Arts Commission Announces 2018 Fellowship Recipients

ACROSS OREGON - From The Oregon Arts Commission: Jess Perlitz, a Portland-based artist working in sculpture, performance and drawing, is the 2018 recipient of the Oregon Arts Commission's honorary Joan Shipley Award.

Perlitz leads a group of 19 Oregon artists selected from a pool of more than 120 applicants from 23 Oregon cities for the Arts Commission's Individual Artist Fellowships.

The 2018 fellowships, awarded to artists from Portland, Beaverton, Eugene and Glide, support artists working in visual arts and design and include small financial stipends.

The Joan Shipley Award is named for Oregon arts leader Joan Shipley. Shipley was a collector, philanthropist and supporter of arts and humanities organizations. Many in the arts community counted her as a mentor and friend. In 2005, she and her husband John received an Oregon Governor's Arts Award.

The Arts Commission's Fellowship program is available to more than 20,000 artists who call Oregon home.

Fellows are recommended by a review panel of arts professionals from Oregon and beyond who consider artists of outstanding talent, demonstrated ability and commitment to the creation of new work(s). This year visual and design arts were reviewed.

The 2018 review panel included former Shipley Fellow Mike Bray of Eugene; artist and advocate Agnes Field of Astoria; Io Palmer, artist and associate professor at Washington State University, Pullman; and curator Ashley Stull Meyers of Portland, with Portland-based Arts Commissioner Avantika Bawa (also a former Shipley Fellow) serving as a non-voting chair.

The panel's recommendations were approved by the full Arts Commission. Six of the Artist Fellowships are generously supported by The Oregon Community Foundation.

2018 Individual Artist Fellowships were awarded to:

• Mona Lisa Ali Alzghoul, Beaverton
• Pat Boas, Portland
• Ben Buswell, Portland
• Penelope Caldwell, Portland
• Srijon Chowdhury, Portland
• Renee Couture, Glide
• Jeremy Okai Davis, Portland
• Jack Featherly, Portland
• Damien Gilley, Portland
• Stephen Hayes, Portland
• Cynthia Lahti, Portland
• maximiliano, Portland
• Akihiko Miyoshi, Portland
• Jess Perlitz, Portland (Joan Shipley Fellow)
• Ethan Rose, Portland
• Heidi Schwegler, Portland
• Naomi Shigeta, Portland
• Lou Watson, Portland
• Amanda Wojick, Eugene

NOTE: Artists bios, quotes and work samples are posted here: http://bit.ly/2EeJRDG

Image via Renee Fernandez/Patch