Priscilla Aleman graduated from The Cooper Union with her B.F.A. in Sculpture. Upon graduating, she continued her art practice in Miami working with archaeologists, while establishing a historic preservation committee in Miami-Dade County. Aleman’s work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Margulies Collection, The Deering Estate, National YoungArts Foundation, among other venues. She has participated as Artist-in-Residence at Mildred’s Lane, Wheaton Arts, VCU Summer Studio Program, and has received numerous grants including Columbia University Dean Travel Grant, The Benjamin Menschel Fellowship, the U.S. Presidential Scholar Program and is a Columbia University M.F.A. alumna. In Aleman’s art practice, she researches the correlation between the natural environment and the formation of communities. Training as an archaeological technician influences her methodology for creating sculpture installations, enabling her to conduct an intimate investigation of history, nature and culture, and its relationship to a region. She is interested in how our understanding of sacred, moves from its original position as a site, into place with symbolic meaning by investigating devotional artifacts, rituals, and agriculture. In her art practice, she constructs sculptural effigies. Aleman replicates and invents artifacts for these effigies by collecting from her environment, while also utilizing archaeology and horticulture archives and research facilities. By having an understanding of the landscape’s past traditions and its environmental layout, Aleman begins to design her own landscapes. The sculptures allow her to investigate significant figures and symbols, their transformations, and how these transformations shape our understanding, meaning, and function of an environment.

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Adam Amram (b. 1994 Haifa, Israel) earned a B.F.A. in Painting and Printmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2016. He has shown most recently with Mother Gallery (Beacon, New York), Harpy (Rutherford, New Jersey and Brooklyn, New York), Melanie Flood Projects, Adams and Ollman Gallery (Portland, Oregon) and Resort (Baltimore). Amram attended the Yale Norfolk School of Art Summer Fellowship in 2015, and was an Artist-in-Residence at the Vermont Studio Center, in Johnson Vermont, in 2018. Amram currently lives and works in the California Bay Area, and was recently named the 2020 YoungArts Daniel Arsham Fellow. His work has recently been published in Art Maze Magazine. He is currently exhibiting a painting at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, as part of The de Young Open, a juried exhibition celebrating the Museum's 125th anniversary, and commemorating local Bay Area artists. Rendered with vivid color and graphic symmetry, Amram’s paintings, drawings, and sculptures are best characterized by fantastical narratives which both contemplate the challenges of life and relish in the remarkability of existence.

 

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Hanna Andrews is a writer from Southern California. Her work has been recognized by the Cúirt International Festival of Literature, U.S. Department of Education, University of Pennsylvania, and more. Her work has been published in Rookie, Vagabond City, The Penn Review, Columbia Journal, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, among others. She is a graduate of the Creative Writing Conservatory at the Orange County School of the Arts, and is currently a third year at Columbia University, where she is an editor for The Columbia Review, the oldest college literary magazine in the nation, and a writer for Ratrock magazine, Columbia’s undergraduate arts publication. She is also the Advocacy Initiatives Liaison on the FLI (First-Generation, Low Income) Executive Board, and is the host of the WBAR radio show DJ Doomsday. She is studying Creative Writing with a special concentration in Education Studies.

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Tiarra Bell is an emerging furniture designer who holds a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts from Rhode Island School of Design. Past exhibitions include, Wanted Design 2020, Milan Design Week 2019, International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) 2019, RISD Department of Furniture Design Triennial 2019

Providence Fine Furnishings Show 2019 and National YoungArts Foundation - Design Arts Finalist 2016

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Amanda Blanca is a Cuban American multi-media artist and designer based in Miami. Her work addresses improvements to the quality of life for people with disabilities through product development. Although many products serve a fundamental purpose, Blanca recognizes the impact of a product that is rendered useless in the hands of someone with a disability from first-hand experience. She saw many design flaws, having experienced her grandfathers’ battle with dementia — how quickly he lost autonomy when it came down to eating, bathing and using the restroom. To create her designs, she draws inspiration from the physiological and life processes in humans, such as movement, excretion, growth and repair. She engages with artisanal materials in her designs through weaving, papermaking, naturally dyeing fabrics and woodworking and explores the relationship between the domestic space and natural processes. Interested in design as a form of activism for disability rights, Amanda’s recent works deal with awareness towards Alzheimer-friendly design that supports individuals living with dementia and stimulates independent functioning.

