MCBA/Jerome Book Arts Residency XVII

Experience the exciting new work of our most recent recipients: photographer Christopher Selleck; papermaker Jelani Ellis; and artist and printmaker Louise Fisher.

About the Artists:

Christopher Selleck was born in Augusta, GA. He received his BFA in Photography from the University of MN-Twin Cities in 2013 and his MFA in Visual Studies and Photography from the Minneapolis College of Art & Design in 2016. Selleck currently divides his time between an active studio practice and teaching photography at the Minneapolis College. He has been exhibited and published both Nationally and Regionally, including a notable solo exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Using sports and masculinity as a lens to view identity, his various projects of the last few years have focused on this area of identity construction.  His current projects address issues of hyper-masculinity, sexuality and the male body. His practice has tended to focus on portrait and self-portrait based projects, often utilizing formal studio strategies that prioritize the engagement between the artist and the model. Photographic prints and their installation have been central in his practice, but his work has also incorporated video, sound, printmaking and sculpture. The sense of compartmentalization in book arts, with box making in particular, allows for a containment of objects/images/ideas, while the various book forms simultaneously reveal more to the viewer through discovery. Primarily a self-taught book artist through trial and error, Selleck has been working closely with collaborators who help fabricate his more complicated structures and designs.

Jelani Ellis received her BFA at Virginia Commonwealth University where she studied illustration. Since graduating, her practice has grown to incorporate papermaking. Her paper is created through play and experimentation where she explores the potential of materials and methods to make paper pulp, often focusing on repurposing foraged materials and paper junk destined for the trash and how these materials affect the “identity of a sheet of paper. In this artistic shift, she is strengthening her voice and practice through residencies with Public Functionary, Minnesota Center for Book Arts/Jerome and the Highpoint Printmaking Center.

Louise Fisher is an Minnesota-based visual artist and holds an MFA from Arizona State University and a BFA from the University of Northern Iowa. Fisher currently resides in the Twin Cities, where she teaches drawing and printmaking courses in the Art Department at Normandale Community College. Louise has exhibited both nationally and internationally, and her work has been included in private and public collections such as the Zuckerman Museum of Art, the University of North Florida and the Wichita Art Museum. Her most recent accomplishments include receiving the 2018 SGC International Graduate Fellowship Award and the 2021 Jordan Holly Fellowship Award as an artist-in-residence at In Cahoots. In her work, Louise explores themes of landscape and environmental psychology through prints, artist books and installations.

Gallery Hours:
Tuesday–Saturday, 10am–5pm
Thursdays until 7pm