By Lookout Staff

September 6, 2022 -- Five Santa Monica artists working in diverse media -- from painting to digital -- will receive fellowships from the City to support their work.

In its 13th year, the program will support artists this year working in media that include painting and sculpture, performance art, digital art, design and architecture and theater.

The $16,000 Artist Fellowship will be presented to painter and sculptor Meg Cranston and multi-disciplinary, mixed media and performance artist Yrneh Gabon. Cranston, a New York native who has exhibited internationally since 1988, employs "a colorful, playful aesthetic that often revels in distinctly West-Coast imagery," according to a profile of the artist posted on artnet. The recipient of numerous awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, Cranston said she will use the money "to create a new exhibition." Left:"Novelist" by Meg Cranston

Yrneh Gabon, a Jamaican born multi-disciplinary artist, "seeks to balance and intersect artistic representation with social activism and social commentary, particularly regarding issues pertinent to Africa and people within its Diaspora," according to the artist's website.

“I plan to use the fellowship to seek out collaborative partners in science and bring the arts and sciences together,” Gabon said.

“This award will also help me complete unfinished artwork and create community programs and projects in Santa Monica. It is an honor to serve.”

One of three $4,200 Project Fellowships will be presented to digital media artist Kio Griffith, who will receive the second annual Kate Johnson Digital Arts Fellowship.

The fellowship was created by the Santa Monica Arts Commission to recognize the contributions of the local filmmaker and digital media artist who died in 2020.

The award "supports artists in the electronic and/or digital disciplines, including video, internet- and gaming-based work, digital film, and interactive fine art," culture officials said.

The other two fellowships will go to Kaitlin Drisko, a designer, architect and conceptual artist, and playwright Tanya Maria White, who will receive her second Fellowship award.

Launched in 2009 as part of the City’s Creative Capital cultural plan, the Santa Monica Artist Fellowship has helped fund "an extraordinarily diverse group of vital and talented artists, both emerging and established," officials said.

The selection panelists for this year’s awards were Letitia Fernandez-Ivins, L.A. Metro Director of Public Arts & Design; Leslie Tamaribuchi, former Producing Director of the CalArts Center for New Performance and Director of the Japan House Gallery, and City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Manager Rochelle Branch.

For more information click here. An archive of past recipients may be found here