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Demetri Burke is a young artist currently attending Georgia State University in Atlanta. He was born in the Atlanta and grew up 45 minutes outside of it. Burke has been drawing all his life and uses mixed media, including charcoal, acrylic paint and found images, to express narratives of identity and race on canvas. Abstraction, montage and realistic rendering are key parts of his creative process. His art reflects his upbringing and his current experiences. His constant examination is visible in his findings: black like the skin, still like the clouds, hopeful like his mother’s smile.

 

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Victoria Escobar is a Baltimore-based interdisciplinary artist. She is currently a student at the Maryland Institute College of Art, majoring in graphic design, with interests in printmaking, photography and user experience. Her work deals with combining analog and digital practices to create innovative design solutions. Along with exploring materiality in her work, she enjoys creating identity-based work focusing on culture and language as a subject matter.

 

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Glenn Espinosa is a cross-disciplinary artist working with drawing, photography and film. Born and raised in Mozambique, he uses his art to explore traditions, myths, spirituality and beliefs grounded in the human experience and fundamentally portraying life through a different lens. In 2016, he was chosen as a YoungArts Winner in Visual Arts and has since shown his art in group exhibitions, such as Can we be as brave? and, most recently, Primetime: A Virtual Photography Exhibition. Espinosa majored in film and graduated from ArtCenter College of Design in 2020.

 

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Dara Girel-Mats is a surreal illustrator who works in graphite and gouache. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she now lives in Miami and is a senior attending Design and Architecture Senior High. Girel-Mats expresses her curiosity for the natural world through her illustration of great outlandish creatures. She uses photomontages to construct sublime scenes that provide a look into the lives of unusual birds, fish, frogs and more. Currently, she is working on publishing her first book filled with the details of her curious creatures.

 

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Kierra Gray is a contemporary singer-songwriter. In 2018, she was named a YoungArts Winner in  Voice in the Singer-Songwriter category. Gray has also had the opportunity to provide two original songs for the 2020 Korean documentary, currently in post-production, Permission to Exist. Her debut single entitled "Kitty Kat," a female-empowerment song about friendship and sisterhood, was released on International Women's Day, March 8, 2020. She wrote her most recent single, "Slow Down," after witnessing the COVID-19 pandemic cause a global standstill. Gray's music can be found on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and anywhere music is streamed or sold.

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Aaron Greenberg is from Queens, NY, and has been acting since he forgot to do last night's reading in history class. He's a graduate of LaGuardia High School and a 2017 Presidential Scholar in the Arts. His hobbies include Minecraft and eating ramen.

 

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Lori Hepner is a Pittsburgh-based artist working primarily in performative light painting, fine art photography and community centered public art projects. She has spent considerable time over the last five years the Arctic through artist residencies in Finland, Iceland, Canada and Norway. Her work has been featured in Time, Wired and The Next Level Magazine, and has been exhibited at the Houston Center for Photography, Carnegie Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and in photo festivals in the Netherlands, China and Spain. Her work will be sent to live on the moon in the mini museum of the Moon Ark in 2021.

 

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Molly Horan graduated from the New School with her M.F.A. in Writing for Children and Young Adults in 2012. After graduating, she worked as a web writer and editor focusing on entertainment writing at Buzzfeed, Mashable, KnowYourMeme and Refinery29. She currently works as an adjunct English professor teaching writing for young adults, writing for the web, and composition at New York University, School of Visual Arts, and Fordham University. She is a member of the advanced BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop as a lyricist. Her first novel, Epically Earnest, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2022.

 

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Since her stage debut at age 4, pianist Hsing-ay Hsu (“Sing-I Shoo”) has been performing at such venues as Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and in Europe and Asia. Her thoughtful interpretations and “explosions of energy” (The New York Times) have won her the Juilliard William Petschek Debut Award, William Kapell International Competition, Ima Hogg National First-Prize, Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship, Gilmore Young Artist Award and the U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts award from President Clinton. Until recently, she was Artistic Director for Pendulum New Music at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Hsu has been visiting piano faculty at numerous universities, and lectures for various organizations, including a recent MTNA national convention. With a studio of prize-winning students, she also gives masterclasses, adjudicates and presents her original Conscious ListeningTM webinars/seminars to reach new audiences and to connect mind, body and heart through music. She also studies dance and theater improv to incorporate into her teaching of the physicality and emotions of piano playing. Born in Beijing, Hsu trained at The Juilliard School, Yale University, Aspen University, Ravinia's Steans Music Institute, Aldeburgh and the Tanglewood Music Center. A Steinway Artist, she is married to composer Daniel Kellogg who is the new president of Young Concert Artists in New York City and they have one daughter. View her blogs, newsletters and videos at hsingayhsu.com.

