MOTHA RESIDENCY PROGRAM
The MOTHA is pleased to announce its inaugural resident artist: Tuesday Smillie.
The MOTHA Resident Artist Program is the first of its kind in the world! This unique residency seeks to support the work of contemporary trans artists in the most inclusive and hands-off way possible. The program was developed out of a need for a convenient residency, one that takes into account the hectic life of the struggling, yet dedicated, trans artist and makes no demands or promises on their time. The MOTHA Resident Artist Program, like the museum itself, is an amorphous entity: it offers no physical structure to its resident artists. Therefore, the current resident artist is free to work wherever and whenever their unique practice dictates. In exchange for this flexibility, artists are asked to make no demands on MOTHA, lest they taint and disrupt their practice with the tedious day-to-day operations of the arts and hirstory institution.
The MOTHA Resident Artist Program recognizes that the resident artist themself lends as much if not more legitimacy to the institution than the institution lends to the artist. Therefore the artist is encouraged but not required to produce work or report on their practice during the term of the residency. It is enough that they are making work. MOTHA will take their word for it. The length of the residency is determined by the resident.
Selection for this residency program was made by its Executive Director, Chris E. Vargas. The MOTHA Resident Artist Program itself is a collaboration with artist Tuesday Smillie.
Tuesday Smillie is a visual artist, living and working in Brooklyn NY. Utilizing watercolor, collage and textiles Smillie engages questions such as the imprint of the past on the present, and the binary of inclusion / exclusion. Through these questions Smillie’s work leaves a visual record of transgender-feminist politics.
Born in Boston Massachusetts, Smillie moved to Portland Oregon in 2001 where she was schooled in radical queer politics and received her BFA from Oregon College of Art & Craft with a concentration in Book Arts in 2007. Smillie moved to Brooklyn NY later that year. Her work has shown across the United States and Canada, including at the A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn, NY and Judson Church New York, NY. tuesdaysmillie.com