2026
Four Artists were chosen for support grants from 73 applicants.
Nadia Coen
Jenny Lynn
Shelley Horton-Trippe
Paul F. Yount
Nadia Cohen
"Do Not Be Distracted by Surfaces"
Three-channel video installation with mirrors, light, and
sound, Variable dimensions 2023
https://www.theincliningexperiment.com/
The Inclining Experiment is an ongoing body of work in which I explore how light, language, and abstraction interact with architecture, landscape, and public space. Working across installations, works on paper, time-based projection, and printed matter, my practice investigates how small analogue gestures expand into large-scale environmental encounters.
I am currently developing new work for upcoming opportunities, including an invitation to present both an indoor exhibition and a site-specific outdoor projection with VisioniAltre Gallery in Venice in August 2026. This next phase requires both conceptual development and logistical support to realize the work at scale. By transforming existing surfaces into temporary fields of time-based light and language, the work invites viewers to reconsider the environmental and spatial systems that shape everyday experience. This grant would provide critical support for maintaining my studio and continuing my practice, including materials, development time, and technical assistance, enabling the work to evolve across studio, site, and public space.
Jenny Lynn
“Rooftop,” from Little Rituals
Hand-printed silver gelatin photograph
16 x 20 inches
1979 negative/printed 2002
www.jennylynn.com
This year, 2026, marks the 50th year of my career as a photo-based artist. Over the years, I have developed several distinct yet interconnected bodies of work, exhibited in museums and galleries, realized public art commissions, and have taught widely. While these accomplishments have been meaningful and gratifying, opportunities have lately become less frequent. Still, I remain committed to my practice, and I continue to seek new ways to share my work.
Recently, I discovered a newly opened gallery in New Jersey, with which I felt an immediate affinity, and arranged a studio visit. During the visit, I was invited to present two solo exhibitions: one in spring 2027 focused on my black-and-white work, and a second in 2028 devoted to color. Each exhibition will run for approximately two months and include about 20 key works—conceptual photographs, unique collages, and sculptural pieces—spanning 1976 to the present. I think of my work as visual poetry, in which I explore the everyday mysteries of and connections between objects, tableaux and locales.
Receiving a Tree of Life grant at this key moment in my career would provide crucial support in realizing my 2027 exhibition. It would allow me to engage new audiences, sustaining and extending my lifelong artistic practice.
Shelley Horton-Trippe
"Grail," acrylic on canvas, 86" x 144", 2018
www.shelleyhortontrippe.com
Because this artist's life is like a circus of events, sideshows and packing up the tents, I am asking the Tree of Life for assistance in simplifying a difficult transition with many moving parts.
The Tree of Life grant could change the course of my life. This funding would allow me financially to maneuver through the next difficult transition, while saving an archive not only of an artist, but of an entire social history of the Santa Fe art world and my teaching at College of Santa Fe and Institute of American Indian Art. This funding would also allow my painting to continue through these challenges allowing me to honor my commitments and grow my practice and standing as an artist. Overall, the funding would importantly allow a better quality of life and artistic stability and continuation through these oppressive and challenging times.
Paul F. Yount
“Give Them A Sad Story It Will Ease Their Conscience...Once Upon A Time,”
Oil On Canvas, 60” x 120” x 1”, 2024
A story that has sadness, melancholy, pathos will pull the reader or viewer into the moment and create an unusual bond. I am in the middle canvas shown vulnerable crying and delicately broken. This condition pulls masked humans to stare and feed off of my misery and pain.
http://www.paulfyount.com/
I paint the social, political, sexual unrest of our culture in a satirical, absurd colorful whimsical fantasy world. I am inspired by all elements of and resources around me in which I transform the horrors of our society into a absurdist play of what has been, what is, and what will be in the future. The interplay of what is happening and what has happened is a tool for me to use in an ironic manner with ideas, images and thoughts shedding a new vision to the Post Humanistic world. While humanity delights in wallowing in the muck, I take the premise of our actions and deeds and turn them into a cautionary tale that invites the viewer to unravel the mystery in the paintings. The mystery in each painting is the purpose for each viewer to bring their experiences into the narrative and plant a “new seed” of hope that will grow and flourish into the new world. The world where the Post Human does not take, is not selfish, and is genuinely connected to the natural world. Through this silence, humanity will slow down to stop the vampirism of the past. The scars of hate and indifference and intolerance of the present will be replaced by acceptance and respect of a future race. Silence will allow a more acute sense to listen inwardly and reflect on what is the purpose to our core existence and where we have originated from, and how this is an effect on why we are on this planet. I will exhibit a total of 8 triptych/4 diptych large-scale oil paintings on canvas and in the middle a stylized hanged tree sculpture (canvas painted on both sides, cut out) to symbolize the journey and hope of life. This tree will have a audio video on the floor to represent nature in a distant land and a microphone next to the tree to enable the spectator to participate and interact verbally in the moment. My solo exhibition will be a silent introspective journey into the chaos and the confusion of the current social, sexual, psychological and political climate that is at odds with the humanity in our culture. I will show how the progression of our species has rapidly accelerated in all aspects and how this voracious appetite to conquer, manipulate and destroy has permeated the fiber of our existence. My art is the tool to repair and to shed an understanding to the chaos and madness in our world. The eclectic, interactive and large-scale exhibition will immerse the audience in a time and place that is connected and disconnected in this Yountian world. As a queer painter I have developed a heightened awareness of the human condition in all aspects of our existence. This awareness is shown in my art brings a new vocabulary and awareness in order to project a new Post Humanistic perspective on our lives. I want to remove the taboos and preconceptions that are a safeguard that block an open connection. SILENCE.silent will allow the public to experience my world and to relate their experiences through talks and discussions with a collective experience.