SITTING WITH CHAIRS

ABOUT ANN WELLES, CO-CURATOR:

Ann Welles resides on a multigenerational farm in Big Flats, NY, with studio and shop space at her disposal for projects and artistic endeavors. While recognized primarily for founding and running Exhibit A, a contemporary art space in Corning, NY, Welles is pleased to once again be investing in her own creative practice.

In 1989 Welles graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor's of Fine Art in Metalsmithing from Syracuse University, then pursued a career as an exhibiting artist, working at various times in non-ferrous metals, oil painting, sculpture, and mixed media. She has been an active organizer in the arts community, lectured at multiple colleges and arts organizations, and presented professional development workshops for visual artists. She often serves on grant review panels, juries art exhibitions, and guest-curates. Welles earned an Arts Partnership Award from the ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes for her contributions to arts and cultural life in the Southern Finger Lakes Region of New York State.

Until 2020, Exhibit A featured a full calendar of changing exhibitions and programming, including an annual Glass Invitational and the Black and White Biennial. In 2014 Exhibit A made its debut at Miami Art Week, participating in Aqua Art Miami; close to 11,000 people attended. Welles oversaw the gallery's participation in subsequent art fairs and off-site events. Previously Welles ran the exhibition program at 171 Cedar Arts Center's Houghton Gallery from 2005 - 2011. Since the pandemic Welles continues to promote artists, work with collectors, and curate projects, including, Surface Tension at Novado Gallery, Jersey City, NJ, and Altered at Trumansburg Conservatory of Fine Arts, Trumansburg, NY. 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Mara Baldwin is an artist whose work focuses on the impossible dream of utopia and asks if a perfect life can include the imperfect feelings of failure, loneliness, and dissatisfaction. Baldwin's multidisciplinary and research-based work uses textiles and drawings to create serial and narrative forms. She shares her time between Ithaca and the Hudson Valley, where she teaches drawing at Bard College. She is the recipient of a 2022 New York State Council on the Arts grant and has been awarded residencies at, among others, McColl Center (Summer 2025), Women’s Studio Workshop, Wassaic Project, Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency program, Ucross Foundation, Millay Colony for the Arts, Djerassi, and Saltonstall. Recent solo and group exhibitions at venues including the Everson Museum of Art (Syracuse), Herbert F. Johnson Art Museum at Cornell University; Rosefsky Gallery at Binghamton University; String Room Gallery at Wells College; Davis Gallery at Hobart and William Smith Colleges; Concepto Hudson; and Corners Gallery, Ithaca, New York. Upcoming solo exhibitions at Dowd Gallery (SUNY Cortland, January-March 2025), Albany International Airport (June-October 2025) and Handwerker Gallery (Ithaca College, October-December 2025).

Rachel Dickinson is the author of award-winning books and articles, Rachel Dickinson began painting about 5 year ago. Particularly drawn to still life and plein air painting, she's visited coastal Maine several times to work with the artist Tim Horn.  Her work has been shown at Corners Gallery, Ithaca, NY, and at The Freeville Literary Society, Freeville, NY.  She was awarded a NYS Rural and Traditional Arts Fellowship in 2024 with funding from the Governor's Office, New York State Legislature, and New York Council on the Arts. Dickinson writes and paints from her home in Freeville, NY.

Ariel Bullion Ecklund (co-curator of SITTING WITH CHAIRS) holds a BFA in Art Photography from the School of Visual and Performing Arts and a Master’s Degree in Museum Studies, both from Syracuse University. Following earning her Master of Arts, Ariel worked as a freelance photographer and in the Dept. of Preservation and Conservation at Cornell University Libraries. In 2010, she purchased Corners Gallery and has since curated and mounted over 100 physical exhibitions during her 15-year career as a gallerist. Ariel has exhibited her work in galleries and museums throughout the region and her work is in many private collections in the United States. She has been the recipient of numerous awards in juried exhibitions and was the recipient of a Kodak Merit Scholarship. In 2021, she was awarded the Cayuga Arts Collective Paddle Grant, to aid in her ongoing ceramic education. In 2023, she was a co-juror for the Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts Summer Residency Program and was a guest artist in the Finger Lakes Pottery Tour. In January 2025, Ariel’s ceramic and wood wall lighting will debut at The Interior Design Show in Toronto. Ariel is represented by Hawk + Hive (Andes, NY), Vessels + Sticks (Toronto) and Studio Tashtego (Cold Spring, NY).

