The Queens Museum is thrilled to announce the artists selected for the 2018-2019 QM-Jerome Foundation Fellowship, Alexandria Smith and American Artist!

The Queens Museum-Jerome Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists was established to help emerging visual artists in New York City. Two artists are selected to receive stipends of 20,000 USD each; the opportunity to develop and exhibit a project at Queens Museum; and professional development support from Queens Museum curators and other programming staff members.

Two artists were selected for the 2018-2019 season by a five-person selection panel consisting of Lumi Tan, Curator at The Kitchen, New York; Anthony Elms, Daniel and Brett Sundheim Chief Curator at The Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Queens Museum’s Director of Exhibitions, Hitomi Iwasaki; QM Assistant Curator, Sophia Marisa Lucas; and QM Assistant Curator for Public Programs, Lindsey Berfond.

 Alexandria Smith (b. 1981, Bronx, NY) earned her BFA in Illustration from Syracuse University, MA in Art Education from New York University, and MFA in Painting and Drawing from Parsons The New School for Design. Smith is the recipient of numerous awards and residencies including: MacDowell, Bemis and Yaddo; LMCC Process Space Residency, a Pollock-Krasner Grant, the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Fellowship, the Virginia A. Myers Fellowship at the University of Iowa and the Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship. Her recent exhibitions include: an upcoming solo exhibition at Boston University (Fall 2018), the first annual Wanda D. Ewing Commission and solo exhibit at The Union for Contemporary Art in Omaha, NE, a traveling group exhibition called Black Pulp at Yale University, International Print Center NY (IPCNY), USF and Wesleyan University and a commission for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Her work is currently included in The Lure of the Dark: Contemporary Painters Conjure the Night at Mass MoCA.

American Artist (b. 1989, Altadena, CA) earned their BFA in Graphic Design from California Polytechnic University Pomona, MFA from The New School, and attended the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. They are currently in residence at Pioneer Works and Abrons Art Center, and were a recent resident at Eyebeam. They have exhibited at the Studio Museum of Harlem; Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago; Koenig & Clinton, New York; 47 Canal, New York; HOUSING, New York; and have participated in group shows internationally. They have published writing in The New Inquiry, New Criticals, and Printed Web and have had work featured in Mousse, ARTnews, AQNB, and Huffington Post. American has presented at The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and The Vera List Center for Arts and Politics. They are a co-founder of the arts and politics publication unbag.

The Queens Museum/Jerome Foundation Fellowship Program for Emerging Artists in New York City is generously supported by the Jerome Foundation.