Although The Commission 2015 will remain under wraps until May 9, we are delighted to announce the winning artists. They are visual artist Brice Brown and composer Alan Shockley. For those of you who don’t know Brice and Alan, here is some biographical information. Brice was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and currently lives in New York City. He received his BA from Dartmouth College and an MFA from Pratt Institute, and he also studied at the Chautauqua School of Art.  Brice  works across a broad range of media. In his work, he explores the instability of the objects and environments we encounter by focusing on moments of transformation between states of being. He has exhibited nationally and internationally. His work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Artforum, Art in America, Artnews, artcritical and The Village Voice , among others. He has held residencies at Yaddo, VCCA and the Vermont Studio Center, and has been a visitin...

Susan Pashman’s second novel, Upper West Side Story , will be published in May by Harvard Square Editions both as a paperback and eBook. Susan began the novel almost fourteen years ago at VCCA; she continued to work on it during a subsequent residency.  Susan writes, “Of course, I haven't been at work on this book for a full fourteen years. During this time period, I designed and built a house, landscaped my property, spent five years at Harvard getting certified as a landscape historian and designer, spent another year earning an M.A. in Landscape History, and then another year completing a doctoral dissertation in Landscape Aesthetics at Stony Brook University, SUNY and have published many new stories and essays. But I am most rewarded by this new publication, so long in the making. Thank you to VCCA for starting me off with the gift of time and the perfect place.” http://www.susanpashman.com/

The world premiere of Gerald Cohen's "L'dor VaDor" will occur at Avery Fisher Hall on Sunday, March 22 at 4:00 PM. The choral piece will be performed by the International Jewish High School Choir, HaZamir.  Gerald will be playing the piano, which will be his performing debut at Avery Fisher. HaZamir brings together young people from the United States and Israel, who have been rehearsing in their own communities, for a concert each year in New York. There will be more than 300 young people performing in the chorus. www.geraldcohenmusic.com

Sandra Gibson and Luis Recoder’s installation Light Spill at the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, Ireland (part of the Plastik Festival) features a running 16mm film projector from which film unspools onto the ground. The piece is oddly unsettling: we feel the absence of the projectionist and the relentlessness of the machine that continues its mad course despite the tangle of celluloid piling up on the floor. It’s a witty metaphor for things unraveling and running amok with a potent reference, in particular, to the “death of cinema." Practitioners of “expanded cinema” Sandra and Luis have collaborated since 2000 producing numerous installations and performances that make full use of the visual, mechanical and conceptual qualities of film projection. http://www.plastikfestival. com/gibson-recoder/

Catherine Courtenaye reports that she has been invited to speak at the TEDx Talk at the University of Montana, in Missoula, on February 20. This TEDx Talk theme is language and will feature 17 speakers from many disciplines. Catherine is the only visual artist included in the program and will address how and why she uses language in her painting. Catherine uses various digital and printmaking processes to incorporate examples from 19th century American penmanship manuals, arithmetic workbooks and handwritten ephemera into her paintings. She first became interested in writing “many years ago, while reading through some antiquarian documents, I was struck by how single pen strokes in 19th century manuscripts can conjure an era so keenly.” Catherine’s work allows her to combine her interests in American cultural history, literature with formal issues of stroke and texture.