Double Exposure: New York Recognizes South African Artists

Recipients of the Tierney Fellowship for photography, Monique Pelser and Vincent Bezuidenhout, are the first two African artists to be awarded a place at the prestigious School of Visual Arts (SVA) PhotoGlobal programme in New York.

Recipients of the Tierney Fellowship for photography, Monique Pelser and Vincent Bezuidenhout, are the first two African artists to be awarded a place at the prestigious School of Visual Arts (SVA) PhotoGlobal programme in New York. Both artists were awarded a full scholarship, with living costs funded by the Tierney Family Foundation.

The SVA is considered to be one of the leading Art Schools in the United States. PhotoGlobal, founded by Stephen Frailey [Chair of Photography at SVA and Editor of Dear Dave Magazine] has designed the one-year program for International Photographers to develop work through critique sessions, lectures, museum and gallery visits and dialogue with faculty and other participants.

Both Pelser and Bezuidenhout exhibit widely in South Africa and abroad. A graduate from Rhodes University, Pelser received a distinction for her MFA in Visual Art in 2006. She has lectured at both Rhodes Fine Art Department and Wits School of Arts. Pelser currently has work on a show entitled Temoin, which is touring the African Continent in 2013, and her work ONS LAND/OUR LAND will be exhibited at the Oliwenhuis in Bloemfontien from the 3rd October 2013.

Bezuidenhout, graduated with an MFA from the Michaelis School of Art, University of Cape Town in 2011 with distinction. In 2012 he was an artist in residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. He is currently a top ten finalist in the 2013 ABSA ‘L Atelier, on show at the ABSA Gallery in Johannesburg and this exhibition will travel to Cape Town in November. He teaches photography at Ruth Prowse School of Fine Art in Cape Town.

Both artists will be exhibiting work at Photoville in Brooklyn, New York starting on the 19th to the 29th of September 2013.