Ellsworth Artist Residency Program

A native of Los Angeles, Mike Saijo guides his viewers through the complexities of “memory reconstruction”: how memories are built, what goes into the creation of memory, and how it is preserved. Saijo touches on themes of loss, entropy, transformation and mapping the unconscious. Influenced, in part, by ancient manuscripts, he reclaims history by redefining it based on human experience. Saijo transforms objects like books, office supplies, and building materials to construct art with a wide range of subject matter, from mid-century modern architecture, WWII photos, cinema stills, imaginary landscapes and ethnographic history. Saijo cites graffiti street art and Oshuji-Japanese calligraphy as some of his chief influences, dating back to his first “book piece” made using the pages of a New Testament Bible issued by the US Army in 1944. His artwork has been exhibited internationally, and at shows in the Japanese American National Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and the J. Paul Getty Museum. He has conducted presentations about his work at The Buckley School in Sherman Oaks and Edward Schwartz Federal Building. His work is now in the permanent collection of The Skirball Cultural Center with plans to be exhibited this year. He has recently completed a public art project commissioned by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and Department of Parks and Recreations. Saijo has also been featured in publications such as the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Dwell, and New York Magazine. His story about Intersections was recently published in the LAist website and featured on National Public Radio on 89.3 FM.

Bad Talents is the creative identity of mixed-media artist, Shelby Alexander, and the pseudonym under which she exhibits her fine art nationally. Shelby lives and works in Los Angeles. Shelby graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2014, and she also studied fashion design at Pratt Institute in NYC. Her work references the pollution of the fashion industry, while highlighting the tension between the modern experience of beauty, consumption, and industrialization—and the long-term environmental impact of the clothing we wear.

Reginald Tucker (Artist name R.Tucker) is a mixed-media artist and a trailblazer in both art and finance. Known for his innovative use of repurposed materials, Tucker’s work reflects his commitment to thinking outside the box, a theme that has defined both his personal and professional life. Without formal art training, Tucker embraced the role of an outsider, forging a unique path in both the art world and his career. In his professional life, Tucker has been a key contributor to the development of the Opportunistic Portfolio and a Unique Strategies allocation at two separate large public pension plans, helping to seed and anchor new strategies and platforms that broke away from traditional investment models. This approach of embracing non-conventional strategies mirrors his creative process in the art world, where he continually pushes boundaries by blending repurposed materials with abstract compositions. Tucker founded Recycled Abstract as a platform to explore new artistic forms that fuse the historical significance of past mediums with modern innovations that leverage tech. Through his work, he preserves the communicative power of magazines—once a dominant but now fading medium—capturing snapshots of societal norms and values that are reinterpreted through his abstract 3D collages. These pieces reflect how cultural norms evolve, giving new relevance to discarded materials. Tucker frequently exhibits in Long Beach and Los Angeles, including Culver City, Downtown LA, and Santa Monica, earning recognition for his ability to blend the past with the future. Each piece challenges conventional boundaries, offering new perspectives on art, culture, and the power of the preservation of tradition and transformation of the forgotten.

As a welding, painting, fabricating, and tattooing artist, Marina’s work is a constant manipulation of the physical: metal, paint, ink, and bodies. Plato’s inquiries into the timeless perfection of imagined geometric shapes, and into how geometries might lie behind all nature, inspire her to make objects that (though necessarily imperfect because they will never have perfect straight edges, and must eventually erode) tease our minds toward the perfect. The objects she makes — always imperfectly embodying perfection — ask viewers to drift within that gap between the non-physical, conceptual realm and our tangible, sensory experience. Marina is the recipient of the 2024 Etcheve Rising Star Fellowship and has exhibited work nationally and in Germany, including the Maryland Federation of Art, NRM Gallery, Sleep Center (New York, NY), Infinite Balcony (Brooklyn, NY), Sidestreet Arts, ADX, Past Lives, Blind Insect (Portland, OR), Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Echo Park Art Gallery, bG Gallery, and TAG Gallery (Los Angeles, CA). She holds degrees in Fine Arts and Philosophy from Parsons School of Design and Eugene Lang College in New York. She studied sculpture with Katja Strunz on a scholarship to Universität der Künste Berlin. She is currently fabricating museum exhibition displays and making ideas physical through paintings in Los Angeles.

Elena Peng is an interdisciplinary designer driven by imagination, the sense of self, and the art of fusion. She is a firm believer in the power of interdisciplinary knowledge which fuels my ability to break rules and forge new paths in fusion. As a designer with industrial design background, she cares about spirit in an unconventional way that she doesn’t just design physically. She crafts experiences spiritually. Object as her physical media to express and explaining the feeling. She explores materials like ceramics, wood, fabric, metal and any potential material to dig the fusion possibility.

Los Angeles based fine artist Lamar Jones is a gifted painter celebrated for his bold and expressive mixed media canvases. His work delves into urban landscapes, cultural identity, and symbolism, drawing inspiration from the rich history of resilience within his community. Through skillful figurative painting and a profound command of various paint mediums, Jones invites viewers to contemplate the intricacies of the human experience. His art effectively bridges tradition and innovation, underscoring the enduring impact of creativity in inspiring, provoking, and unifying audiences.