In alphabetical order . . .
Mahwish Chishty is Associate Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and other fellowships and awards. Artist residencies include Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, New York; Chicago Cultural Center; and Vermont Studio Center. She holds a BFA with a concentration in miniature painting from the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan and an MFA in studio arts from the University of Maryland in College Park.
Chishty combines new media and conceptual work with materials and techniques of South Asian art and craft traditions. Her work has been exhibited at the University of Technology Sydney Gallery in Australia; Boghossian Foundation–Villa Empain in Brussels; Utah Museum of Contemporary Art in Salt Lake City; Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in New York City; Imperial War Museum in London; and Gandhara Art Gallery in Karachi. Chishty’s work is in public and private collections, including the Foreign Office in Islamabad; Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka; and Imperial War Museum, London.
www.mahachishty.com
www.mahachishty.com/contact
Barbara Lussier is a signature member of New England Plein Air Painters, elected to the Hudson Valley Art Association, Lyme Art Association and Rockport Art Association. She is also juried member of the Academic Artists Association and the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts. Her work has been chosen for the 2010 Springfield Art Museum, Academic Art Association Invitational Exhibition. She has served as Curator for the Lyme Art Association New England landscape invitational show for several years and membership and exhibition juror for the Rockport Art Association. Her work is published in Great Day Trips to Connecticut’s Critical Habitats. She has taught plein air painting privately and through various educational institutions, including the Lyme Art Association, where she served as president of the Board of Directors. Her work has been selected by the American ambassador for exhibition at the American Embassy in Taipei, Taiwan.
Barbara holds a B.F.A. degree with high honors from the University of Hartford, where she studied with Rudolph Zallinger and Paul Zimmerman. She also studied at Ringling School of Art, Hartford College for Women, and Lyme Academy. Her work has been exhibited throughout New England and internationally and she has served on various juries in New England. She is represented in a number of corporate and private collections and has won numerous awards, including the 2022 Lyme Art Association annual elected artists painting award, the 2019 Rockport Art Association’s Donald Allen Mosher gold medal and award for excellence in traditional oil painting, the 2019 Rockport Art Association’s Aldro Hibbard memorial award for outstanding landscape, the Connecticut Academy of Fine Art painting award, the Rockport Art Association awards For excellence in painting on numerous exhibitions, the Academic Artist Association painting award, the Hudson Valley Art Association’s Isabella W. Steinschneider award. In 2018, numerous paintings were awarded top 15% distinction by the Jury for the Fine Art Views painting competition. Snow Light in Vermont was awarded first place at the 2011 Tolland Art Center exhibition. Morning Fog received second place at the Monson Art Association. Passing Storm was awarded 2012 best in show at the Tolland Art Association exhibition. Harbor Lights was awarded the 2013 Tolland Art Center’s Rubino award. Pleasant Valley received the Bernard Corey award at the Academic Artists Association.
www.barbaralussiergallery.com
babsart23@gmail.com
Lauren Szumita is the Curator at the Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg MA.
In 2018-2021 she was Curatorial Assistant of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Worcester Art Museum. At WAM, she oversees the Central Massachusetts Artists Initiative, helped to organize “Photo Revolution: Andy Warhol to Cindy Sherman,” and works extensively with WAM’s permanent collection.
In 2017-2018, she served as FAM’s Koch Curatorial Fellow. During her Fellowship, she worked with Crossman on the exhibitions “People Watching: Then and Now,” and “Fantastical, Political.”
She co-curated “The Collected Image: Photography Portfolios” with FAM’s Consulting Curator for Photography Stephen Jareckie, and organized “Mirrors and Windows: Photographs from FAM’s Permanent Collection,” as well as the 83rd Regional Exhibition of Art & Craft.
Szumita earned a master’s degree in the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Oregon, a bachelor’s degree from Boston College, and a Certificate in Museum Studies from Tufts University. She will begin her work at FAM on Jan. 26.
www.fitchburgartmuseum.org
lszumita@fitchburgartmuseum.org
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