New works completed during the three-month residency by Holly Bass, Hui-Ying Tsai, and Michael Polakowski. Open November 22 – January 19, Thursday – Sunday from 11am-4pm.

Opening Reception:

Friday, November 22nd – 6-9pm

Artist-led Tour:

Sunday, November 24th – 2-4pm

About the artists:

HOLLY BASS is a multidisciplinary performance and visual artist, writer and director. Her work has been presented at spaces such as the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Museums, the Seattle Art Museum, Art Basel Miami Beach (Project Miami Fair) and the South African State Theatre. Her visual art work spans photography, installation, video and performance and can be found in the collections of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the DC Art Bank, as well as private collections.

A Cave Canem fellow, she has published poems in numerous journals and anthologies. She studied modern dance (under Viola Farber) and creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College before earning her Master’s from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. As an arts journalist early in her career, she was the first to put the term “hip hop theater” into print in American Theatre magazine.

She has received numerous grants from the DC Arts Commission and is a 2019 Red Bull Detroit artist-in-residence and a 2019 Dance/USA Artist Fellow. A gifted and dedicated teaching artist, for four years she directed a year-round creative writing and performance program for adjudicated youth in DC’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services as well as facilitating workshops nationally and internationally. She is currently the national director for Turnaround Arts at the Kennedy Center, a program which uses the arts strategically to transform schools facing severe inequities.

HUI-YING TSAI is an interdisciplinary artist based in New York and Taipei. She received her BFA from National Kaohsiung Normal University and the MFA in New Genres from San Francisco Art Institute.

She works internationally as a creative professional. Her recent projects are large scale sculptures, and installations involve collaboration across disciplines and non-profit organizations primarily focus on sustainable living and human relation with nature.

She is the fellow of Joan Mitchell Foundation, MacDowell Colony, MASS MoCA Studio, I-Park Foundation, The Millay Colony, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, The Vermont Studio Center, Cheng Long Wetlands International Art Project, the Antenna: Spillways Residency. Most recently, she was the Excellent Award winner of the 2018 Austronesian International Arts Award.

Her public collections include the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, and Taitung Art Museum. Hui-Ying was featured in the books of An Illustrated History of Taiwan Art, and History of Fine Art in Postwar Taiwan authored by Professor Qiong-Rui Xiao in 2013 and 2016 respectively.

MICHAEL POLAKOWSKI’S practice rests on the intersection between gallery painting and large-scale murals. He draws heavily on his upbringing in the Midwest in order to create work that reflects the social climate of his home. To date, his body of work juxtaposes the real and unreal to tell stories that are as absurd as they are familiar. Often, his work draws upon his sketchbook practice – diligently observing and documenting his environment with surreal juxtapositions which insinuate that “not everything is quite right here.” His work consists of graphic shapes, textures, bold color, and symbolic iconography. The results are vibrant paintings and murals that are equal parts narrative, decorative and conceptual.