Art Omi International Artists Residency

The International Artists Residency is a three week residency program for visual artists in upstate New York. Art Omi provides artists with a studio, living quarters and meals at no cost to the artists. However, artists are responsible for their travel and art materials. The Residency takes place for three weeks during the month of July. We do not offer residency for visual artists at any other time of the year. Each year, a different critic-in-residence lives on campus with the artists: they lead discussions and make one-on-one studio visits. Because of the proximity to New York City, there are also visits by many prominent critics, gallerists, curators, and artists. Valuable contacts are made through these informal encounters. In the evenings, after dinner, the group gathers for lectures, slide presentations and panel discussions. At the end of the residency, we host an Open Studios day open to the general public. This is a great chance for the artists to share the work done during the residency with a broader audience who is made up of professionals, art lovers, neighbors, friends.

Experimentation is encouraged as is discourse and collaboration. The annual Art Omi International Visual Artist's Residency combines uninterrupted time to create with a stimulating atmosphere of exchange. Participants benefit from the advice and criticism of noted art critics, gallery owners and prominent artists who are invited to visit. This direct interaction with the New York City art scene is unparalleled by other colonies. Each aspect of the residency provides a rich opportunity for artists.

The Arts Center

The Omi International Arts Center is located approximately two and a half hours north of New York City in the historic Hudson River Valley. The facilities, set on 300 acres of rural farmland, comprise a large two-story barn with ample space for indoor studios, as well as several large, covered sheds, suitable for sculpture. Housing is made available on the grounds at three different buildings 5 minutes walking from the studio area, perched on top of a hill with stunning view of the Catskills Mountain and of The Fields Sculpture Park.

The Omi International Arts Center is a non-profit foundation supported entirely by private donations. We provide this experience at no cost to our residents. Funding comes from a number of sources, including interested individuals and institutions throughout the world, who wish to contribute generally or sponsor the participation of an artist from their own nation.

The deadline for the 2010 residency session has passed.

Click here for the 2011 application guidelines and form.

2010 Invited Artists
Ahmed el Shaer, Egypt, VIRTUAL RESIDENCY
Drabo Alassane, Burkina Faso
Takako Azami, Japan
Patrick Bancel, France/USA
Gudrun Barenbrock, Germany
Nisrine Boukhari, Syria
caraballo-farman, Argentina/Canada/USA
Anibal Catalan, Mexico
Cesar Cornejo, Peru/USA
Meera Devidayal, India, Prana Studios Award
Luciano Di Rosa, Italy
Dread Scott, USA
Ernest DÜKÜ, Ivory Coast/France
Eckhard Etzold, Germany
Patricia Eustaquio, Philippines, Art Omi Ateneo Art Gallery NY Projects
Matteo Fato, Italy, Dena Foundation for Contemporary Art Award
Nancy Friedemann, USA, The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation Grant
Irfan Hasan, Pakistan
Bo-Yun Jang, South Korea, Paradise Culture Foundation
Maude Leonard-Contant, Canada, Antrev Award
Anna Lundh, Sweden
Shahar Marcus, Israel, Artis-Contemporary Israeli Art Fund/ Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate General of Israel in NY
Eduardo Navarro, Argentina
Sungyeon Park, South Korea, Paradise Culture Foundation
Renata Poljak, Croatia/France
Ishmael Randall Weeks, Peru/USA
Deb Sokolow, USA
May Tveit, USA, Charlotte Street Foundation
Shona Wilson, Australia, Art Omi Australia Committee
Tuguldur Yondonjamts, Mongolia

Click here to view the 2010 artists biographies

2010 Critic-in-Residence Sandra Skurvida
Sandra Skurvida is an independent curator and scholar based in New York. Her curatorial projects to date have been catalyzed by social situations and interdisciplinary approaches: Avant-Guide to NYC (apexart, 2009) focused on the absence of historical referents in the public space; Custom Car Commandos (Art in General, 2009) dealt with the crisis in the auto industry; Soap Box Event by Pia Lindman (Federal Hall National Memorial, 2008) – with the civil liberties of free speech; several public art projects in New York City (Art Container, 2002; Waste Management by Alex Villar, 2005) addressed various aspects of public space; and the Third Annual Exhibition of Soros Center for Contemporary Art in Vilnius, Lithuania (1995) — post–Cold War conditions and the emergence of global networks. Skurvida is researching and writing on John Cage’s influence on contemporary art. She teaches at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College.

Click here to access Sandra Ohmi's blog!

