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Artist Receives Second-Ever Ucross Fellowship For Native American Artists

Brenda Mallory

Portland, Oregon-based artist Brenda Mallory received the Ucross Fellowship for Native American Artists. She will spend a month in Ucross, receive a stipend of $2,000, and the residency will culminate in an exhibition of her work.

Mallory is the second Native American artist to receive the fellowship.

The Ucross residency program offers living accommodations, food and workspace to approximately 85 artists each year.

Mallory’s mixed media work combines found objects from industrial and natural origin, addressing the tenuous connections between humans and nature. She said her Native American background often inspires her art.

“I think it does influence my work, in this interest I have in something that has been broken or disrupted, which has happened to native cultures across this country. And a lot of people like to think that Native Americans are gone or destroyed - their cultures - but we’re very strong cultures. And even if we don’t look like what Hollywood thinks we look like, we’re still here,” she said.

Although much of her work is in sculpture, Mallory plans to experiment in two dimensions while at Ucross, working mostly with paper, drawing and glue.

Mallory said her work is about disruption, which is tied to how Native American history was disrupted.

“A lot of my work is made from things that are broken and put together, or lines that are drawn or sewn, that I then cut apart and repair in a way in which the repair is obvious as I can make it. I’m trying to say the repaired line or the repair can be as interesting or as good as the pristine state of something,” said Mallory.

The Ucross Foundation accepts applications for residencies and fellowships from visual artists, writers, composers, choreographers and interdisciplinary artists.

London is a senior at the University of Wyoming studying Film Theory and Media Production. He grew up listening to Wyoming Public Radio, and has always had a fascination with unique human interest stories.
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