ARC 25
Group Exhibition
June 7 - August 25, 2024
OPENING EVENT: June 7 | 5 - 9 PM
The Artist-in-Residence Cohort (ARC) identifies and supports local emerging artists poised for careers as dedicated artists. This year jurors Stephanie Boateng and Natalie Hijinx chose four exciting and emerging painters; Noel Cross, Cony Madariaga, Nasir Young, and Zifeng Zang. These artists have engaged in intensive professional development seminars, formal and informal critiques, and practical workshops to prepare for their culminating exhibition. This exhibition is the culmination of ten months of the artist’s experimentation, planning, and growth, and showcases their collective creative accomplishments.
This final exhibition illustrates the determination of each artist to grow and excel within their individual artistic practice while highlighting their unique inherent skills. Noel Cross’s hyper-realistic paintings question our relationship to kitsch and materialism, enlarging their presence through contrast and bold colors. In another vein of realism, Nasir Young’s painted documentations connect viewers to urban landscapes that are familiar and place-based, yet abstracted and foreign through Young’s gestural style. Zifeng Zang’s complete abstractions similarly prioritize gestures with rich hues of color that range in opacity and texture, oscillating between washes and hard lines to create immersive fields. Bold color and line define Connie Madariaga’s vivid paintings that conceptually span from narrative figuration to abstracted shapes, all while showcasing Madariaga’s attuned skill of color and composition.
At the start, each brought unique career goals and varied professional experience, however, they came to a unified resolution—a commitment to fully engage in the career development opportunities of the residency. While the museum provided resources (opportunities to meet professionals, funding to supply their studio, space, and time), it required individual initiative to challenge themselves to experiment with new techniques and ideas, to be open to career-defining feedback, and to authentically hone their craft that shaped the success of their final project.
Participating Artists: Noel Cross, Cony Madariaga, Nasir Young, Zifeng Zang
Carole Bieber & Marc Ham Gallery
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Noel Cross is a contemporary painter and photographer from New Jersey. As a young artist, Cross attended Studio Incamminati Atelier in Philadelphia, PA. She then went on to receive her BA from Rutgers University before completing her MFA at the University of Delaware. Her most recent works are grounded in research exploring American commodity culture, the investigation of collective cultural memory, and challenging learned assumptions. The work honors the tradition of painting as an enduring cultural practice while exploring the curiosity of play. As pictorial competition redefines our contemporary visual experience, the work invites you to be fascinated by the act of looking.
Constanza Madariaga, also known as Cony Madariaga, is a Delaware-based Artist, born in Santiago, Chile. She has been in love with Art since she was a child, and creating has been her therapy and safe space to express herself throughout her lifetime. Being able to have access to art classes in middle school and high school allowed her to explore different mediums and techniques. Although she did not continue her formal education in the Arts, she has always gravitated towards it, and always made a space in her life to be able to create. In 2019, she had her first exhibition. Since then she has participated in a number of exhibitions in Delaware and surrounding cities, including the 2023 Artist Fellowship through the Delaware Division of the Arts.
Nasir Young received his BFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 2020, he was awarded The Raymond D. & Estelle Rubens Travel Scholarship to go to London. Young was awarded an illuminate arts grant in 2021 and 2022. He was the Second-place winner of the Philadelphia Sketch Club 158th exhibition of small oils and a 2022 Da Vinci Art Alliance Resident. Nasir’s primary source of imagery is the everyday scenes of urban inner-city life. He has had multiple group shows in Philadelphia and online exhibitions.
Zifeng Zang is an accomplished artist with a wealth of education and experience in the field. Her love for art began at a young age and grew as she received formal education, including earning dual BFA degrees from Jilin University in China and West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Her career experience includes serving as a senior graphic designer and brand manager at 4A Advertising Agencies and tech giants in China, where she honed her skills in creating imagery, characters and advertisement scripts using digital tools. Despite this, she always felt drawn to the traditional art of painting. This led her to pursue further education in the field and to study painting in the US, where she is now focused on developing her favorite abstract style, infused with her personal experiences and unique perspective.
