist’s Statement: 

Many artists trade in their perception for a machine. Although photography can help us to further understand our individual vision, when the camera begins to shackle our view, the image loses human interaction. I work from life, utilizing the memories I hold while depicting the objects and people around me. When painting and drawing people, I study a person’s specific anatomy as well as my relationship to his or her psyche. And just as light and temperature shift, I am interested in how these characteristics change as I work. The objects in my environment are also a source of inspiration to me. Whether its surface is shellacked or worn, its color saturated or faded, its structure intact or collapsed, an object has a visual history. Furthermore, it has a rich history connected to each person who comes into contact with it. I wish to examine both of these histories.

I strive to develop my work in many disciplines and media. Experimenting with music and film has given me a different perspective on the three media I explore most: oil paint, watercolor, and charcoal. When I write music I begin with a single idea which I record. From here I continue to layer recordings on top of this initial concept, letting it grow and achieve a thicker sound over time. Similarly, in watercolor painting, multiple layers of paint add up to one whole. This connection has influenced a change in my oil painting process. I have begun applying thin layers

of paint, similar to glazes, in order to accentuate a feeling of time elapsing as the painting builds. Each discipline has its individual process; they all possess inherent qualities that make them distinct from one another. However, I hope to achieve a commonality between media. By creating an articulate vision, I believe I can weave the different disciplines together into a single stylistic approach.

Jeremy Plunkett (Glendale, Wisconsin) 
Manifest Artist in Residence 2013/14

Jeremy Plunkett’s work explores the illuminating and emanating qualities of light within his photo-realist paintings, intaglio-based prints, and monumentally scaled charcoal drawings.  He received his MFA in painting from Ohio University in 2008 and received his BFA in printmaking from Bowling Green State University in 2005.

Jeremy has participated in many national and international juried exhibitions including the International Mezzotint Festival in Ekaterinburg, Russia(2011, 2013), 32nd Bradley International Print & Drawing Exhibition (2009), and took first prize in the Manifest’s own International Drawing Annual 4 publication. He was also the organizer for the printmaking demonstration, project, and exhibition:”BIKE PRINT MKE” at the 2013 Southern Graphics Council International in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Artist’s Statement: 

I try to demonstrate the non-discriminatory nature of light’s visually eradicating characteristics in my drawing and printmaking.  That is why I use charcoal and the intaglio process of mezzotint to mimic its effects by erasing or removing material.  Conversely, within layers of thin oil color, I am able to capitalize on light’s reflecting, revealing and transformative capabilities by painting what might seem to be the mundane or ordinary subject matter.

Regardless of the media, I enjoy the mood and atmosphere created by light’s interaction with space or objects because it paves way for beautiful and insightful metaphor.  Recently I have been working with plastic grocery bags, bicycle components, and sheer curtains.  All, which when illuminated with light, become floating ghostly reminders of life and death, use and waste, or human and machine.  My goal is to further explore these concepts, metaphors, and subject matter within a larger more cohesive body of work.

Official reception for the Manifest Artist Residency: July 12, 2012  6-9p.m.