Liquitex Concludes 2021 Just Imagine Residency Program
Download PDFLiquitex officially completed its first year of the Just Imagine Residency program, taking place in the Liquitex studio space in Manufacturers Village in East Orange, NJ. Despite COVID-19 challenges, the program successfully hosted 5 emerging artists, each exploring a different product within the Liquitex professional range.
Throughout the residency, each artist was able to immerse themself within their own private studio space while enjoying up to $1500 worth of Liquitex products to dive deeper into their work. Each resident also received mentoring from various staff members and previous residency artists, ongoing technical support, and an opportunity to showcase and sell artwork at Manufacturers Village Open Studio.
Latest Artist Residencies
Omar Lawson: Heavy Body Acrylic Residency Artist.
He was the fourth artist of the 2021 Just Imagine Residency Program, finishing up his residency in October.
During his Heavy Body Acrylic residency, Omar experimented with new colors and techniques while creating a series of portraits dealing with the concept of wonder:
“It means that each passerby has a life just as vivid and detailed as your own. And for me, that is so present in my work because I am trying to capture this person in their entirety just in an image and remind people that these people are people outside of these paintings.”
Learn more about Omar’s work here.
Matilda Forsberg: Soft Body Acrylic Residency Artist.
She is the fifth and final artist for the year as part of the 2021 Just Imagine Residency Program.
During her residency, Matilda created imagery depicting her daughter's Chinese side after they immigrated from Hong Kong to Miami. Matilda's work represents the family's mixed feelings of excitement, confusion, and longing as they adapted to the country. Matilda's own experience as an immigrant is a driving force behind her work.
"It was a combination of wanting to learn more about them and their personal histories, and it also became sort of a process of self-discovery," said Matilda, describing her work.
Learn more about Matilda's work here.
After an exciting year, the Liquitex team will be applying learnings to continue developing the program to benefit both the artists and the brand. For example, the team found that expanding the residency program to 8 weeks rather than 6 can afford artists more time to truly get situated in the space and complete as much work as possible.
"Establishing the Liquitex Just Imagine residency program at Manufacturer's Village has been a challenging but enriching experience for the team," said Senior Global Brand Manager Katelyn Wagner. "Not only have we had the opportunity to see first-hand how artists are using our products without the constraints of budget and space, but more importantly, we have fostered ongoing relationships with the 5 2021 residency artists as well as the incredible artists and creatives within the Manufacturer's Village community. We are looking forward to providing continued support and opportunities to our residency artists from this year, and we cannot wait to kick off programming for 2022."
Liquitex “Just Imagine” Artist Residency 2022
Liquitex is excited to kick off another year of the residency program, and to continue providing opportunities to talented artists in the area. Next year, the brand will be hosting 4 residencies for 8 weeks each, including two Just Imagine residencies, in which the selected artists will have the full assortment of Liquitex professional materials at their disposal.
In 2022, Liquitex will also host its first student residency, catered to emerging artists pursuing a degree in art or related studies. Additionally, there will also be a Liquitex Basics Fluid Research residency designed to gather feedback from the selected artist.
For more information about the 2022 Liquitex Artist Residency Program, click here.