Fellows Friday News: Jennifer Higdon, Alex Da Corte, Geoff Sobelle's The Object Lesson, New Music Albums, and More

AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES

Jennifer Higdon (1999) recently received a Pennsylvania Governor's Award for Distinguished Arts. Read more >

Raphael Xavier (2013) has been nominated for a 2014 Alvin Ailey Award from the Black Theater Alliance, for a Chicago performance of his Center-funded performance The Unofficial Guide to Audience Watching Performance. Read more >

CAConrad (Pew Fellow, 2011), Major Jackson (1995), and Afaa Michael Weaver (1998) have poems in the Best American Poetry 2014 anthology, to be released September 9. Read more >

Charles Burns (1994) will be a guest at the 20th Anniversary Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland, September 13–14. Read more >

EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES

Alex Da Corte (2012) and collaborator Jayson Musson are currently at work on a major commission for ICA Philadelphia, opening in September. Easternsports is a "four-channel, multilingual soap opera" shown in-the-round. Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, September 19 through December 28.
Read more at the ICA website >
Read more at The University of the Arts website >

Virgil Marti (1995) has a solo show, Forest Park, at Locks Gallery in September. Forest Park explores Marti's "investigation of the sublime and romanticism throughout history." Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, September 5 through October 18. Read more >

Nathalie Anderson (1993) will read at DePauw University in September, as a guest of the James and Marilou Kelly Writers Series. Richard E. Peeler Art Center, DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana, September 10, 7:30 p.m. Read more >

CAConrad (2011) celebrates his new book, ECODEVIANCE (Wave Books), at L'Etage, hosted by Frank Sherlock (2013). L'Etage, Philadelphia, September 7, 8 p.m. Read more >

J.C. Todd (2014) is part of a site-specific performance in this year's Fringe Festival, joining a group of Philadelphia-area poets. "Graveyard Voices," St. Peter's Churchyard, Philadelphia, September 6, 6–7 p.m. Read more >

KW Berlin presents Ryan Trecartin's (2009) first institutional solo exhibition in Germany, this September. The exhibit combines film and sculptural environment, "positioning the viewer in a structure that oscillates between multiple perceptual realities." KW Berlin, Germany, on view September 14, 2014 through November 1, 2015. Read more >

Vera Nakonechny (2008) has a small display at the Vineland Public Library in August, a prelude to a larger show at the Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center in October. Vineland Public Library, Vineland, NJ, August; Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center, Millville, NJ, October 3 through November 16. Read more >

The Baltimore Symphony will premiere blue cathedral, a composition by Jennifer Higdon (1999), in their September concert series. Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Baltimore, September 26, 8 p.m. and September 28, 3 p.m.; The Music Center at Strathmore, Bethesda, Maryland, September 27, 8 p.m. Read more >

Teresa Jaynes (1999) will have a multimedia installation at the Library Company in September, using audio and text to "challenge participants' ideas about visual culture, in ways that elicit curiosity, humor, and empathy." The Library Company, Philadelphia, September 4 through October 10. Opening reception: September 23, 5:30–7:30 p.m. Read more >

Jackie Tileston (2002) has a solo show, Field Guide to Elsewhere, new paintings and works on paper, at Zg Gallery in Chicago. Zg Gallery, Chicago, September 5 through November 1. Opening reception: September 5, 5:30–7:30 p.m. Read more >

Judith Schaechter (1992) has a solo show at Claire Oliver Gallery, Dark Matter, including sculpture and lightboxes. Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, September 4 through October 25. Opening reception: September 4, 6–8 p.m. Read more >

PUBLICATIONS AND RECORDINGS

Smoke Sessions Records has just released Liberation Blues, a new live album from Orrin Evans (2010) and his quintet. Read more >
Listen to a WBGO interview with Evans about Liberation Blues >
Read more at The Key >

Mary Lattimore (2014) and Jeff Zeigler will put out Slant of Light with Thrill Jockey this September.
Read more from Philebrity >
Read more from WXPN's The Key >
Read more from The Quietus >
Read more from Ballroom Marfa >
Read more from Immediacy Zine >

