EDUCATION
2019
MFA, Indiana University
2005
BA, Oberlin College
SOLO & DUO EXHIBITIONS
2025
Symphōnia, Washington Pavilion Museum, Sioux Falls SD
2023
Woman Life Freedom (with poupeh missaghi), Davis Gallery, Denver University, Denver CO
2022
Morning Hours, A Gallery/Allen + Alan Fine Art, Salt Lake City UT
2020
Light and Heat, Yeiser Gallery, Paducah KY
2020
Nature of the Abstract, Surel’s Place, Boise ID
2019
Emergence, Grunwald Gallery, Bloomington IN
2015
Painting Poems, Ridgewood Public Library, Queens NY
2013
I Wake to Sleep (and Take My Waking Slow), Colo Colo Gallery, New Bedford MA
2012
I Never Saw a Moor, Red Horse Gallery, Brooklyn NY
2011
Do I Contradict Myself? Bank RI Gallery, Providence RI
2011
Winter Garden, Orr Street Studios, Columbia MO
2011
Crawling Out the Window, AS220 Project Space, Providence RI
2010
Water and Sky, Kemijärvi Residency Center Gallery, Kemijärvi Finland
2009
Crackling Sky, Alice Gryphius Galerie, Berlin Germany
2009
North, Solnik Fine Arts, Berlin Germany
2008
Fragment, ACUD Galerie, Berlin Germany
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
Freedom, Harvard Art Museum Art Lab, Cambridge MA
2023
FUTURE, Groveland Gallery, Minneapolis MN
2022
Free Iran: Ashes Literary and Arts Collective, Sunview Luncheonette, Brooklyn NY
2022
Woman, Life, Freedom: Ashes Literary and Arts Collective, Counterpath, Denver CO
2022
35th Annual Robert N. & Peggy Sears Invitational, Sears Art Museum, St. George UT
2022
The Art of the Landscape, A Gallery/Allen+Alan Fine Art, Salt Lake City UT
2021
The Blocks: Exhibitions on Main, Salt Lake City UT
2021
Phase Change, Vital Spaces, Santa Fe NM
2021
Works on Paper, The In Art Gallery, juried by Laura F. Gibellini
2020
Transformation Shift II: Abstraction, Brown County Art Gallery, Nashville IN
2019
Creative Climate Awards, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, New York NY
2019
Transformation Shift: Abstraction, Brown County Art Gallery, Nashville IN
2017
(re) Access, Fuller Gallery, Indiana University, Bloomington IN
2017
Through the Trees, Sager Braudis Gallery, Columbia MO
2015
Merit Scholarship Show, Phyllis Harriman Gallery, New York NY
2015
Red Dot Show, Phyllis Harriman Gallery, New York NY
2015
World Was in the Face of the Beloved, Brooklyn Folk Festival, Brooklyn NY
2014
48 Hours Neukölln, Galerie Hope and Glory, Berlin Germany
2013
Legacies in Paint: The Mentor Project, Newport Art Museum, Newport RI
2013
Annual Juried Exhibition, Newport Art Museum, Newport RI
2012
Go: Brooklyn Museum’s Open Studios, Brooklyn NY
2011
The Great Kreuzberg Pavillon Show, Kreuzberg Pavillon, Berlin Germany
2009
Neuköllner Hängung, Coaching Culture Gallery, Berlin Germany
2008
Querschnitt 21, Bethanien Galerie, Berlin Germany
2008
Anonyme Zeichner, Blütenweiss: Meinblau Galerie, Berlin Germany
2007
Phantasiewelt, Malerei und Graphik Galerie, Berlin Germany
2007
International Coloring Kollektiv, Schererstr 8 Galerie, Berlin Germany
2007
30 x 30 Malerei, Malerei und Graphik Galerie, Berlin Germany
2007
BBK Offnen Atelier, Atelier Erkelenzdamm, Berlin Germany
FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS, & COMMISSIONS
2026
Brooklyn Arts Council: “Teaching Our Way Up”
2026
New York State Council on the Arts - Multi-Vocal Public Artwork Imagining Community Alternatives to Incarceration, Long Island NY
2025
CHARM Mural Program (an initiative of Governor Hochul and the New York State Council on the Arts) - Spirit of Huntington Art Center, Long Island NY
2025
Brooklyn Arts Council: “Multi-Vocal Public Artwork with Incarcerated Youth,” Brooklyn NY
2025
Salt Lake City Arts Council and the Boys & Girls Club of Sugarhouse: public art piece commission, Salt Lake City UT
2024
Harvard Defenders: Harvard University’s Jack T. Litman Symposium in Cambridge MA. Multi-vocal painting commission: led students at Utah State Correctional Facility in designing and painting the first tiles of a multi-vocal artwork finished by Symposium attendees.
