Equity in the Arts Fellowship recipients, from Left: Jer’Lisa Devezin, Kevin Owens, and Nitashia Johnson
On June 22, Glasstire announced a new initiative by Dallas’ Talley Dunn Gallery. Last week we learned that the first fellows named to the Talley Dunn Gallery Equity in the Arts Fellowship are Jer’Lisa Devezin, Nitashia Johnson, and Kevin Owens. Each of the three artists will receive a $1000 stipend, plus mentorship and resources such as writing CVs, navigating galleries and collector relationships, studio visits (post-COVID), quarterly check-ins, and featured spots on the gallery’s website, social media and newsletter.
The gallery states:
“Art institutions are complicit in the conscious and unconscious ways artists of color have been denied equal access to resources for success in the arts. These social inequalities can only be remedied with explicit actions to structurally change our unspoken norms. Talley Dunn Gallery acknowledges the social and economic injustices artists of color face and is committed to advancing racial equity through the support of those whose voices are vital in our communities.”
Untiled work by Kevin Owens
Info on the artists, via Talley Dunn Gallery:
“Owens is a Dallas-based painter and arts educator invested in questions of representation and abstraction. In his work, the artist explores how the world is seen through the eyes of others. His practice reflects on the subconsciously destructive effects of instability on society through the use of traditional painting techniques, drawing media, and gestalt principles. He received his BFA in painting and drawing from Stephen F. Austin University. He was a resident artist with La Reunion, TX and City Square, where he worked on community based public art projects as a teaching artist.”
Image via Nitashiajohnson.com
“Johnson is a multimedia artist from Dallas, Texas. Her photographic series The Self Publication endeavors to uplift the Black community in showcasing the beauty of her subjects and their stories. Johnson attended Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, received her BFA from Texas Woman’s University in 2012, and received a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) in Art & Design Education from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2015. She is a first-round Sony Alpha Female Creator-in-Residence and the creator of The Smart Project, a creative after school program for artistic teens.”
Jer’Lisa Devezin sculpture “Kiss my ass.”
“Devezin is an interdisciplinary artist born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Devezin creates mixed media works using ceramics, metal, fibers, and video/performance. Her work addresses stereotypes projected onto Black women, while exploring the intersection of Black womanhood and the effects of social constructs that uphold white ideas of gender and patriarchy. She received her BA from Dillard University in 2011 and earned her MFA from Southern Methodist University in 2019 and resides in Dallas.”
For more on the Talley Dunn Gallery Equity in the Arts Fellowship, please go here.
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Talley Dunn Gallery strongly believes in creating opportunities for racial equity in the Texas arts community. The Talley Dunn Gallery Equity in the Arts Fellowship strives to foster the development of emerging Black and Indigenous artists and other artists of color in North Texas, whose artmaking forms the backbone of our cultural landscape. In line with Talley Dunn Gallery’s ongoing commitment to anti-racism in our community, the gallery pledges to provide the fellowship with $15,000 of funding over the next five years with the hope that it continues indefinitely. This fellowship will be just one component of a larger vision for programming and resources the gallery will invest in supporting Black and Indigenous artists and other artists of color.