"There was something immensely nourishing, challenging, and also humbling about being together with artists from so many different countries and in such a sustained and vigorous way."
Gregory Volk, Critic-in-Residence 1996

Past Critics In Residence:
2009 Frances Richard
2008 Martha Schwendener
2008 Micaela Giovannotti
2007 Omar Lopez Chahoud
2006 Kóan Jeff Baysa
2005 Reena Jana
2004 Olu Oguibe
2003 Euridice Arratia
2002 Yu Yeon Kim
2001 Christian Viveros-Fauné
2000 Denise Carvalho
1999 Dominique Nahas
1998 Franklin Sirmans
1997 Lilly Wei
1996 Gregory Volk
1995 Carlos Basualdo
1994 Dan Cameron
1993 Raphael Rubenstein
1992 Robert C. Morgan

How the Artists Are Selected

Each year, Art Omi runs an open call to visual artists from any corner of the world, walks of life, stage of career. We equally consider applications from artists already established as well as emerging professionals. We do not accept applications from currently enrolled students. A review committee, composed of the board of directors along with professionals in the field, make the selection from the applications.

On average, participants are selected from a pool of six hundred to one thousand candidates who apply yearly for our program.
An approximate thirty artists are invited every year. Each invited artist is given room and board as well as studio space free of charge for a three week period every July. Participants are responsible for transportation and materials costs and are asked to donate a work of art created during the residency to the Art Omi Collection.

Facilities

Facilities include indoor and protected outdoor studio spaces, a black and white photography darkroom, basic handtools, preliminary welding equipment and two light-tight studios for projection work. The entire center is wireless equipped. in addition, we provide five computers with internet access and black & white printers. Studio technicians are available for assistance. Daily trips to suppliers are also provided. Professional color photography labs are located in Albany, New York. Bikes are available for residents to explore the surrounding area.

Pondside Press Monotype Project

Art Omi offers every year 10 to 15 of the resident artists with the opportunity to work for a half-day with a master printmaker from Pondside Press to produce an edition of monotypes. Tamarind Institute Master Printmakers Melissa and Ted Braggins are owners and printers at Pondside Press, located in nearby Rhinebeck, New York. They have developed an excellent reputation as printers and for working professionally with artists and publishers. They create beautifully printed editions of the highest quality with the very best collaborative efforts of artist and printer. High quality material is provided for the monotype project: each participating artist is required to donate one print to the printer and one to the Art Omi collection.

Studio Visits Program

Each year Art Omi invites up to 30 art professionals from New York City to join the residency for a day of studio visits. Each visitor spends 24 hours on campus. The visitors spectrum range from independent curators to art dealers and consulants, to art historians, to museum professionals, artists and critics. The Visitors' program is by invitation only, however, letters of interest from prospective visitors are welcome.

2010 visitors:
Alain Kirili, Artist, Art Omi founding member
Ariane Lopez-Huici, Artist
Bill Maynes, Director, The Fields Sculpture Park
Boris Pevzner, CEO, Collectrium
Boshko Boskovic, Project Director, Residency Unlimited, independent curator
Carin Kuoni, Director, Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School, NYC
Claire Gilman, Curator, Drawing Center, NYC
Dan Devine, Artist, Art Omi Alumnus, Art Omi board member
Domenick Ammirati, Senior Editor, Guggenheim Museum of Art, NYC
Dominique Nahas, Critic, former Art Omi Critic in Residence, Art Omi board member
Eva Diaz, Critic
Finola Jones, Artist, Art Omi Alumna, Director Mother’s Tank Station, Ireland
Jeff Bailey, Bailey Gallery, NYC
John Silvis, Artist
Judith Rodenbeck, Critic
Koan Jeff Baysa, Curator, former Art Omi Critic in Residence, Art Omi board member
Leslie Ferrin, Ferrin Gallery, Pittsfield, MA
Maggie Mailer, Artist, founder Storefront Artist Project, MA
Marisa Jahn, Director, Architecture Omi
Margaret Evangeline, Artist, Art Omi Alumna, Art Omi board member
Maria Nicanor, Curatorial Department, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC
Melanie Mowinski, Artist, Visual Arts Faculty MCLA, North Adams, MA
Michael Foley, Foley Gallery, NYC
Miguel Amado, Curator and Writer
Naomi Beckwith, Curator, Studio Museum in Harlem
Nina Katchadourian, Artist
Priyanka Mathew, Director, Aicon Gallery, NYC and London
Robert C. Morgan, Critic, Artist, former Art Omi Critic in Residence, Art Omi board member
Sandi Slone, Artist, Art Omi Alumna, Art Omi board member
Sara Reisman, Director, Percent For Art
Stuart Chase, Executive Director, Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA
Tyler Rollins, Tyler Rollins Gallery, NYC
Ven Voisey, Resident Artist at Berkshire Museum, Director Gallery 51, North Adams, MA
Vera Vasek, Sculptor, Executive Director, Sculpture Key West, Florida

Art Omi expresses its gratitude to all of the sponsors for their support.

Antrev Management
Artis, New York
Art Omi Australia Committee
Asian Cultural Council, New York
Ateneo Art Gallery of the Ateneo de Manila University
Charlotte Street Foundation, Kansas City
Dena Foundation for Contemporary Art
Frances and Benjamin Benenson Foundation
Francis J. Greenburger Foundation
Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate General of Israel in New York
K. Square Designs
Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation
Paradise Culture Foundation
Prana Studios
Time Equities Inc.