NXTHVN ANNOUNCES COHORT 05 STUDIO AND CURATORIAL FELLOWS

Please join us in welcoming our Cohort 05 Studio and Curatorial Fellows: Adrian Armstrong, Alexandria Couch, Marquita Flowers, Eric Hart Jr., Fidelis Joseph, Eugene Macki, Clare Patrick, Jamaal Peterman, and Alex Puz.

Founded by Titus Kaphar and Jason Price, NXTHVN offers one of the only Fellowships that unites curators and artists, furnishing them with fundamentals to thrive in their practice. During the course of the program, Curatorial Fellows receive a $45,000 stipend and Studio Fellows receive a $35,000 stipend for the Fellowship year, 24-hour access to dedicated work and/or studio space and subsidized on-site housing. The program culminates in a group exhibition at a prominent gallery, situating Fellows squarely in the art world.

In line with NXTHVN’s vision of providing intergenerational mentorship, each fellow is paired with a New Haven public high school student to guide them in their artistic and/or curatorial ambitions.

Since 2019, NXTHVN’s Fellowship program has served as a springboard for artist careers. Notable individuals who have completed the NXTHVN Fellowship include Felipe Baeza, Layo Bright, Kenturah Davis, Alexandria Smith, Vaugh Spann and Patrick Quarm, and many more.

“Each year, we are thrilled to welcome artists and curators from across the globe to utilize NXTHVN’s expansive resources and participate in the dynamic programming our Fellowship has to offer,” says Kaphar, founder and president. “We are committed to providing incoming artists with the tools and mentorship they need to accelerate their careers.”

For Cohort 05, NXTHVN welcomes Fellows from across the globe, with origins in Cape Town, South Africa; Nigeria; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Austin, Texas; New York City and more. The Fellows’ practices comprise a range of disciplines including sculpture, painting, installation, photography and performance.

“At NXTHVN, we’re excited to provide Fellows with the opportunity to connect with such a diverse group of artists and curators, leaders, educators and community members. Through education, access and programming, we position our Fellowship as a launching pad for advancing artist careers,” says Kalia Brooks PhD, director of programs and exhibitions at NXTHVN.

ABOUT THE FELLOWS

ADRIAN ARMSTRONG
Adrian Armstrong’s (b.1990 Omaha, Nebraska) multidisciplinary practice, which encompasses drawing, painting, installation and sound, documents the contemporary Black experiences in the United States. He is deeply interested in questions of how Black experiences intersect with the history of photography, portraiture and collage.

ALEXANDRIA COUCH
Alexandria Couch is a visual artist documenting figures in states of flux. Her work utilizes both traditional and found materials to facilitate states of dissonance between figures and their surroundings, provoking the apprehension of personal wayfinding. Flat and agitated areas of paint are used to disrupt the space or provide areas of brief respite. Body parts are created, cut down and reassembled to generate shapeshifters that can oscillate between worlds. Couch is from Akron, Ohio where she received her BFAs in Printmaking and Painting at the University of Akron (2020). She received a Printmaking and Painting MFA at Yale University (2023). During recent years, Alexandria has shown in multiple exhibitions in CT, NY, and CA.

MARQUITA FLOWERS
Marquita Flowers is a curator, arts educator, and creative consultant. Born in the Bronx during the 90’s, Marquita learned from many Black artists who imparted the gift of collective thinking, action, and art making. Building within supportive Black ecosystems was the most crucial component to their work and is the guiding value system Marquita aims to uphold within her curatorial practice. Marquita is currently working to develop a framework for radical creative equity, which is an antidotal offering to the often individualized, capitalist, and patriarchal culture that permeates our collective capacities. Marquita has several accolades from academic institutions but nothing has contributed to her growth more than becoming a mother. Being in community, on the dance floor, and in ephemeral spaces of Black imagination, is where she thrives.

ERIC HART JR.
Georgia native and NYU graduate, Eric Hart Jr. (b.1999) is an artist based in Brooklyn, NY. As a photographer, Hart’s stylized portraiture is an exploration of Blackness and queerness. His visual language is heavily influenced by the notion of rejecting control. Through themes of power, freedom and historical representation, Hart strives to foster consciousness for audiences as he displays people like himself in all of their power and beauty. Hart’s photo work has been in publications such as i-D Magazine, The NY Times, The Washington Post and Rolling Stone magazine, as well as praised by artists such as Beyoncé and Spike Lee. Hart is a two-time Gordon Parks scholar, 2022 Forbes 30 under 30 Art & Style select, 2022 Doritos SOLID BLACK Changemaker and a Google Image Equity Fellow. In 2023 Hart released his first monograph titled When I Think About Power.

