Clarksville, TN – CECA Tennessee Artist Fellow Karen Seapker will give a lecture exploring her work and creative practices on March 18th.
The lecture will be via Zoom at 6:00pm and is free and open to the public. Registration is required at this link.
The Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts (CECA) recently announced Seapker, from Donalson, and Benjy Russell, from Dowelltown, as the 2020-21 recipients of the Tennessee Artist Fellowship. Russell’s lecture will be on March 30th via Zoom at 6:00pm.
CECA created its Tennessee Artist Fellowship to celebrate contemporary art and to support the continued creative work of exceptional Tennessee artists.
Unlike other fellowships, nominations and applications from artists are not solicited. A committee of APSU faculty compiles a list of outstanding artists from across the state and selects the fellowship recipient.
Through CECA’s generous support, the selected artists receive $5,000 to aid in the creation of new artwork and $1,000 for an artist lecture.
“Since APSU is the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts for the entire state of Tennessee, we wanted to find a way to support artists statewide,” Barry Jones, dean of the College of Arts and Letters at APSU, said. “There is an incredible amount of amazing artists here, but unfortunately there isn’t much financial support for them. We hope that this fellowship helps a Tennessee artist maintain their practice and to know that we support what they are doing.”
A member of the selection committee added: “This year was a real treat as we were able to award an additional fellowship. And we are honored to award this fellowship to not one but two deserving Tennessee artists. We chose these artists as their works tackle very personal narratives that are exquisitely crafted. Beyond that, these are two generous artists that have used their artistic practice to build and give back to their respective artistic communities.”
About Karen Seapker
A member of the selection committee said: “It is interesting to see an artist’s work change when they have children. From content to materials to time management, having children will influence how an artist thinks and how an artist produces. Seapker is an artist whose large, colorful, semi-abstract paintings seek to tackle the question of what it means to be a mother.
She questions the idea of maternal ephemerality, the need to comfort, and the need to be comforted. The way she forces the viewer’s eye to dance around her work also reminds us of the rhythmic repetitions of daily schedules of children that turn into ritualistic endeavors consistently broken by the unpredictability of what children bring to the table. The unpredictability seems chaotic but is full of welcoming surprises – as, Seapker herself states, ‘an existence that reveals that consistency is a mirage.’”
A March 2nd, 2020, tornado destroyed Seapker’s East Nashville studio the day before she was to deliver paintings to Zeitgeist Gallery in Nashville for an upcoming solo exhibition.
The works in the studio survived, but the studio did not. Seapker used the opening of the exhibition as a call to other artists in the Nashville community to donate works for $100 with 100% of the proceeds going directly to Gideon’s Army, which was working with the People of North Nashville on the tornado relief effort. This call garnered works from 67 artists that raised over $10,000 for the North Nashville community.
“Her work alone is worthy of any recognition that she receives,” said a member of the selection committee. “But it was her selflessness to use the spotlight of her solo exhibition and her resolve to organize the Nashville arts community in raising money to help other hard-hit neighborhoods is really what made her stand out this year.”
Seapker’s paintings have been featured at museums and galleries in the United States and internationally. She uses a dynamic, gestural style and vibrant palette to create paintings and works on paper depicting abstracted imagery that alludes to the power of human relationships, our connections to nature and the passage of time.
Her work is in various private collections as well as the collection of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Reviews of her work have been in publications including Burnaway, Hyperallergic and ArtForum. She lives and works in Nashville.
Past recipients of the CECA Tennessee Artist Fellowship include Maysey Craddock of Memphis, Alicia Henry of Nashville, Andrew Scott Ross of Johnson City, Bryce McCloud of Nashville and Carl Moore of Memphis.
To learn more
For more information on the CECA Tennessee Artist Fellowship, contact Dr. Janice Crews, director of CECA, at crewsj@apsu.edu.
To stay informed of upcoming CECA events, visit www.apsu.edu/ceca or follow CECA on social media.
