The Ford Family Foundation names three Oregon visual artists as Hallie Ford Fellows in the Visual Arts for 2023
Roseburg, Ore. — The Ford Family Foundation named its 2023 Hallie Ford Fellows in the Visual Arts, recognizing three Oregon visual artists for demonstrated excellence.
A jury of five arts professionals from within and outside of Oregon selected Lisa Jarrett and sidony o’neal of Portland and Rick Silva of Eugene, from a competitive pool of 181 applicants. They will receive a $35,000 unrestricted award and will join 49 of their peers selected over the last 13 years as Hallie Ford Fellows.
“It has been a privilege to be introduced to these three artists. They are truly lifting up their creative communities through talent, service and collaboration. As they exhibit nationally, attention turns to all visual artists in Oregon,” said Anne Kubisch, president and CEO of the Foundation.
The jurists individually reviewed and then collectively discussed the applicants. They determined that each awardee demonstrates a mastery of artistic practice that prepares them to step into rigorous and meaningful opportunities in the global contemporary art world. Serving on the panel were: Amanda Donnan, Chief Curator, Frye Art Museum (Seattle); Theo Downes- Le Guin, Art Consultant (Portland); Tannaz Farsi, Artist, Professor of Art, University of Oregon (Eugene); Taylor Jasper, Assistant Curator of Visual Art, Walker Art Center (Minneapolis); and Ashley James, Associate Curator, Contemporary Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York).
The 2023 recipients were selected based on the following criteria:
- Quality of work: Artists demonstrate artistic excellence, exemplary talent, and depth of sophisticated exploration.
- Evolution of work: Artists stand at a pivotal point in their practice and would benefit from a Fellowship at this point in their careers.
- Impact of work: Artists’ goals are consistent with Fellowship goals, and they show potential for future accomplishment and capacity to contribute significantly to Oregon’s visual arts ecology.
Beyond the fellowship award, Fellows are supported by the Foundation as long as they remain living in Oregon through grants to venues throughout the country that organize exhibitions of their work, professional development and consulting opportunities, and print and video documentation of their practice. “The importance of these other aspects of the Fellowship,” says 2023 Fellow sidony o’neal, “to shift not only an artist’s material conditions, but also to invite meaningful long-term relationships and professional resources among artists and practitioners, cannot be understated.”
About the 2023 Hallie Ford Fellows
LISA JARRETT
(b. 1977. Lives and works in Portland, Oregon)
Lisa Jarrett. Photo: Sam Gehrke
In 2014, she co-founded Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School Museum of Contemporary Art (KSMoCA). The program connects public school students with internationally renowned contemporary artists through collaborative workshops, exhibitions, lectures and artwork commissions. Students learn through experience about careers in the arts by participating in a myriad of professional roles from curator to preparator, artist, gallerist, writer and more.
Says Jarrett: “Over the past 10 years my practice has evolved to include new materials/approaches to representation. It has also grown to include community-based artworks that reflect the same focus as my studio practice by connecting BIPOC youth to contemporary art. The interdependent nature of these distinct methods of making is perhaps the most exciting intersection of my work today.”
Jarrett holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Montana, School of Art, Missoula, MT, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Rochester, NY. Recent exhibitions include Russo Lee Gallery, Portland, OR; Wa Na Wari, Seattle, WA; Oregon Contemporary, Portland, OR, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA. She was a 2022 Joan Mitchell Center Artist in Residence, New Orleans, LA, and currently serves as Associate Professor of Community and Context Arts at Portland State University’s School of Art and Design.
sidony o’neal
(Lives and works in Portland, Oregon)
sidony o’neal. Photo: Sam Gehrke
o’neal’s work has been presented with Veronica Project Space, Seattle, WA; SculptureCenter, New York, and Fourteen30 Contemporary, Portland, OR, among other venues. Performances as a part of non-band DT have been presented with Kunstverein Düsseldorf, Volksbühne Berlin, and Performance Space New York. o’neal is a co-founder of INFANT design company. ENCHIRIDION: aisle, spline, resort, o’neal’s first major solo exhibition in North America, was presented at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art in 2022. The following year, exhibitions at NADA New York, and at Dracula’s Revenge, New York, were reviewed by the New York Times. o’neal is a 2022-2023 Hodder Fellow at the Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University.
RICK SILVA
(b. 1977. Lives and works in Eugene, Oregon)
Rick Silva. Photo: Sam Gehrke
Notes Nóra Ó Murchú, Artistic Director of transmediale Festival, Berlin “As a former student of experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage, Silva carries on a tradition of creative misuse of technology, and of merging media through a contemporary art lens.”
His work has been exhibited at institutions including The Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AK; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY. He has been featured in Artforum, Wired, and Rhizome’s Net Art Anthology. Silva is an Associate Professor of Art at The University of Oregon. Silva holds a Master of Fine Arts from The University of Colorado.
About The Ford Family Foundation Visual Arts Program
The Visual Arts Program honors the late Hallie Ford, co-founder of The Ford Family Foundation, who left a legacy based on an interest in and a lifelong support of the visual arts. The Hallie Ford Fellowships are the flagship element of the Visual Arts Program. In addition, the program offers grants to visual artists for unanticipated career opportunities; supports artists-in-residence programs in Oregon and out of state; brings curators and critics from outside the region to Oregon for studio visits and community dialogue; supports exhibitions, catalogues and other forms of documentation; and awards grants for small capital projects.
About The Ford Family Foundation
The Ford Family Foundation believes in the power of rural communities. It is a private, nonprofit foundation proudly headquartered in Roseburg, Oregon, serving rural Oregon and Siskiyou County, California. Its investments through grants, scholarships and community building create the conditions so that children have the family, educational and community supports they need to succeed in life. www.tfff.org
General media inquiries
Sarah Pytalski, Learning Officer – Policy and Communications
(541) 492-2396, spytalski@tfff.org
Download photos
Lisa Jarrett JPG
sidony o’neal JPG
Rick Silva JPG
Photo Credits: Sam Gehrke
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