Artpace San Antonio, a nonprofit residency program, has announced Melissa Joseph, Patrick Quarm, and José Villalobos as its Spring 2024 International Artists-in-Residence.
This season’s artists were selected by Larry Ossei-Mensah, a Ghanaian-American independent curator, writer, and cultural producer. Mr. Ossei-Mensah’s writing has been published in Uptown and Whitewall Magazine, and has focused on artists such as Derrick Adams, Mickalene Thomas, Kehinde Wiley, Lorna Simpson, and the street artist JR. He has organized exhibitions at commercial and nonprofit galleries in New York City, featuring artists like Firelei Baez, ruby amanze, Hugo McCloud, Brendan Fernandes, and Derek Fordjour. Additionally, Mr. Ossei-Mensah is the co-founder of ARTNOIR, a female-majority and Black- and brown-owned, New York-based global collective and nonprofit organization that celebrates and highlights creatives of color.
The artists will begin their residency on February 5, and Artpace will host a Welcome Dinner on Thursday, February 8, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The main course will be provided by the event’s sponsor, Liberty Bar, and guests are invited to bring their favorite dish, side, or dessert to share. Following dinner, the artists will share about their practices and plans for the residency. Artist presentations will begin at 6:30 p.m.
As part of their three-month residency, each artist will be provided with a studio/exhibition space, a furnished apartment, access to a van, a $6,000 stipend, and a production budget up to $10,000. At the culmination of the residency period, each artist will present an exhibition, which will be on view from March 28 through May 19. Learn more about each of the artists below, via biographies provided by Artpace.
Melissa Joseph – National Artist
Melissa Joseph is a New York based artist and independent curator. Her work examines themes of memory, family history, and the politics of how we occupy spaces. Ms. Joseph acutely surveys the labors of women, as well as her own experiences as a second generation American, and the unique juxtapositions of diasporic life. Ms. Joseph’s work has been shown at the Delaware Contemporary, Woodmere Art Museum, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, Jeffrey Deitch Projects, MOCA Arlington and List Gallery at Swarthmore College. She has been featured in BOMB Magazine, Hyperallergic, Artnet, New American Paintings, Le Monde, CNN, and Architectural Digest. Ms. Joseph has participated in residencies, including Dieu Donné, Fountainhead, the Archie Bray Foundation for Ceramic Arts, the Museum of Arts and Design and at Greenwich House Pottery in 2023.
Patrick Quarm – International Artist
Patrick Quarm graduated from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana with a BFA in Painting, and an MFA from Texas Tech University. Currently living and working in Takoradi, Ghana, Mr. Quarm’s practice explores identity, focusing on the notion of cultural hybridity and social evolution. His paintings interlace cultural signifiers from different eras and communities into multi-layered works. Mr. Quarm’s paintings have been featured in Artnet, Forbes, ARTFORUM, and Hyperallergic. His work has been exhibited internationally at institutions, including the Gagosian, Moody Center for the Arts, the Trout Museum of Art, Rice University, Library Street Collective, K.N.U.S.T Museum, and the Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts. Mr. Quarm’s work is in several public and private collections which include the Syracuse University Museum and Kalamazoo Institute of Art collection. He has participated as an artist-in-residence at the Red Bull Artist Residency in Detroit 2019 and the NXTHVN Fellowship 2020-2021.
José Villalobos – Texas Artist
José Villalobos was born in 1988 and grew up on the United States and Mexico border in El Paso, Texas. He received a BFA from the University of Texas at San Antonio and was awarded the Artist Lab Fellowship Grant for his work De La Misma Piel at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. Mr. Villalobos is a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Painters & Sculptors Grant Award and Residency and the Tanne Foundation Award. His work has been exhibited at the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio Museum of Art, NARS Foundation, the Mexic-Arte Museum, the El Paso Museum of Art, El Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez in Mexico, and most recently at the Phoenix Art Museum in the exhibition Desert Rider. Mr. Villalobos’ work is included in the collection of the Dallas Museum of Art, the Mexic-Arte Museum, the City of San Antonio Public Collection, Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania, and Soho House International in Austin.