Fellowship Exhibitions

2024–25 Fellowship Exhibitions

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship Program is a vital source of funding for the visual arts and art history in Virginia. VMFA is committed to supporting professional artists as well as art students who demonstrate exceptional creative ability in their chosen discipline. Since its establishment in 1940 by the late John Lee Pratt of Fredericksburg, the Fellowship Program has awarded nearly $6 million in fellowships to Virginians. 2015 marked the 75th anniversary of VMFA’s Fellowship Program.

As part of our commitment to Virginians, the Pauley Center Galleries, Amuse Restaurant, the Claiborne Robertson Room, and select spaces at the Richmond International Airport are dedicated to showcasing the work of VMFA Visual Arts Fellowship recipients. In addition, VMFA collaborates with Statewide Partners around the commonwealth to host exhibitions featuring recent recipients of a VMFA Visual Arts Fellowship.

Biography of Place

By Mary Scurlock
Jul 31, 2024 – Feb 17, 2025 | VMFA Amuse Restaurant & Claiborne Robertson Room

The work in this exhibition incorporates collage fragments of old letters, papers, and rubbings from life’s everyday physical imprints, capturing the elusive and fragmented memories of place and time. Paint, charcoal, graphite, pastel, and ephemera intertwine with intuitive marks and gestures, creating a visual and tactile chronicle of place. The pieces are a meditation on the impermanence of our surroundings and experiences, reflecting on how memories can fade and blur, yet remain etched in our subconscious.

Mary Scurlock is a recipient of a 1993–94 VMFA Undergraduate Visual Arts Fellowship.

IMAGE Sunbury, 2023, Mary Scurlock 

RECLAMATION

By Franchell Mack Brown
Aug 3, 2024 – Feb 9, 2025 | Pauley Education Center Galleries

My intention in creating this work is to reclaim my heritage, peace, and identity. The hoods in my artwork are not intended to evoke the hateful symbol most American people associate with them. On the contrary, the hood has existed as part of my cultural history—spanning from the ceremonial West African (Egungun) costumes to my family’s current and my former Catholicism. When I speak of reclaiming my heritage, I am well aware that Black Americans are so much more than the scions of the formerly enslaved. Creating the work in this practice helps me to heal parts of myself, and I hope the viewer also heals as they engage with this body of work.

My themes focus on the spiritual process of raising one’s vibration to find peace and create a language of identity to understand who I am.

I am a participant of meticulousness.

I am a delver in details.

Pops of color delight me.

Controlled haphazardness intrigues me.

My work is meditative.

Repetition in nature resonates with me and teaches that all life is connected energy.

My intention is to share this empowering energy by sharing my art.

Franchell Mack Brown is a recipient of a 2021–22 VMFA Professional Visual Arts Fellowship.

IMAGE Portal 3, 2024, Franchell Mack Brown

This Beautiful Life

By Unica Buster
Jul 30, 2024 – Feb 2, 2025 | Richmond International Airport

Life is confusing, incessant, chaotic, and unpleasant at times. It is a wonder that we maintain what happiness we can gather. Through my art, I am motivated and inspired by those moments of joy and beauty that keep us going. Flowering plants, healing waters, nature’s creatures, and the beauty that is in all of us have a way of making me appreciate all that life has to offer.

Unicia Buster, a native of Richmond, Virginia, was recently selected as the portrait artist for RVA Community Makers 2024, an annual community-activated art project presented by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and led by artist Hamilton Glass. Her art quilt portraits, created to honor community members whose contributions have uplifted and celebrated African American narratives, are included in this exhibition.

Unicia Buster is a recipient of a 2000–01 VMFA Graduate Visual Arts Fellowship.

IMAGE Giving Myself Grace, 2022, Unica Buster

TOP OF PAGE The Healing Garden, LGBG (detail), 2024, Mary Scurlock

2021 Fellowship Exhibitions

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship Program is a vital source of funding for the visual arts and art history in Virginia. VMFA is committed to supporting professional artists as well as art students who demonstrate exceptional creative ability in their chosen discipline. Since its establishment in 1940 by the late John Lee Pratt of Fredericksburg, the Fellowship Program has awarded nearly $5.5 million in fellowships to Virginians. 2015 marked the 75th anniversary of VMFA’s Fellowship Program.