FIDELIS JOSEPH
Fidelis Joseph is a visual artist from Adamawa state in the northeastern part of Nigeria. He began his formal education in Art in 2009, at the Federal College of Education, Yola. He started his artistic career in Lagos after graduating with a B.A in Fine Arts from the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Kaduna state, Nigeria. At the end of his undergraduate studies in 2017, Fidelis became the most influential artist and won the Artist of the Year Award in the department of Fine Arts ABU, Zaria. His most recent award is the Cranbrook Art Museum Purchase Prize Award, at the completion of his MFA in the painting department Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan in 2023.

EUGENE MACKI
Eugene Macki is a London-based artist with a combined practice, which includes sculpture, installation, drawing, and performance. He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine and received his Master of Fine Arts from Chelsea College of Arts in the United Kingdom.

CLARE PATRICK
Clare Patrick is a curator, researcher, and lecturer, from Cape Town, South Africa. Her curatorial practice is grounded in encouraging international collaboration and connections, while her research focuses on post-colonial strategies of display and representation within arts institutions. As a writer, her work has been published in various publications, while she collaborates with No! Wahala Magazine, which highlights contemporary African photography, as their art director. She currently works between Cape Town, France and the UK and has curated exhibitions, presented at conferences and conducted workshops in various locations throughout South Africa, the United Kingdom, France, Ireland and Morocco.

JAMAAL PETERMAN
Jamaal Peterman (b. 1990, Fort Lauderdale, FL) lives and works in New York. He received his MFA at Pratt Institute (2019) and BFA from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (2014). He has been included in exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (MoCADA), Columbus Museum of Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, Public ArtFund, New York; the University of Chicago; Kavi Gupta, Chicago; James Fuentes, New York and Vigo Gallery, London. Peterman has been awarded the Peter S. Reed Foundation grant, commissioned by MoMA PS1 and has undertaken residencies at Pioneer Works, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, MASS MoCA, Wassaic Project Residency and Fountainhead Residency. White Roads on Black Soil follows Peterman’s first exhibition at the gallery, Grunch In Bed, and his online exhibition, Tales from the Hood, were both held in 2020.

ALEX PUZ
Alex Puz (b. 1989 Long Beach, CA) is a painter who lives and works in New Haven, Connecticut. His painting practice investigates how perception is influenced by both emotion and cognition. He focuses on color study, optics, and linear abstraction in order to explore how visual experience affects mental health and transforms bodily processes. Puz’ process oriented painting practice systematizes color and line resulting in dense, luminous, and ornate chromatic fields. He holds a BFA in Studio Art from CUNY Hunter College (2014) and an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale School of Art (2022). Alex Puz is a 2017 Rema Hot Mann Foundation Nominee and the 2022 recipient of the YPEI Teaching Fellowship. He has exhibited locally and internationally.

ABOUT NXTHVN

NXTHVN is a groundbreaking institution that combines the best of arts and entrepreneurship. Through access, education, programming and impact investing, NXTHVN launches the careers of artists and curators and strengthens the livelihood of its local community. Located in the historically Black Dixwell neighborhood of New Haven, CT, the expansive adapted-reuse campus houses gallery, studio, library, office and coworking, performance and living spaces in addition to a forthcoming storefront cafe. Cornerstone programs include a renowned fellowship to educate and accelerate emerging and underrepresented artists and curators, paid arts apprenticeships for local high school students and business incubation to nurture cultural and capital value in the neighborhood. Co-founded in 2018 by acclaimed visual artist Titus Kaphar and private equity investor Jason Price—both longtime residents of New Haven—NXTHVN represents a new national arts model for developing an equitable society.

SUPPORT

NXTHVN is a 501C3 non-profit organization. We rely on donations, small and large, all of which are fully tax-deductible.

NXTHVN is supported by significant funding from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, the RISC Foundation, Inc., and the State of Connecticut.

Support for NXTHVN’s Curatorial Fellowships is provided in part by a grant from The Mellon Foundation.

NXTHVN’s programs are made possible by generous support from the City of New Haven, The Sherman Fairchild Foundation, Ford Foundation, Gagosian, the Ruth Foundation for the Arts, the Rauschenberg Foundation, the J.P. Fletcher Foundation, and Stonesthrow Fund.

The Apprenticeship Program is made possible by support from The Charles W. and Elizabeth D. Goodyear Foundation.

We also want to acknowledge the necessary support of individual donors who make our work possible; and the ongoing support of our Board of Directors: Pamela Franks, Bennet Grutman, Alexandra Shor, and Ellen Susman

For additional information on NXTHVN, please visit nxthvn.com

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