Past Residents
Current Resident: Sep 1, 2024–Feb 28, 2025
The New York Community Trust’s Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund
Studio #217
Artist
Nifemi Ogunro
Balancing utility and style, Brooklyn-based designer Nifemi Ogunro approaches their design process with equal consideration for both the bodies that interact with their objects and the forms of the objects themselves. While wood is the primary medium for their art and furniture-making practice, Ogunro draws inspiration from photography, film, performance, and movement. They describe their creations as functional sculptures.
Nifemi Ogunro has exhibited work at Side Gallery, Barcelona; and the Denver Art Museum, Colorado, among others.
nifemiogunro.com
Nifemi Ogunro, Untitled, 2021, sculpture/furniture, 12 × 491/2 × 9 in. (30.48 × 125.73 × 22.86 cm).
Nifemi Ogunro, Mrs. Sola, 2020, sculpture/furniture, 15 × 15 × 18 in. (38.1 × 38.1 × 45.72 cm).
Nifemi Ogunro, Tob(i), 2020, sculpture/furniture, 15 × 24 × 15 in. (38.1 × 60.96 × 38.1 cm).
Nifemi Ogunro, Reth, 2022, sculpture/furniture, 4 × 8 × 9 in. (10.16 × 20.32 × 22.86 cm).
Nifemi Ogunro, Topé, 2020, sculpture/furniture, 9 × 49 × 13 in. (22.86 × 124.46 × 33.02 cm).
Residents from United States
Past Resident2024: Canada Council for the Arts
Amy Ching-Yan Lam
Amy Ching-Yan Lam is an artist and writer whose work explores personal and communal histories, approaching them through intuition and necessity. Her practice is rooted in absurdity—where humor and sadness meet, or where the line between them blurs, creating a sense of instability. She primarily works in poetry, site-specific projects, and installation. Her publications include Property Journal (forthcoming, 2024), Baby Book (2023), and Looty Goes to Heaven (2022). Born in Hong Kong, Amy now lives in Tkaronto/Toronto.
Amy Ching-Yan Lam has exhibited work at Eastside Projects, United Kingdom; Seoul MediaCity Biennale, South Korea; and Richmond Art Gallery, Canada, among others.
Amy Ching-Yan Lam, Stolen from the British Museum (Rosetta Stone USB Key), 2021, USB key.
Amy Ching-Yan Lam, Needing and Wanting (fountain), collaboration with HaeAhn Woo Kwon, 2023, water pump, sink, cabinet and garbage can.
Amy Ching-Yan Lam, Property Calendar, 2023, newspaper print and acrylic.
Amy Ching-Yan Lam, Property Calendar (install), 2023, 10 calendars.
Amy Ching-Yan Lam, Looty Goes to Heaven, 2022, animation.
Residents from Canada
Past Resident2024: Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin2014: Arts Council of Ireland
Sonia Shiel
Sonia Shiel’s paintings take the shape of terrains, portals, pageants, and props. Her exhibitions have a multi-dimensional quality that transcends their material form, creating dynamic opportunities for performance where the audience often becomes entwined in a shared folie à deux. In these otherworldly realms, humans, animals, plants, gods, and ‘artists’ coexist non-hierarchically with cosmological and enchanted phenomena. Drawing inspiration from art history, theater, mythology, and literary fiction, Shiel delves into our capacity for self-determination, love, autonomy, and courage.
Sonia Shiel has exhibited work at VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art; Kunstverein Aughrim; and Void Art Centre, all in Ireland, among others.
Sonia Shiel, Dirty-Wow-Sun / The bud, 2024, oil on canvas, and wooden lapel frame, 23 × 31 in. (58.42 × 78.74 cm).
Sonia Shiel, Medusa In Pieces / Installation Shot, 2023, oil on canvas, on wood, dimensions variable.
Sonia Shiel, Medusa In Pieces / Act 2 Break Fall, 2023, oil on canvas, on wood, with fabric sleeves on stool in foreground, 350 × 390 in. (889 × 990.6 cm).
Sonia Shiel, Supernatural Bureau / The bones, 2023, oil on canvas, on wood, attached to revolving door structure. With natural granite rock and insence, 203 × 82 in. (515.62 × 208.28 cm).
Sonia Shiel, Pulse Event - an event of the heart, 2023, video documentary and performance, 5:39 min.