2024
Coalition for Juvenile Justice & the National Youth Justice Network Grant. Mural commission: facilitated a collaborative mural designed and painted by 14 youth incarcerated at Nassau County Juvenile Detention Center in Westbury NY.
2024
NYC Department of Transportation: public asphalt mural on Staten Island NY with On Your Mark. Facilitated a collaboration between people with disabilities and people who are temporarily non-disabled for a public asphalt mural.
2024
Salt Lake City Arts Council and the Boys & Girls Club of Sugarhouse. Public artwork grant: facilitated a public art piece collaboration between students at Utah State Correctional Facility and youth advocates at the Boys & Girls Club in Salt Lake City UT.
2024
Adams County Cultural Arts, multi-vocal painting commission, Adams County CO. Public artwork grant: facilitated a public artwork for the Adams County Government Center, collaborating with 200 students throughout Adams County.
2023
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, {Re}HAPPENING, Asheville NC
2023
Bard Prison Initiative Summer Residency, Bard College, Annandale-On-Hudson NY
2022
Career Empowerment Grant, Salt Lake City Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts
2022
Artist Career Advancement Award, Utah Division of Arts & Museums
2021
Commissioned artwork: four paintings commissioned by Indiana University Hospitals
2021
Brimstone Printmaking, Artist Residency, Logan UT
2020
(postponed due to Covid-19) Metropolitan Fukujyuso, Kyoto Japan
2020
(postponed due to Covid-19) Brush Creek Arts Residency, Saratoga WY
2020
(postponed due to Covid-19) Villa Barr Artist Residency, Michigan Legacy Art Park, Novi MI
2020
Surel’s Place Artist Residency and Grant, Boise ID
2019
T.C. Steele State Historic Site, Artist Residency, Nashville IN
2019
Oberlin College Alumni Fellowship
2018
Indiana University Travel Award
2017
Dorland Mountain Arts Residency, Temecula CA
2017
True/False Film Festival, artist installation and grant, Columbia MO
2016
Queens Council on the Arts: Su-Casa Residency, Queens NY
2016
Alderworks Alaska Artists and Writers Residency, Dyea AK
2015
Basil H. Alkazzi Award for Excellence: Semi-finalist, New York NY
2015
Queens Council on the Arts: Individual Artist Grant Recipient, Queens NY
2014
Merit Scholarship – Art Students League of New York, New York NY
2010
Kemijärvi Artists Residency, Kemijärvi Finland
2009
Vermont Studio Center Residency and Artist Grant, Johnson VT
2009
Teacher/Artist in Residency, Berlin Office of Cultural Affairs, Berlin Germany
2001–05
John F. Oberlin Scholarship, Oberlin OH
2001–05
Oberlin College Grant, Oberlin OH
ARTIST TALKS & WORKSHOPS
2024
Beyond Bars: Art from Inside, panelist, Harvard University, Cambridge MA
2023
Multi-Vocal Paintings, visiting artist’s workshop, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn NY
2023
Collaborative Artwork, visiting artist’s workshop, Barnardsville Community Center, Asheville NC
2023
Street Lab, visiting artist’s workshop, Brooklyn NY
2023
FATE (Foundations in Art: Theory in Education) Reality Bites: Revisioning the Foundations Classroom Away from Perceptual Realism, paper presentation, Denver CO
2023
Pacific Northwest College of Art Low-Residency MFA program, Multi-Vocal Paintings, Visiting Artist’s Workshop, Portland OR
2022
Free Iran: Ashes Literary and Arts Collective, Sunview Luncheonette, Brooklyn NY
2022
Abstraction through Process, visiting artist’s talk and panel discussion, University of Colorado, Denver CO
2022
SECAC (Southeastern College Art Conference) paper presentation, How Teaching Art in Prisons Can Change the Way We View the Traditional Studio Art Classroom, Baltimore MD
2022
SECAC, co-chair for Anti-Racism and Historiography: Classroom Approaches, Baltimore MD
2021
Colorado College, visiting artist’s talk: Experimental Printmaking in Painting, Colorado Springs CO
2021
Utah Valley University, artist’s talk: Painting as Inheritance, Orem UT
2021
Florida Atlantic University, artist’s talk: Iterations, Boca Raton FL
