The Woody English Distinguished Artist and Writers’ Chair: Adam Moss
Adam Moss is a journalist and editor. He is the author of The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing, A New York Times best seller published in 2024 by Penguin Press. From 2004-2019 he was editor-in-chief of New York Magazine. During his 15-year tenure he oversaw an ambitious digital expansion in his role as editor-in-chief of parent company New York Media, with the magazine and digital properties widely recognized for editorial excellence. He oversaw five digital publications in addition to New York: Vulture, The Cut, Intelligencer, The Strategist, and Grub Street, each of which were created from scratch and collectively reach an audience of 50 million visitors each month. Under Moss’s leadership New York and nymag.com won 41 National Magazine Awards, more than any other magazine over this time period, including Magazine of the Year. New York’s groundbreaking journalistic event “Cosby: The Women” won the 2015 George Polk Award for magazine reporting. In 2018, the magazine won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism. Before joining New York magazine, Moss was the editor of the New York Times Magazine, as well as assistant managing editor of the paper, overseeing the magazine, Book Review, culture and style. The New York Times Magazine received many awards for journalism, photography and design, including two nominations for the Pulitzer prize, under Moss’s leadership. Moss was founding editor of 7 Days, a New York weekly magazine, which won the National Magazine Award for general excellence in its circulation class in 1990. Before that, he worked at Esquire magazine in a variety of positions, including those of managing editor and deputy editor. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oberlin College, his alma mater, and is a member of the Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame. He is also sometimes (and with great frustration) a painter.
ELLA JACKSON CHAIR: Amanda Bittner
Amanda Bittner is an award-winning plein air painter in Beverly, MA. She received her MFA in Painting from Boston University and BFA from Montserrat College of Art. She is an Assistant Professor of Studio Art at Endicott College and teaches painting workshops across North America. Amanda shares her creative practice with an online blog boasting over 25K followers, actively exhibits her work across the Northeast, and has work in private collections across the world.
LESLIE GILLETTE JACKSON CHAIR:
Esteban del Valle
Esteban del Valle is a Brooklyn, NY based interdisciplinary artist originally from Chicago, IL. He received his M.F.A. from RISD and has exhibited his work and produced murals internationally. His work has been featured in various publications, including Hi-Fructose and Washington Post. Del Valle has been the recipient of several visual arts residencies and fellowships including Skowhegan, the Fine Arts Work Center, Smack Mellon Artist Studio Program, Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship, and The Daniel F. Breeden Eminent Scholar Chair at Auburn University. Del Valle also has original work in several permanent collections including the Urban Nation in Berlin, Germany, The Zimmerli Art Museum in New Brunswick, NJ, and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum in Provincetown, MA. Additionally, in the summer of 2021, he was awarded the inaugural commission for the Provincetown Public Art Foundation. Most Recently, he was the Artist in Residence at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN in the fall of 2024.
http://www.estebandelvalle.com
JOYCE JOHNSON CHAIR: Theo Jansen / Zach Danson
Since 1990, artist Theo Jansen has been busy creating new forms of life. The basic material of his nature is not protein like in existing nature, but electrical conduit (yellow). He makes skeletons from it that can walk. They are a kind of animal. They get their energy from the wind; so they do not need to eat. Over time an evolution has taken place, which is visible in the successive generations. Ultimately, he wants to release these animals onto the beaches, where they will lead a life of their own.
Theo Jansen was a columnist for the Volkskrant for 22 years. He had a solo exhibition at the Kunsthal Rotterdam 2003, at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London 2006, Hibya Tokyo 2009, National Science Museum in Seoul Korea 2010. He also exhibited at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid (2008) and at Massmoca North Adams Massachusetts He wrote five books Zogenaamd Ik (Bzztoh 1986), Klimmen in Lucht (SUN 1997), Strandbeesten 2003, De Grote Fantast (010-publishers 2008), Strandbeesten the new generation.
Interviews were published in Wired, New Scientist, Popular Science.
PRESIDENT'S CHAIR: Judith Simonian
Judith Simonian is a painter born in Los Angeles, California where she began her career. She has shown work in galleries and museums in the US and internationally that include The New Museum, NY, PS1 Contemporary Art Center/ Museum of Modern Art, NY, San Francisco Museum of Art, CA, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA. and The Seibu Museum in Japan Her awards include a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, NEA, NYFA, Colene Brown Prize, Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grants, and residency fellowships that include Yaddo, Macdowell, Dora Maar House, Menerbes, France, BAO Institute in Cassis, France, and Fundacion Valparaiso, Spain. During her recent 12 year Survey show at 1GAP (Grand Army Plaza) she was delighted to sit in conversation with David Cohen of ArtCritical. She is currently preparing for a solo exhibit at JJ Murphy Gallery in NYC.