Chris Forsyth (2011) and The Solar Motel Band are releasing their first studio LP in October, Intensity Ghost, from No Quarter.
Read more at Tiny Mix Tapes >
Listen to a song from the album on NPR >
Read a review of the song at Ad Hoc >

Oxford University Press USA has just published Landscape of the Now: A Topography of Movement Improvisation, by Kent De Spain (1992). The book "takes readers on a deep journey into the underlying processes and structure of postmodern movement improvisation." Read more >

Thomas Devaney (2014) and photographer Will Brown have published a collaborative book, The Picture That Remains, with the Print Center. The book presents side-by-side vignettes of 1970s Queen Village rendered in poetry and photography. Read more >

Lori Waselchuk (2012) has an article at Next City about Them That Do, her ongoing series of short films about Philadelphia block captains. Read more >

Pantheon, an imprint of Random House, will release Charles Burns' (1994) trilogy-ending graphic novel Sugar Skull, following X'ed Out and The Hive, on September 16. Read more >

Boing Boing features Burns in connection with Sugar Skull. Read more >

PRESS

Geoff Sobelle's (2006) Center-funded theater piece The Object Lesson traveled to Scotland for Edinburgh Fringe, and came home with a Fringe First Award and the 2014 Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award. The Object Lesson has received praise from ArtsBeat, The Guardian, The Times of London, Playbill, and many other outlets. Read more >

The Philadelphia Inquirer features Vera Nakonechny (2010) in connection with her NEA National Heritage Fellowship: "Yards of yarn, goose feathers by the fistful, even a few cowrie shells—with these and more, Vera Nakonechny painstakingly re-creates a past that is quickly slipping away." Read more >

Rennie Harris' (1996) Puremovement performed at Lincoln Center Out of Doors in July. The New York Times raves about the dancers' "constant elasticity" while the Star Ledger praises their "closely knitted gestures and frisky hieroglyphics."
Read more at the New York Times >
Read more at the Star Ledger >

In honor of Batman's 75th anniversary, NPR interviews Glen Weldon (1994). Click to listen >

The Chestnut Hill Local reviews Venissa Santí's (2008) July 16 performance at Pastorius Park, calling it a "performance of consummate artistry." Read more >

Bruce Graham's (1993) play, North of the Boulevard, was recently performed at the Contemporary American Theater Festival. The Frederick News-Post praises its "raw introspection." Read more >

ArtReview features Ryan Trecartin (2009) in their Summer 2014 issue, calling his work "so fast and smartphone-slick, cyborgian and apocalyptic, hypersexualised and exhibitionistic, greedy and broken, that afterwards you feel compelled to move to the countryside." Read more >

The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poets posts about alumnus Travis Macdonald's (2014) Pew Fellowship. Read more >

The Washington Post publishes an in-depth feature on the late Essex Hemphill (1993), following a tribute event in Washington, DC the previous week. Read more >

Uri Caine (2003) and Dave Douglas discuss their new album, Present Joys, with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air. Click to listen >
Read more about Present Joys at Chicago Reader's Bleader blog >

WXPN's The Key recaps King Britt's (2007) Back2Basics reunion event at Hard Rock Philadelphia. At the end of the show, Britt played a song that served as a "thank you to all of those who love music and who supported the eclecticism of the Philadelphia scene for the past 25 years." Read more >

Britt's latest Fhloston Paradigm album, The Phoenix, is reviewed in the July/August issue of Positive Feedback: a sound "so fresh and mysterious it challenges [our] ability to classify it." Read more >

Trapeta B. Mayson (2002) was named the Executive Director of Historic Germantown. Read more >

Orrin Evans' (2010) Captain Black Big Band's recently-released Mother's Touch album gets a glowing review at Pop Matters: "compulsively cool and driving: smart, complex, hip, in the pocket, fully alive with modern energy." Read more >

A recent performance by Evans gets high praise from a Washington Post reviewer. Read more >

The New York Public Library announces a birthday celebration for Sonia Sanchez (1993) in September. Read more >

Keystone Edge features Andrew Simonet (2006) in connection with his recently-published book, Making Your Life As an Artist, and his work with Artists U. Read more >

We recently learned of the passing of John Blake, Jr., a 2010 Pew Fellow and jazz violinist. Read our full newsroom piece >