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Announcing the 2025 Joan Mitchell Center Artists-in-Residence
We are pleased to announce the selection of 35 artists to participate in residencies at the Foundation’s Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans this year. The 2025 cohort includes a dynamic group of 21 artists from across the United States participating alongside 14 artists local to New Orleans, and divided into Spring, Summer, and Fall sessions. Established in 2015, the Center’s residency program provides artists with pivotal resources at critical junctures in their careers, including studio space, financial and materials support, and professional development opportunities. This year, to celebrate both the centennial of Mitchell’s birth and the 10th anniversary of the Joan Mitchell Center, the Foundation plans to offer additional public programming at the Center, with further details to be announced.
Residencies at the Joan Mitchell Center support individual artistic growth while also fostering community—in the heart of one of America’s most culturally rich cities—enabling artists to engage deeply with and learn from their peers. Over the years, the Center has welcomed nearly 350 artists, including a significant number of artists from New Orleans.
The 2025 Artists-in-Residence are:
Samira Abbassy, Jersey City, NJ
Anila Quayyum Agha, Indianapolis, IN
Jerri Allyn, Los Angeles, CA
Rina Banerjee, Brooklyn, NY
David Antonio Cruz, New York, NY
Margaret Curtis, Tryon, NC
Christian Việt Đinh, New Orleans, LA
Addoley Dzegede, Pittsburgh, PA
Christopher Givens, New Orleans, LA
Ansley Givhan, New Orleans, LA
Bethany Grabert, New Orleans, LA
Seonna Hong, Los Angeles, CA
Ivelisse Jiménez, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Christopher Robert Jones & Liza Sylvestre, Urbana, IL
J.Renee, Lexington, SC
KING COBRA, Philadelphia, PA
Rodrigo Lara Zendejas, Elmwood Park, IL
Mankh, New Orleans, LA
E Marshall, New Orleans, LA
Gabriel Martinez, Houston, TX
Jarrad Mckay, New Orleans, LA
Michi Meko, Atlanta, GA
Young Min Moon, Amherst, MA
Maya Pen, New Orleans, LA
Utē Petit, New Orleans, LA
Antoine Prince, New Orleans, LA
Jacob Reptile, New Orleans, LA
Chemi Rosado-Seijo, San Juan, PR
Kelsey Scult, New Orleans, LA
Shikeith, Brooklyn, NY
Denice Smith, Slidell, LA
Awilda Sterling, San Juan, PR
Tyrone Stevenson, Slidell, LA
Yuriko Yamaguchi, Vienna, VA
“The 2025 Artists-in-Residence reflect the essence of creativity and innovation to which Joan Mitchell was so passionately committed,” said Christa Blatchford, Executive Director of the Joan Mitchell Foundation. “Their varied artistic practices and viewpoints extend the Foundation’s commitment to nurturing visual artists during their creative journey, and we are pleased to be able to provide them the opportunity and resources to concentrate on art-making—in particular, as we celebrate Joan Mitchell’s centennial.”
Residencies at the Joan Mitchell Center are open to two distinct groups of visual artists. Artists who have previously received a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant—but have not participated in the residency previously—are invited to apply. New Orleans-based artists can apply through a free open-call application, regardless of any prior affiliation with the Foundation. Both groups’ applications are reviewed by an independent jury of national and New Orleans-based artists and arts professionals selected by Center staff. This panel selects the group of artists who have shown that the residency program would provide a pivotal moment in their career, based in part on an assessment of their overall body of work, as well as their dedication to maintaining a studio practice.
This year’s participating artists were chosen by five jurors: carole frances lung, Executive Director of Antenna in New Orleans, and an organizer, artist, and soft-power activist; MaPò Kinnord, a ceramicist and a professor of art and department chair at Xavier University in New Orleans; María Elena Ortiz, curator at the Modern in Fort Worth, Texas, and previously a curator at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), where she spearheaded the Caribbean Cultural Institute (CCI); Pat Phillips, a painter and Joan Mitchell Foundation alumnus (Painters & Sculptors Grant, 2017; JMC AIR, 2023) who lives and works in Philadelphia; and Kristina Kay Robinson, a poet, writer, and visual artist born and raised in New Orleans.
Previous residents frequently mention their time at the Center as a significant milestone in their artistic careers, inspired in part by the distinctive blend of artists present—each with their own variety of interests, formal techniques, and media use. This diversity is evident once more in the upcoming participants, including:
Anila Quayyum Agha: born in Lahore, Pakistan, and based in Indiana, Agha’s intricate, large-scale sculptural works explore themes of cultural multiplicity, gender roles, and societal values through contemporary and Islamic motifs.
David Antonio Cruz: focusing on intersecting themes of queerness and race through painting, sculpture, and performance, and inspired by artists like John Singer Sargent and Alice Neel, Cruz’s works aim to amplify marginalized voices, capturing the essence of queer communities through intimate and celebratory depictions.
Margaret Curtis: a feminist artist, Curtis is known for her narrative paintings that delve into power dynamics on both personal and societal levels, using everyday tools like cheese graters and cake-decorating instruments to create vibrant, compressed spaces that bring a fictional realm to life. Her work challenges cultural narratives by exposing the contradictions and shifts within iconic imagery, aiming to reveal a more honest and direct perspective.
Christian Việt Đinh: a Vietnamese-American artist, Đinh makes ceramics and sculptural works that explore the nuances of Vietnamese culture in the United States post-Vietnam War, crafting pieces that serve as a cultural archive and put a spotlight on a community whose stories often remain untold.
Christopher Robert Jones and Liza Sylvestre: working together, Jones and Sylvestre’s work spans drawing, sculpture, video, and performance, with the goal of challenging conventional understandings of disability and what this means for both making and engaging with art.
Big Queen Denice Smith: Smith’s intricate beadwork and vibrant fabric designs tell powerful cultural stories, and serve as vivid narratives of the history, struggles, and triumphs of her community, the Monogram Hunters Black Masking Indian tribe.
The Center’s annual residencies range in length from six to fourteen weeks. Artists participating in residencies are provided with private studio space on the Center’s campus, support from onsite studio assistants, a $150 weekly stipend, and prepared meals. Residents are also offered networking and professional development opportunities throughout their residencies, including studio visits, workshops, individual consultations, and informal gatherings. Campus lodging and financial support to transport materials and artworks are also provided to those artists traveling from other parts of the country.
While the Joan Mitchell Center is generally closed to the public so that the artists can focus on their work, community members are invited to visit during events. These include Community Coffee and Evening Open Studios, hosted monthly while the residency is in session. For this double anniversary year, as the Foundation celebrates both the 10th anniversary of the Center and the centenary of Joan Mitchell’s birth, the Center will host additional opportunities for public engagement, including an exhibition of works by past residency participants in August 2025. Additional details and the public schedule will be announced later this year.
“The 2025 residency program at the Joan Mitchell Center exemplifies our ongoing dedication to fostering artistic growth and building meaningful connections among artists, from around the country and across New Orleans,” said Veronique LeMelle, Interim Executive Director of the Joan Mitchell Center. “This year, as we celebrate the Center’s 10th anniversary, we are excited to enhance our programming with public engagement opportunities that honor the incredible creativity of our past and present residents.”
