Tacit Knowledge: Paper as Practice in the Dieu Donné West Bay View Foundation Fellowship Program
Tacit Knowledge: Paper as Practice in the Dieu Donné West Bay View Foundation Fellowship Program
Anna Hendrick Karpatkin Benjamin, Katharine L. DeLamater, Candy Alexandra González, Jaz Graf, Lauren Krukowski, SR Lejeune, and Anela Ming-Yue Oh
Curated by Eliana Blechman
@ The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts
323 W 39th St, New York, NY 10018
January 23 - March 7, 2025
Opening reception: Thursday, January 23, 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Contemporary papermaking draws on generations of knowledge about fibers, waters, and motions of the body. There is ritual in the processes of preparing pulp, pulling sheets, and pressing and drying paper between or upon boards. The practice of papermaking is learned as much through an inherent, tacit understanding within the body as it is through overt instruction. Working with pulp is a tactile exercise – one through which artists imbue meaning and history into their materials and art.
Tacit Knowledge celebrates seven years of Dieu Donné’s West Bay View Foundation Fellowship, an immersive studio mentorship for emerging papermakers to expand and enrich their artistic practices at Dieu Donné’s papermaking studios in Brooklyn, NY. Artists and papermakers Anna Hendrick Karpatkin Benjamin, Katharine L. DeLamater, Candy Alexandra González, Jaz Graf, Lauren Krukowski, SR Lejeune, and Anela Ming-Yue Oh each spent three to six months in the Dieu Donné papermaking studios, fully immersing themselves in the art of papermaking, supporting artists and projects coming through the studio, and learning to hone their techniques and develop their own practices. Their fellowships culminated in dedicated professional studio days for each artist to each create new bodies of artwork in handmade paper. Their resulting artworks pull from personal, social, and historical experience, and explore ritual, identity, heritage, and environment, mining both inherited and privatized forms of knowledge.
About the West Bay View Fellowship
Established in 2018, the West Bay View Foundation Fellowship offers an immersive studio mentorship for a visual artist. Each fellow studies with Dieu Donné master papermakers, gaining practical experience working in a professional papermaking studio.
ABOUT THE ELIZABETH FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS
The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts is a 501(c)(3) public charity, dedicated to providing artists across all disciplines with space, tools and a cooperative forum for the development of individual practice. We are a catalyst for cultural growth, stimulating new interactions between artists, creative communities, and the public. EFA's major programs are the EFA Studio Program and EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop.
EFA Studio Program, founded in 1998, is an open-submission, juried membership program that provides affordable private studio space, facilitates career development, and promotes public and critical exposure for its artists. EFA encourages open exchange among artists, curators, critics and the public in order to advance the invaluable contribution of art and artists in the New York City community.
EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Program, launched in 2005, is a fully equipped, professional, cooperative print workspace. Inspired by Robert Blackburn's vision of a culturally diverse artistic community, EFA RBPMW provides affordable workshop access, unique learning opportunities, and publishes the work of underrepresented and established artists to expand the creation, understanding and collection of fine art prints.