As part of our commitment to Virginians, the Pauley Center Galleries, Amuse Restaurant, the Claiborne Robertson Room, and select spaces at the Richmond International Airport are dedicated to showcasing the work of VMFA Visual Arts Fellowship recipients.

Aggregate

By Sterling Clinton Hundley
Jul 1, 2021 to Jan 31, 2022 | Pauley Center Galleries

Aggregate is a survey of work from American painter and graphic artist, Sterling Clinton Hundley ranging from 2009- 2021. Throughout Hundley’s work, time is an indelible theme explored through drawing, collage, painting and sculpture that collects life in motion into a series of compressed images that blur the line between traditional cell animation and painting

Hundley is a VMFA 2020-21 Professional Fellow and his work is held in private collections internationally, from Russia, Norway, England, Germany and throughout the United States and can be found in the permanent collections of Amazon, the Museum of American Illustration, Capital One Bank, Rolling Stone Magazine, as well as on display in the US Senate Building.

His book can be found in the Museum Store.

IMAGES: The Good Steward, Sterling Clinton Hundley | Big Cartel, Fruitless Endeavor, Sterling Clinton Hundley | Another Sunday, Sterling Clinton Hundley

Something Similar

By Claire Stankus
Jul 9, 2021 to Jan 23, 2022 | VMFA Amuse Restaurant & Claiborne Robertson Room

I make paintings to simplify immediate visual surroundings. They are inspired by familiar indoor scenes of cast shadows from house plants, patterns coincidentally matching, the grid of window frames, to shapes of flowers, oranges, or birthday sprinkles. I believe many people are attracted to these overlooked moments and my paintings provide an opportunity to revisit them. Beginning with a photo reference or memory, I create casual marks, flattened fields of color, and invented light and shadow to break down the recognizable into something ambiguous yet familiar. When these paintings are not recognized by their initial inspiration they can be admired purely by their patterns, subtle color shifts, and illusions of light and flatness. The remaining abstraction is where we may find unexpected curiosity or joy.

My newest paintings are heavily inspired by my experiences from two recent artist residencies: The Sam & Adele Golden Foundation in New Berlin, NY, and the Studios at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA. In both settings, one during winter, and one during summer, I was struck by each location’s architecture and sunlight. I used these simple themes to play with striking color combinations, balance speed and personality of brush marks, and create the possibility of space within a fairly shallow depth of field. Displayed as a large grouping or in pairs, my paintings are made to reference and complement each other’s visual components while honoring the location they were created in.

I want to share the value of contemporary abstract painting; that a particular balance of line and form can create compelling compositions, or how a minimal shape of paint can feel sweet, stubborn, playful, or funny.

Claire Stankus is a 2020 Emergency Relief Fellowship Recipient.

IMAGES: Sunrise Silhouette, Claire Stankus | Paint Stickers, Claire Stankus | Night Jade, Claire Stankus | Light Stream, Claire Stankus | Fruit Fade, Claire Stankus

Minyatür: A Journey from the Classical to the Contemporary

By Sermin Ciddi
Jun 21, 2021 to Jan 10, 2022 | Richmond International Airport

Sermin Ciddi is a renowned Turkish artist skilled in modern miniature (minyatür) painting, one of the highly specialized visual arts of Ottoman and Turkish culture along with calligraphy (hat) and marbling paper (ebru). Born in Istanbul, Ms. Ciddi takes inspiration from a variety of sources: places she has lived and traveled to, the architectural salience of each location, and finally, their interaction with surrounding nature. Depictions of environmental themes and imagery through symbolism are recent additions to her existing portfolio. Scenes including Alexandria, Virginia, Ottoman and Turkish architecture, and the enduring relationship between dragons and phoenixes come to life on her canvases.

Sermin Ciddi is a 2020 Emergency Relief Fellowship Recipient.

IMAGES: Kızkulesi, Sermin Ciddi | Great Falls, Sermin Ciddi | Anatolian Fortress, Sermin Ciddi