2020
Paducah School of Art and Design, artist’s talk: Painting from Process, Paducah KY
2020
Surel’s Place, artist’s talk and workshops: The Nature of the Abstract, Boise ID
2019
Brown County Art Gallery, gallery talk, Nashville IN
2017
Lee Elementary School and Hawthorne Elementary, workshop with 120 second-graders, Columbia MO and Mexico MO (as part of the True/False Film Festival)
2016
Skagway Senior Center, artist’s talk and workshop: Size and Space in Alaska, Skagway AK
2015
Ridgewood Public Library, artist’s talk and workshop series: Painting Poems, Queens NY
2010
Kemijärvi Art Center, workshop: WWII and Finland’s Landscape, Kemijärvi Finland
2007
Malerei und Graphik Galerie, Crackling Sky, gallery talk, Berlin Germany
PRESS & PUBLICATIONS
2025
Re-Entry Guide, editor, University of Utah’s Prison Education Project (forthcoming)
2024
IncARTerated, Harvard Independent
2024
Harvard Defender’s Litman Symposium, Harvard Law School: Beyond the Bars
2023
University of Utah STEM Community Alliance Program Arts & Justice Lab, Salt Lake City Weekly
2023
EJP 2023-2024 Handbook, editor, Education Justice Project, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
2022
KSL News story on the Dissolving Contradictions exhibition (with work by incarcerated youth)
2022
Utah Public Radio on Dissolving Contradictions exhibition
2022
Utah Public Radio on Higher Education for Incarcerated Youth program
2022
KSL article about Dissolving Contradictions
2022
Cover image for Lesser Birds of Paradise by Cindy King, Louisiana Literature Press
2021
Featured artist, Route 7 Review
2021
Paintings and illustrations for Yanara Friedland’s Uncountry, Mattes & Seitz Berlin
2015
Artwork featured in the Denver Quarterly (University of Denver Literary Magazine)
2014
Featured artist, Tupelo Quarterly
2012
Catalogue: 12th Scenography Colloquium, Dortmund Germany, artwork featured in “INTERMEDIATE SPACES – Change and Transition” by Maria Reinecke
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
I am an artist and arts educator working with at-risk youth, incarcerated youth, and incarcerated adults. I make use of the flexibility of the arts to reduce barriers for students to access the exhilaration of critical thinking, to reimagine the world around them, and to share their valuable perspectives on how society might be transformed.
2025 – current
Arts educator working with incarcerated youth and adults, as well as at-risk youth.
I currently teach at Taconic Correctional Facility through Marymount Manhattan College, the Nassau County Juvenile Detention Center through the East Meadow School District, at Horizon Juvenile Detention Center through Dr. Calvin Smiley's restorative justice program Till Everything Better, at Crossroad Juvenile Detention Center through the Department of Education, and at Gloria's House Family Transitional Residence through the Center for Community Alternatives.
2023 – 2025
Art Manager, STEM Community Alliance Program (providing classes for incarcerated youth), University of Utah
Founder and Lead Artist, Arts + Justice Lab, University of Utah, Salt Lake City UT
Teaching art classes for incarcerated youth and adults:
Founder and Lead Artist, Arts + Justice Lab, University of Utah, Salt Lake City UT
Teaching art classes for incarcerated youth and adults:
- Introduction to Painting
- Introduction to Drawing
- Reinventing Portraits: Painting and Drawing
- Individual and Society: Issues in Contemporary Art
- Public Art
2020 – 2022
Visiting Professor of Art - Utah Tech University, St George UT
- 2D Design
- Introduction to Art
- Integrated Arts
- Art Seminar - Higher Education for Incarcerated Youth
2016 – 2019
Associate Instructor – Indiana University, Bloomington IN
- Drawing Fundamentals
- Painting 1
- Introduction to Art and Design
- Drawing and Painting in Florence: Summer 2018, Florence Italy
2015 – 2016
Teaching artist - Su-Casa Community Arts Engagement Program, Queens NY
2009 – 2010
Teaching artist, Berlin Office of Cultural Affairs, Berlin Germany