Past Residents

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Canada

Past Resident
2024: Canada Council for the Arts

Artist

Xiaojing Yan

Xiaojing Yan’s art reflects her cultural journey, culminating in a distinct personal vocabulary. Her unique perspective bridges past and present, exploring themes of identity, nature, and transcendence. Drawing on ancient Chinese traditions, rituals, and materials, Yan uses natural elements to evoke mystical and philosophical reflections on life, death, and humanity’s connection to the natural world. Her work is rich with symbolism that remains as relevant today as it was historically, engaging with issues such as environmental sustainability.

Xiaojing Yan has exhibited work at Suzhou Museum, China; Royal Ontario Museum, Canada; and Sharjah Art Museum, United Arab Emirates, among others.

I'm fascinated by how technological advancements give humans the illusion of power over nature. I explore this through collaborations between human and natural elements, designing controlled environments that give way to organic processes. For my lingzhi sculptures, I put woodchips and lingzhi spore mixtures into molds, controlling humidity, temperature, and light. Once the mycelium binds the woodchips, I remove the mold and place the mixture in a greenhouse to grow. This process creates transformative sculptures, covered in delicate brown spores. My female bust series extends this concept, highlighting the lingzhi mushroom's properties and its role in environmental sustainability and contemporary art.
Xiaojing Yan, Lingzhi Girl #10, 2017, lingzhi mushroom, mycelium and woodchips, 18 × 16 × 18 in. (45.72 × 40.64 × 45.72 cm)
Spirit Cloud is a hanging work made of over 33,000 freshwater pearls suspended by clear filaments, forming a three-dimensional pointillist painting. Inspired by Chinese garden stones and auspicious clouds, the curvilinear form symbolizes the fusion of water, air, sky, and earth. In Chinese mythology, gods and immortals ride on clouds, which also serve as signs of weather changes. The pearls mimic the structure of a cloud, creating the illusion of a solid form and capturing a moment of its shifting nature, evoking continuous energy and movement. This work also highlights the impact of environmental change on natural elements.
Xiaojing Yan, Spirit Cloud, 2017, Medium: fresh water pearls, filament and aluminum, 118 × 128 × 528 in. (299.72 × 325.12 × 1341.12 cm)
I'm fascinated by how technological advancements give humans the illusion of power over nature. My lingzhi sculptures explore collaborations between human and natural elements, starting with woodchips and lingzhi spore mixtures in a mold. Controlled humidity, temperature, and light allow the mycelium to grow and bind the woodchips, which are then placed in a greenhouse to develop into transformative sculptures covered in delicate brown spores. This hybrid science/art experiment highlights the properties of the lingzhi mushroom, such as adaptation and self-healing, while addressing themes of environmental sustainability. My work evokes traditional Chinese medicine, mythology, and religion.
Xiaojing Yan, Far from where you divined, 2017, mycelium, cultivated lingzhi mushrooms, wood chips and wood, dimensions variable
Inspired by volcanic eruptions and cosmic explosions, I suspend thousands of lava stone beads on golden thread to capture the universe's beauty and power. These natural phenomena symbolize creation and destruction, with lava beads representing past eruptions and explosions, and golden thread embodying the energy that holds everything together. My installation evokes the mystery and wonder of the cosmos, illustrating how volcanic activity and astronomical events create new possibilities. It reminds viewers of the interconnectedness of all things, highlighting how our actions ripple through the world, shaping our environment and future.
Xiaojing Yan, Nebula, 2019, lava stone beads and golden thread, 236 × 157 × 157 in. (599.44 × 398.78 × 398.78 cm)
In this project, I use tens of thousands of artificial flower stamens to create a satellite image of a storm, representing the effects of climate change. The stamen, a flower's male reproductive part, is essential for plant growth, and here, artificial stamens symbolize human intervention in nature. This artwork highlights how climate change impacts pollinators and plant populations, similar to the butterfly effect. The storm cloud imagery and an olfactory component, emitting the scent of rain, remind viewers of climate change's power and potential consequences, blending synthetic materials with natural elements to reflect humanity's attempts to control and preserve nature.
Xiaojing Yan, Stamen, 2023, wax and cotton thread, 108 × 144 in. (274.32 × 365.76 cm)

Residents from Canada

Antonietta Grassi

Canada
Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
Studio #208

Stanley Wany

Ase (pronounced “ah-sheh”; also spelled ashe) Yoruba words often have multiple meanings: Ase is generally defined as “the power to make things happen” and also refers to the spiritual life force that flows through things, much like the Chinese concept of chi. Deepening the exploration of my relationship with my ancestors, Ase, a drawing that measures almost two meters high by three meters long. For this piece, charcoal, a medium with archaic roots, is used to evoke powerful waves crowned by troubled sky. Towards the bottom of the drawings, the waves melt into abstraction, dripping onto the white surface of the paper. The title Ase, referring to Yoruba culture, embodies my ongoing relationship with my ancestors, those who perished in the sea as well as those with whom known ties have been cut by the transatlantic slavetrade. When creating this work, I also reflected on what it meant to be Black in the Americas and how my identity had been defined by the dominant society. I turned to the writings of Stuart Hall, Franz Fanon as well as of Edouard Glissant, whose concept of “creolisation” serves as a focal point in my practice going forward.
Canada
Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
Studio #222

Kara Springer

A hanging wall work consisting of deep purple prints of high resolutions scans of clay hanging over a poplar wood rod mounted on the wall.
Canada, Barbados
Canada Council for the Arts
Studio #305
Belgium, United States

Past Resident
2024: Artis

Artist

Shir Handelsman

Shir Handelsman explores into the interruptions, emotional discord, and idiosyncrasies of human relationships through his multifaceted art practice, which includes video and film, sculpture, drawing, music, and sound. By situating everyday scenarios within artificial environments, he creates a surreal parallel existence where autobiography, historical myths, and psychedelic fantasies converge. His works possess a performative quality, characterized by complex choreographies and musical compositions. By exploring the interplay between sound installations, large-scale video projections, and kinetic sculptures, Handelsman’s art often embraces a grand, operatic scale.