 

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Rodney E Jones II is a Queer Black photographer and visual artist from Baltimore. He received his B.F.A in Photography from Pratt Institute in 2013. He has worked with fashion photographers Robert Clyde Grima, Matt Salacuse and Sterling Batson, and artist Hank Willis Thomas. His work explores representation, sexuality, race and gender.

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Aaron Klein is currently a Junior BFA Acting major at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor Class of 2022. Aaron has been part of productions such as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Prodigal Son, Constellations, The ShadowBox, Peter and the Starcatcher, and 1984.

 

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Lauren Lam is currently a junior at Cornell University where she is majoring in Architecture and minoring in Real Estate. In her free time, Lauren enjoys photography, painting, reading comics and listening to Lorde. 

 

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Adam Larson (b. 1990) is an American saxophonist, composer, educator and author currently residing in the Kansas City-area. Larson teaches music business, jazz pedagogy and applied jazz saxophone lessons at UMKC Conservatory, where he has been on faculty since 2019. Larson holds B.M. and M.M. degrees in jazz performance from The Manhattan School of Music and was a part of the vibrant New York jazz scene for 11 years before relocating in 2019. Larson continues to perform in New York with some of the greatest musicians in the genre. As a guest artist, Larson has been invited to present masterclasses on music business, improvisation and composition at more than fifty universities across the globe. Larson has recorded five albums and maintains an active touring schedule year-round playing his original music. 

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Sasha Lazarus, from Delray Beach, Florida, began her dance training, at the age of five, at Boca Ballet Theatre, under the guidance of Jane Tyree and Dan Guin. There she performed leading roles in ballets including Sleeping Beauty, Coppélia, The Nutcracker, Enchanted Garden and La Bayadère. In 2017, Lazarus graduated from the prestigious Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach, Florida, after training under the guidance of Jan Hanniford. There she was chosen to be featured in numerous works, created by world renowned choreographers, including Margo Sappington, Christopher Huggins, Jennifer Archibald, Troy Powell, Salim Gauwloos, Levi Marsman, Kenneth Easter, Laurie Jones, Meredith Dincolo, Jennifer Kronenberg, Krista Ellensohn and more. Lazarus has spent her summers further expanding her artistry and technique with Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, The HARID Conservatory and Boca Ballet Theatre. She has competed extensively in national competitions and has been recognized, for two years in a row, as a YoungArts Winner in Dance/Modern and Ballet categories. Lazarus has recently completed the Complexions Contemporary Ballet Pre-Professional Program where she had the opportunity to perform Dwight Rhoden’s world premiere of Kaleidoscope at the Joyce Theatre in New York City. Lazarus began her professional career dancing in Menlo Park, California with Menlowe Ballet in the spring of 2018. She has danced leading roles in original works choreographed by Michael Lowe, Dennis Nahat and Donald McKayle.

 

 

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Alex Mediate is a photographer and visual artist who grew up in Las Vegas and is now based in Los Angeles. He attended Otis College of Art and Design and received a B.F.A. in Photography and Advertising Design. His work has been exhibited in the Pratt Manhattan Gallery (New York), at National YoungArts Foundation (Miami), the Alios Gallery (Las Vegas), The Bolsky Gallery (Los Angeles) and more. In addition to pursuing his fine arts practice, Mediate works in the fashion industry as a jewelry photographer.

 

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Lumia Nocito is an artist based in New York. After graduating from The Dalton School, she is currently working on her B.F.A. at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Her main medium is photography, and Nocito was mentored by Petra Collins throughout her teenage years. Her photo work has been featured in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Basel Miami, The Cooper Union School of Art and at The International Center of Photography. Selected publications include Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine, Wonderland Magazine, WWD, WGSN, Dazed, Paper Magazine, Garage Magazine, Elle Mexico, Complex, WOMB Magazine and Glamour. Selected clients include Bloomberg Businessweek, Adidas, Netflix, Converse, Urban Outfitters, Diesel, Vice, Vogue, i-D, Galore, DRØME, MilK Magazine, Nu-Modé and IMG Models.

 

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Ameya Okamoto is a dynamic 20-year-old artist and organizer whose creative work lives at the intersections of art and social justice. Her work has been profiled by Paper Magazine, The New York Post and Hyperallergic among others. She is a 2019 Adobe Creativity Scholar and Laidlaw Fellow, researching the role of protest art in social movements and sustainable beautification. She offers digital downloads of work she has created in partnership with Don’t Shoot Portland and Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, and is the founder and creative director of IRRESISTIBLE, which she hopes can help artistically support grassroots justice organizations, share anti-racist resources with educators, and most importantly, inspire creatives everywhere to consider art’s role in inspiring social progress.

