Martha Whittington

This site is a visual diary recording inspiration, work, process, and the  successes  of work being produced for a MOCA GA WAP solo show.

The Grant

MOCA GA Working Artist Project an award for metropolitan Atlanta visual artists of merit

MOCA GA’s Working Artists Project (WAP) is an awards program to support established visual artists of merit who reside in the Atlanta metropolitan area. This initiative provides an unparalleled level of support for individual artists, expand the Museum’s mission, and promote Atlanta as a city where artists can live, work, and thrive. Each project year, jurors select three visual artists to receive the Award. Representing our city’s best and brightest; these artists are supported with a solo exhibition, promotion, a studio assistant, and a major stipend to create work over the course of the year. The 2010/2011 program is supported by The Charles Loridans Foundation with additional funding from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2010/2011.

2011/2012 Recipients

Brian Dettmer is originally from Chicago. He currently lives and works in Atlanta, GA. Dettmer is represented by Kinz + Tillou in New York, Packer Schopf in Chicago, MiTO in Barcelona, Toomey Tourell in San Francisco and Saltworks in Atlanta. His work has gained international acclaim through internet bloggers, and traditional media. His bibliography includes The New York Times, Modern Painters, The Village Voice, Vogue Italia, Harper’s, Time Out, Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle and National Public Radio, among several others. In the past three years he has had solo shows in New York, San Francisco, Barcelona, Chicago and Miami. His work is shown and collected throughout the U.S., Latin America and Europe and can be found in several museum exhibitions, public and private collections.

Gregor Turk received his BA from Rhodes College in Memphis, TN and his MFA from Boston University. Between degrees Turk served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Liberia, West Africa. Utilizing a variety of media, Turk’s work typically incorporates mapping imagery. His “49th Parallel Project” focused on the 1,270 mile section of the U.S./Canadian border which he traveled by foot and bike in 1992. The project was part of the 1996 Cultural Olympiad and included a documentary broadcast on public television and a large body of artwork (produced over a three-year period) that was exhibited internationally. Also in 1996 Turk was the recipient of the “Alternate Visions Grant” funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Warhol Foundation. In addition to numerous exhibitions, he has completed several public art commissions including permanent installations at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta and Jacksonville International Airports and a series of outdoor sculptures at a fire station.

Martha Whittington is an Atlanta-based sculptor and educator. Whittington received her MFA in sculpture from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA and her BA in sculpture from Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, MO. Whittington has been the recipient of a 3 month artist residency at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art. In support of her work, she has also been awarded grants from the Office of Cultural Affairs Atlanta. Much of her work involves small objects, multiplied many times in controlled, site-specific arrangements. She has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally with shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville, FL; the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center; Gallery Rebolloso in Minneapolis, MN; and the AMOA-Laguna Gloria Art Museum in Austin, TX. Whittington is also a professor of foundations studies at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta, GA.

2011/2012 MOCA GA Working Artists Project (WAP)’s guest juror was Michael Rooks, Wieland Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the High Museum of Art.