Shir Handelsman has exhibited work at Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel; Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, South Korea; and Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Denmark, among others.

A short video work, which presents an opera singer, standing on a lifted platform and singing a Martyr's wish for redemption.
Shir Handelsman, Recitative, 2019, video, 5 min
MX lost his ability to visually imagine. An annual blood test marks the beginning of a psychedelic journey, in which he experiences a cognitive reversal: from a state of complete inability to imagine, to a wild and uninhibited hyper-imagination.
Shir Handelsman, NO MORE CANDY FOR YOU, 2022, video, 13 min
An installation consisting of two parallel mechanisms that work simultaneously in a space: A kinetic sculpture which concentrates its efforts on the slow and continuous breaking of a 200kg limestone, and an intimate video diary of an isolated man, who struggles with miraculous, metaphysical and surrealistic invasions of nature into his domestic space. Each of the works presents a lonely mechanism doomed to fail, from which a world of fantasy is born.
Shir Handelsman, Born, Never Asked, 2021, installation, video, limestone, wood, hammers, aluminum and motors, 8:45 min
An installation consisting of two parallel mechanisms that work simultaneously in a space: A kinetic sculpture which concentrates its efforts on the slow and continuous breaking of a 200kg limestone, and an intimate video diary of an isolated man, who struggles with miraculous, metaphysical and surrealistic invasions of nature into his domestic space. Each of the works presents a lonely mechanism doomed to fail, from which a world of fantasy is born.
Shir Handelsman, Born, Never Asked, 2021, limestone, wood, hammers, aluminum and motors, 39 × 47 × 39 in. (99.06 × 119.38 × 99.06 cm)
A two-channel installation, presenting two testimonies of a random encounter between a former couple, the divorced parents of the artist. The former couple, who had been married for twenty years, now meet accidentally at a gas station, after they had not spoken or seen each other for over six years.
Shir Handelsman, Morendo, 2018, two-channel video installation, 6:45 min

Residents from Belgium

Apichaya Wanthiang

28'54'' video installation projected on three layers of netting, coconut and palmyra leafes, headlamps, four paintings
Norway, Thailand, Belgium
OCA - Office for Contemporary Art Norway
Studio #220

Eva L’Hoest

Drawing inspiration from archaeological research and the scholars at UCL - Aegean Interdisciplinary Studies, Eva L'Hoest has employed CGI to craft a mesmerizing visuals projected on a grand scale at Bozar during the performance of four symphonies: Philip Glass, Jean Sibelius, Anders Hillborg, and Stravinsky, interpreted by the Belgian National Orchestra. These images deftly establish parallels between the fervent worship of the Egyptian sun and our insatiable addiction to energy, between the eternal essence of the mythical firebird and the enduring half-life of radioactive waste, and between Sibelius' swan and the regenerative powers of nature.
Belgium
Edward Steichen Award Luxembourg
2023

Felix Kindermann

In staging the choir Ghent Singers as a moving sculpture, Felix Kindermann‘s
Germany, Belgium
Ministry of Culture of the Flemish Community Visual Arts Department, Tony & Sissi Moens
2023
Germany

Past Resident
2024: Telos Foundation, Holtmann Collection

Artist

Charlie Stein

Charlie Stein’s work explores dominant cultural aesthetics and challenges traditional modes of perception in our digitized, visually overstimulated world. Through extensive research, she translates her insights into drawings, installations, sculptures, and paintings that address social structures, digital media, and communication. Her paintings reflect on contemporary aesthetics, creating a visual language that deconstructs and recontextualizes digital imagery. With degrees in fine art, sociology, and literature, Stein studied under Christian Jankowski and Rainer Ganahl. She is currently a visiting professor at HfbK Hamburg.

Charlie Stein has exhibited work at Manifesta 11, Zürich; Songjiang Art Museum, Shanghai; and SİNOPALE 6, Turkey, among others.

Charlie Stein, Recombining Realities, exhibition view, 2024, oil on canvas, dimensions variable
Charlie Stein, Random Entities Paired Up (True Love), 2024, oil on canvas, 235/8 × 283/8 × 1 in. (60 × 72 × 2.5 cm)
Oil painting depicting a latex suit
Charlie Stein, Body With a View, 2024, oil on canvas, 393/8 × 311/2 × 1 in. (100 × 80.01 × 2.49 cm)
Oil painting depicting a latex suit
Charlie Stein, Portrait (Shoulder), 2024, oil on canvas, 987/16 × 551/8 × 1 in. (250.01 × 140 × 2.49 cm)
Still Life with a glossy cat figurine and vampire teeth
Charlie Stein, Still Life, 2024, oil on canvas, 1911/16 × 153/4 in. (50.01 × 40 cm)

Residents from Germany

Bob Kil

United Kingdom, Germany
Senate Department for Culture and Europe, Berlin
Studio #205

Navot Miller

Germany, United States
Artis, Norbert Janssen Stiftung
2024

Anaïs Goupy

Germany
KdFS Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen
Studio #214