Grants for Artists in Tennessee

Derek Fordjour was born in Memphis, Tennessee to parents of Ghanaian heritage. His work has been exhibited in numerous venues including Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Nasher Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of Contemporary Art. He has received commissions for public projects including a permanent installation for the Metropolitan Transit Authority of New York City at 145th Street Subway Station and The Whitney Museum Billboard Project. He was awarded 2016 Sugarhill Museum Artist-in-Residence, the 2017 Sharpe Walentas Studio Program in New York City, and named the 2018 Deutsche Bank NYFA Fellowship Award. He is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta Georgia, earned a Master’s Degree in Art Education from Harvard University, and an MFA in painting at Hunter College. His work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, and Hyperallergic. He has also been featured in several publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, and Forbes Magazine. He was recently appointed The Alex Katz Chair at Cooper Union and serves as a Core Critic at Yale University School of Art. His work also appears in several collections including The Studio Museum of Harlem, Brooklyn Museum, Perez Museum, Dallas Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum, and LACMA.

Alexis Johnson, Partner, joined Paula Cooper Gallery in early 2021, after working at Paula Cooper from 2010 through 2016. She works closely with the gallery’s expanding roster of artists and estates, in collaboration with Paula and fellow partners Steve Henry, Anthony Allen and Lucas Cooper. From 2016 to 2020, she was a Director and Artist Liaison at Lévy Gorvy, New York. She was previously a director at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. in New York and 1301PE Los Angeles and managed the studio of artist Rirkrit Tiravanija.

Marin R. Sullivan (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is a Chicago-based art historian, curator, and consultant. She is the Director of the Harry Bertoia Catalogue Raisonné, and co-curator of Harry Bertoia: Sculpting Mid-Century Modern Life, organized by the Nasher Sculpture Center. She also is Curator-at-Large at Cheekwood Estate & Gardens in Nashville. Sullivan specializes in the histories of modern and contemporary sculpture, especially its interdisciplinary, intermedial dialogues with photography, design, and the built environment. She is the author of Sculptural Materiality in the Age of Conceptualism (2017) and Alloys: American Sculpture and Architecture at Midcentury (Forthcoming, Princeton University Press) as well as numerous essays and articles in publications including American Art, Art History, History of Photography, the Journal of Curatorial Studies, and Sculpture Journal.

Tri-Star Arts serves Tennessee by spotlighting and growing the contemporary visual art scenes in each region and fostering a unified statewide art scene. Our programs promote art dialogue between the different cities in the state, and between the state and the nation. The Current Art Fund amplifies this mission.

If individuals and businesses would like to support the Current Art Fund to extend its impact, tax-deductible donations may be made online or by mail to Tri-Star Arts Memo: Current Art Fund, 4450 Candora Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37920. 

CONTACT: info@tristararts.org

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