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Bhargavi Sarangapani is an Indian Classical/Bharatanatyam dancer based in Coppell, Texas, and is a student of Dr. Apoorva Jayaraman. She started her artistic training and completed her dance debut under Mrs. Akhila Rao of NJ. In 2016, she was awarded a grant from the Texas Commision on the Arts and was recognized as a Texas Young Master. Through this program, she has received the opportunity to learn from various Bharatanatyam exponents, who are Dr. Apoorva Jayaraman, Dr. Rama Vaidyanathan, Shijith and Parvathy Nambiar, and Dr. A.R Shreedhara. In 2019, she was named a National Youngarts Foundation winner in Classical Indian dance.  Bhargavi is currently a biomedical engineering student at the University of Texas at Austin. She hopes to continue to learn more of the nuances of this art form and further develop her passion for dance.

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Kevin Sherwin is a composer, guitarist and conductor. Performances include his solo debuts as guitarist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Regent Hall in London, and his original work includes music for film, theater and the concert stage. His recent solo guitar score for James Patrick Nelson’s Without Touch won the 2020 Audience Favorite Award in Dekkoo’s “Love and Distance Short Film Challenge.” In December 2019, he was a featured composer and lyricist in The Passing Show of 2019. He has performed twice with violist Mark Bailey at the University of Cambridge in the Musica Vera Duo, and was featured as conductor and guitarist in the National YoungArts Foundation New York Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, working with Grammy-nominated musical director Michael McElroy. Following his interests in the legacy of American guitarists, Sherwin has also worked for Steve Miller and the Sailor Music Group, in association with Jazz at Lincoln Center, researching blues guitarists and their styles of the early and mid-20th century. As a conductor, Sherwin is Associate Artistic Director of the period-instrument ensemble American Baroque Orchestra, which performs throughout New England. He is also the Principal Conductor of The American Romantics, the primary author of the performance practice research guide for the Yale Collection of Historical Sound Recordings, and co-author of the complete Charles Ives Discography. Among his awards and honors, Sherwin was cited by the Town of North Haven, Connecticut, for excellence in contributing to the musical arts. He has also received awards from National YoungArts Foundation, the Guitar Foundation of America, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, among others.

 

 

 

Adriane Tharp lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Their writing has appeared in The New York Times, DIAGRAM and cream city review. They are a librarian, Social Media Manager for the Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Noyo River Review.

 

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Cornelius Tulloch is a Miami and New York-based interdisciplinary artist and designer with work transcending the barriers of art, architecture and photography. Much like it transcends creative disciplines, his work challenges societal ideals as they relate to identity, race, culture and place. His work engages and incites dialogue through narrative.

 

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Maria Useche is a Colombian-American born in Bogotá, raised in Miami, and currently a junior designer at McCann in New York. Her personal work explores topics such as politics, social rights and culture through design, guerrilla marketing and photography. As a current designer, Useche is working toward aligning her personal ethics of design in order to make work that is conscious of the current obstacles faced by the underrepresented.

 

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Taylor Yingshi is a 17-year-old emerging artist in Seattle whose work reflects the unique experiences she has gained in adolescence. She explores the circumstances of the interconnected, conscientious community she lives in both online and offline through magical but familiar visuals. Her art combines the old and the new, primarily touching on Chinese heritage, youth and contemporary America. When she is not in the studio, Yingshi leads a youth art collective called Student Art Spaces.

 

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FEATURED AS COLLABORATORS

 

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Darius Hickman is a contemporary dancer, and native of West Palm Beach, Florida. He began dancing at the age of 12.  He attended Bak Middle and A.W Dreyfoos School of the Arts. Hickman was a YoungArts award winner in his sophomore, junior and senior years. Before graduating high school, he auditioned for So You Think You Can Dance. However, he did not make it. It wasn’t until he was attending his freshman year at Butler University as a dance major that he decided to audition again. This time around, Hickman became a top six finalist on season 15 of the show. After touring with So You Think You Can Dance Live! for two months, he made his move to Los Angeles. Hickman was signed with Bloc Talent Agency, where he started auditioning in the dance community to book his next professional gig. Hickman has danced for artists like Beyoncé, Paula Abdul, FKA twigs, and Melanie Martinez (touring the world with her for five months). 

 

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Jace Weyant is a performance and video artist in New York City. Jace is working towards an understanding of the way or ways in which persons in life and in frame might express inexplicable visions, dreams, and the sublime. They graduated  high school at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with focus in contemporary dance and currently study mathematics and dance at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville. In 2018 they were recognized as a Youngarts Finalist in choreography and a Presidential Scholar in the Arts.