Congratulations to AMT part-time faculty Martin Mazorra and his artistic partner Mike Houston, who have been selected as 2009 United States Artists (USA) fellows. USA is a grant-making, artists-advocacy organization dedicated to supporting America’s finest artists working across diverse disciplines. Launched in 2005 with $22 million in seed funding provided by a coalition of leading foundations—Ford, Rockefeller, Prudential, and Rasmuson—this initial investment enabled the organization to pilot the USA Fellows program, which awards unrestricted $50,000 grants to fifty artists each year.

These images are taken from their exhibition, Jumpstart and Holler, in the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Virginia. The artwork is on view from November 20, 2009 to February 7, 2010. The images are of gigantic two and three-dimensional multi-paneled composite woodcuts that might be something Rembrandt would be interested in, if alive today. Several works produced by the duo are over twenty feet long and eleven feet high and explore various issues that deal with living in modern times. This is a new series of recently created works based on the theme of the beggar in modern society as a contemporary response to the Rembrandt exhibition the adjacent gallery.

This unique offering takes the form of a “tent city” with 18 camping tents spanning the gallery floor, the surface area of each tent hand printed and stitched, creating a homage to the inventiveness of the disposed and a critique of the effects of our present day economy.

Jumpstart and Holler, view of the exhibition

Big Tent, detail