Jack Elliott is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Centered Design at Cornell University, where he teaches studios on design and conducts research on environmental issues in the built environment. Throughout his academic career, Jack uses the designed object or building, situated in a real-world context, to stimulate discourse, pull technology, and create impactful interventions. Jack’s sculptural endeavors began in his undergraduate years as a minor field of study, working under Peter Hide and Neil Fiertel at the University of Alberta and apprenticing with Gary Jones, a contemporary sculptor working in Edmonton. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Physics with a minor in sculpture at the University of Alberta (1978), as well as two Master’s degrees, one in architecture (1991) and one in product design (1993) from the University of Calgary. Jack began his academic career at Georgia Tech as an assistant professor in the Industrial Design department of the College of Architecture, before moving on to a position at Cornell University in the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis in the College of Human Ecology. At Cornell, Jack developed programs of research in sustainable structures (Triakonta System), carbon-neutral concrete (Charcrete) and rusticity in studio furniture (Arborworks). Jack’s work has been awarded by 2019 Trustees Award from the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY, a 2018 Visiting Artist in Residence at the American Academy in Rome, a 2017 New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship, 2015 Atkinson Center for Sustainable Futures Residency Fellowship at Cornell, the 2014 Leon Andrus Award for Best in Show from the Adkins Arboretum, and the 2013 Award of Excellence, also from the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY.

Eric Jones joined the Buffalo AKG Art Museum in 2015 as Public Art Project Coordinator. His collaboration on Public Art Initiative projects with the Curator of Public Art and fellow Coordinator have redefined the aesthetic landscape in Western New York. His list of completed projects include internationally renowned artists and muralists such as Hervé Tullet, Eduardo Kobra, Louise “Ouizi” Jones, and Tavar Zawacki, in addition to numerous other national, regional, and locally recognized artists. Jones’s efforts during the Buffalo AKG’s campus development and expansion project helped activate Albright-Knox Northland to continue engaging community audiences. Jones previously worked in community art center outreach programs in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Richmond, Virginia, where he developed and initiated city-wide arts and culture programming. He also held a middle-school art teacher position before moving to Buffalo. Jones received his BFA in Art Education from Virginia Commonwealth University and upholds an active studio practice.

Kevin Kegler has been an active studio artist exhibiting sculpture, paintings, and prints nationally, internationally and throughout Western New York. He is a professor in the Visual and Performing Arts Department at Daemen College in Amherst, NY where he directs the Sculpture and Graphic Design programs. His course work has focused on sculpture and visual communication and he has taught courses in London, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic. His art was recently exhibited at The Nolanda Gallery, Boulder; Gallery Lane Cove, Australia; The Burchfield-Penney Art Center, Buffalo; The Sculpture Center, Cleveland; The Corridors Gallery, Buffalo; Healdsburg Center for the Arts, California; Indigo Art, Buffalo; and at the Highline Lofts, NYC. 

Minna Resnick has lived in Ithaca, NY, since 1987, where she also maintains her studio. She has shown both nationally and internationally and has work in over 60 public and private collections. Her work is represented in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, NY; the Denver Art Museum, CO; the New York Public Library; the Newark Museum, NJ; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England; and Kunsthaus Grenchen, Switzerland, among others. Resnick’s work is also represented in over 40 university and municipal collections.  In 1980, she was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and she received New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships in 1991 and 1995.  In 1999, she was awarded a Constance Saltonstall (NY) artist fellowship.  In 2007 and 2009, she organized an international printmaking exhibition and related symposium in China. From 2016-2020, she was a visiting artist in residence for 5 weeks in both the Printmedia and Drawing Department at Australian National University, and at Megalo Print Studios, Canberra, Australia.

