HIGHPOINT CENTER FOR PRINTMAKING ANNOUNCES THE 2023 MCKNIGHT PRINTMAKING FELLOWS:

NATASHA PESTICH AND CAROLYN SWISZCZ

Highpoint is delighted to announce the 2023 McKnight Printmaking Fellows Natasha Pestich and Carolyn Swiszcz. During the second week of January, the four finalists for the 2023 McKnight printmaking Fellowship hosted esteemed panelists Alexis Lowry (curator at Dia Art Foundation, New York) and Andrea Carlson (visual artist) for studio visits. Alexis and Andrea’s review of the applications began back in November and concluded with the selection of the 2023 Fellows, Carolyn Swiszcz and Natasha Pestich.

About the 2023 McKnight Printmaking Fellows:
Natasha Pestich is a Minneapolis-based artist and educator. Working primarily in site-specific installation and works on paper, her work seeks to draw out the complex ways values and systems are questioned, internalized and expressed both in our daily lives and at pivotal moments of conflict, loss and renewal. Pestich has showcased her prints in alternative spaces and museums in the United States, Canada, Rome, and Scotland and is the recipient of numerous grants.

Carolyn Swiszcz is a painter-printmaker known for her images of lonely suburban buildings. Born and raised in New Bedford, Massachusetts, she moved to Minnesota to attend the Minneapolis College of Art and Design where she earned a BFA in 1994. Her work has been exhibited at Highpoint, The Drawing Center, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery in New York. She lives in West St. Paul with her husband, photographer Wilson Webb, and their daughter.

The fellowship officially began February 1st and will run through January 2024. Each McKnight fellow is awarded $25,000 in unrestricted funds, access to the cooperative printshop and classes at Highpoint, professional development opportunities provided by Springboard for the Arts, studio visits with invited arts luminaries as well as many other benefits. Carolyn and Natasha’s fellowship year will conclude with an exhibition in Highpoint’s galleries in January 2024.

Highpoint would like to thank Andrea Carlson and Alexis Lowry for providing their expert insight in reviewing the applications for the 2023 fellowship. We would also like to thank the McKnight Foundation for their continued support of this program and Minnesota artists.

About the panelists:
Andrea Carlson is a visual artist who maintains a studio practice in northern Minnesota and Chicago, Illinois. In 2003 Carlson received a BA in Art and American Indian Studies, and an MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2005. Her work has been displayed in public spaces, while her paintings and drawings often create alternative landscapes and narratives within colonial institutions. Carlson was a recipient of the 2008 McKnight Fellow, a 2017 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors grant recipient, a 2021 Chicago Artadia Award, and a 2022 United States Artists Fellowship.

Alexis Lowry is curator at Dia Art Foundation, New York, where she is responsible for the permanent collection, as well as exhibitions, commissions, and public programs across Dia’s sites and locations. At Dia Chelsea, she has overseen new projects by Lucy Raven, Rita McBride and Kishio Suga. At Dia Beacon, she organized the first North American retrospective of Charlotte Posenenske’s work, as well as installations by Larry Bell, Mel Bochner, John Chamberlain, Mary Corse, Melvin Edwards, Charles Gaines, Barry Le Va, Lee Ufan, Robert Morris, Michelle Stuart, and Anne Truitt. Prior to joining Dia, she was curator of the David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University, Providence, and a freelance project manager for Creative Time, New York. She has recently contributed to publications for Art in America, Art Monthly, the Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College, Orlando; Drawing Center, New York; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; in addition to books produced by Dia. In 2021, Lowry was the first invited curator-in-residence at the Bauhaus Foundation in Dessau, Germany. She is on the board of directors of the Triple Aught Foundation and serves on the advisory council of The Great Northern. She obtained her PhD from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts in 2019.