Saint-Gaudens | Fellowship

Athena LaTocha, In the Wake of . . ., 2021. Sumi and shellac ink, earth from The Green-Wood Cemetery, demolition debris from downtown Brooklyn on paper, and lead, sound (198 x 652 x 7 in.) Installation view BRIC House, Brooklyn. NY.

Fellowship

Saint-Gaudens Fellowship

The Saint-Gaudens Fellowship was created in 1978 as an annual award presented to an emerging artist practicing primarily in the United States. The Fellowship is awarded to those with an exhibition record that demonstrates exceptional talent, but who are not yet firmly established and may benefit from further recognition and financial assistance. A committee of trustees and artist advisors, including past Fellows, nominate and selects artists every spring.

Fellowship benefits

In addition to receiving a monetary grant, Fellows exhibit their work during the following year at the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park in Cornish, New Hampshire. The Fellows’ exhibitions are meant to reflect the ideals of Saint-Gaudens, who was an innovative sculptor and a mentor to emerging artists, and to enhance public interest in his life, work, and the creative process.

“Receiving the Saint-Gaudens Fellowship felt transformative. This windfall of support was helpful in immediate and pragmatic ways. Along with that came something beyond practical. I experienced an unexpected, and at first almost unconscious, sense of freedom. This feeling was like magic. After a site visit to the park, my work rapidly started to shift and open up. Ideas that had been percolating for a long time came pouring out, leading to an incredibly productive and exciting working period. This was, and continues to be, a true joy.”
–Jennifer Paige Cohen,
2019 Saint-Gaudens Fellow

Katie Bell, 2016 Fellow. Line of Play, 2020. Laminate, acrylic, wood, aluminum, rubber, drywall, solid surface, plexiglass, cue balls

2023 Fellow – Athena LaTocha

2023 Saint-Gaudens Fellow, Athena LaTocha

Athena LaTocha

The Trustees of the Saint-Gaudens Memorial are pleased to announce the selection of Athena LaTocha as the 2023 Saint-Gaudens Fellow.

Athena LaTocha (Hunkpapa Lakota and Ojibwe; b. Anchorage, Alaska) is an artist whose massive works on paper explore the relationship between human-made and natural worlds, in the wake of Earthworks artists from the 1960s and 1970s. LaTocha incorporates materials such as ink, lead, earth, and wood, relating her mark-making to the displacement of materials by industrial equipment and natural events. Her works are informed by her upbringing in the wilderness of Alaska. LaTocha’s process is about being immersed in these environments, while responding to the storied and, at times, traumatic histories that are rooted in place.

LaTocha’s work has been shown across the country, including at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM; CUE Art Foundation and Artists Space, New York City; South Dakota Art Museum, Brookings; New Orleans Museum of Art, LA; and the International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Anchorage. Her work was featured in Greater New York 2021, at MoMA P.S.1 in Long Island City, NY, and in 2022 and early 2023, she has had solo exhibitions at JDJ, The Ice House in Garrison, NY; IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe; and at The Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY. Currently, LaTocha has work on view and The Green-Wood Cemetery (through September 2023) and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond (through January 2024).

LaTocha is the recipient of artist grants and awards, among them the Rockefeller Brothers Fund Pocantico Art Prize in Visual Arts in 2022; the Eiteljorg Fellowship; the National Academy Affiliated Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome; the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Painting in 2021; as well as fellowships from the Joan Mitchell Foundation in 2019 and 2016; Wave Hill in 2018; and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in 2013. LaTocha received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Stony Brook University. The artist divides her time between New York City and Peekskill, NY. For additional information, please visit athena.latocha.com

Established in 1977, the Saint-Gaudens Fellowship is an annual award presented to an emerging American artist practicing primarily in the United States. Artists are selected by a committee consisting of Saint-Gaudens Memorial trustees and artist advisors, including previous Fellowship recipients. In addition to receiving a monetary grant, Fellows exhibit their work the following year at the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park.

Incorporated in 1919, the Saint-Gaudens Memorial is a non-profit organization that promotes the legacy of Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907) in active partnership with Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park, which features the sculptor’s home, studios, gardens and artworks. The Saint-Gaudens presents a summer concert series, art exhibitions and fellowships, and educational programs, and also supports the ongoing conservation and acquisition of objects for the park’s collections. To learn more about the Saint-Gaudens Memorial, please visit saint-gaudens.org.

Fellows of the Saint-Gaudens Memorial

Elana Herzog, 2012 Fellow. Romancing the Rock, 2010, Installation at Tang Museum, Sarasota Springs Metal staples, textile on Drywall