Carla Stetson lives and works near Ithaca, NY, in a converted 1860’s era barn that is also home to quite a few wild creatures besides its human occupants. She and her partner have a small apiary and harvest honey. Stetson came to New York State in 2008 to teach art at Ithaca College. She previously lived for 20 years in Duluth, Minnesota, where she is best known for public sculpture, especially the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial, the first large scale memorial to victims of a lynching in the United States. Her recent awards include selections as a finalist for a NYSCA/NYFA Artists Fellowship in 2023 in Drawing, and Best in Show at the Southern Tier Biennial in 2022. Residencies include the Weir Farm National Historical Park, the McColl Center in Charlotte, the Saltonstall Foundation in New York, the Jentel Foundation in Wyoming, DRAW International in France, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Art Center in Nebraska. Her work is in collections of the Carolinas Healthcare, Charlotte, NC; the City of Duluth, MN; the Minneapolis Institute of Art; the Tweed Museum of Art; and the Walker Art Center, as well as numerous private collections.

Ellen Weider lives in New York City. She received her MFA from Pratt Institute and a BA from Hunter College. Collections include: New York Public Library, Prints and Drawings Collection; Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division; Rutgers Print Study Archive, Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ; Memorial Sloan Kettering Art Collection, NY, NY; Capital Group Art Collection, NY, NY; Fidelity Investments Art Collection, Boston, MA; Georgetown University Art Collection, Washington, DC; Free Library of Philadelphia, Phil., PA; Newark Public Library Print Collection, Newark, NJ; and many private collections. Her work is included in the Bau Contentiore di Cultura Contemporanea, N. 18, 2021-22. Her catalog “E.W. Squared: Ellen Weider Drypoint” is in the collection at Harvard’s Widener Library. She recently published the book Ellen Weider Paintings.

Ann Welles (co-curator of SITTING WITH CHAIRS) resides on a multigenerational farm in Big Flats, NY, with studio and shop space at her disposal for projects and artistic endeavors. While recognized primarily for founding and running Exhibit A, a contemporary art space in Corning, NY, Welles is pleased to once again be investing in her own creative practice. “My new work is informed by my time organizing events - the synergy of bringing people together. Chairs, both literally and figuratively, are people and gatherings.”

Melissa Zarem grew up with artistic roots in two very different cities, New York City and Savannah, Georgia. She earned a  BFA from Cornell University and subsequently relocated to Ithaca in 2006.  Zarem has been represented by both Corners Gallery (Ithaca, NY) and Exhibit A, (Corning, NY).  She became a featured artist at Ithaca College (2013), Aqua Art Miami (2014), and at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Cornell University (2015) where her work was acquired for their permanent collection.  Her work has been exhibited at the Abrons Art Center (New York, NY), the Arnot Museum (Elmira, NY), Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center (Auburn, NY), Novado Gallery (Jersey City, NJ), and  SUNY Corning Community College (Corning, NY). Zarem has been awarded grants, and fellowships from the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts (2016), the Vermont Studio Center (2023), Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County (2016 and 2023) and the Legacy Foundation (2024). Spring Loaded, a book of her black and white drawings was published by EYE Gallery (2016).  Stone Canoe Literary Journal is publishing Zarem’s work in its upcoming 2025 issue.  Zarem’s recent projects have been in collaboration with other artists, including a pandemic related project called No Words: a Postcard-Based Conversation Between Two Artists with Elise Nicol.  The latter was recently exhibited at Cornell University’s School of Architecture Art and Planning in Close Work, Distanced: Pandemic Collaborations.