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KORRY FELLOWS
Our distinguished Korry Fellows are selected through a highly competitive process in order to activate our Space and fill our walls with outstanding local art . Korry Fellows each curate a 10-week exhibition in our main gallery, and work with the Resident Artists on their class curricula. They will provide mentorship, workshops and educational opportunities to our students and the public at large.
ISABELLA MONTENEGRO
Timing is everything. Yet, the thing with timing is that you cannot control it. The clock does not stop, you can’t go back in time, and you cannot fast forward. The challenge with timing is to fully embrace being here, being present, in the moment. It has taken me time to learn to keep my head up and keep my eyes open because you never know who you may meet, what opportunities there may be, where you might end up, and your why. My why is to inspire those around me to carefully take a look, take just one second, and take everything in. There is no better time than right now.
AISHA NAILAH
Aisha was born and raised in Bridgeport, CT, currently a Reads Artspace member and resident. She holds a bachelor's in art therapy and is a certified special education teacher and teaching artist. She's a multidisciplinary artist. Her focus is mainly abstract and abstract figurative multimedia works, recently adding murals and public art to her list of skills. She combines a love of color and texture, often working fabrics, and paper into her pieces as well as using paint and ink. Her work concerns itself mainly with the feeling, color and spiritual vibrancy of the composition. Aisha is very inspired culturally being an African Diasporan woman of Costa Rican descent and by street art, especially the free forms and colors found in the styles and calligraphic movements. Aisha began exhibiting her art in 2010. Since stepping into the arts she has curated multiple large scale exhibits at Reads Artspace, exhibited nationally and internationally. She has also served as a curator at BLENDS gallery in Bridgeport from 2017-2019.
CARLOS RM
Carlos RM was born in Bogota, Colombia on March 9th, 1981. He grew up in Villa del Prado, a neighborhood in the outskirts of the city with his two older sisters. At the age of 9, Carlos’s parents enrolled him in oil painting classes with artist Maria Elena Gallo. In 1994, due to the instability of the country at the time, his family decided to relocate to the United States. In 1997 after visiting the studio of artist Miguel Malgaret, Carlos was inspired to pursue art as a career. From 1998 to 2002 Carlos worked and studied in Malgaret’s studio. In 2012, Carlos moved to New York City where he enrolled in Robert Cenedella’s class at the Art Students League of New York while working as an art handler for art galleries, museums and auction houses. In the summer of 2020 due to the pandemic Carlos moved out of the city to the near town of Norwalk, CT where he is painting fulltime.
JERRI GRAHAM
Jerri Graham is a photographer and writer purposefully planted in Westport where she lives with her daughter and a house of pets. Capturing life through imagery has been her language for over 35 years. A government-trained photographer, Jerri began shooting as a teen with her father who taught her the importance of 「telling all of the story」 through images.
Over the years, Ms. Graham has made her life as a writer, radio-show host, editor, teacher, foodpreneur, and freelance photographer on three continents. Through her lens, she captures life as she sees it and the stories she wants to tell. From street photography to her portraits of the known and the known to few, her priority remains constant: portraying the authentic human experience, via the grains of light and life that she sees through her lens. She sees her subjects as art-in-life, and insists that each of us is worthy of being on display and being heard.
The Westport Permanent Arts Collection recently acquired two of Ms. Graham’s prints and she has sells limited-edition street photography to private collectors in the region.
As a Korry Fellow, Jerri looks forward to creating a marriage between her images and her words in a multi-sensory storytelling exhibition where sound, story, and imagery come to life.
SUSAN HARDESTY
Susan has curated exhibitions for many years. She began at The Institute for Art & Urban Resources, The Clocktower, and PS 1, alternative spaces, promoting young, emerging artists. After a year of studying art in Rome, Susan returned to NYC and worked as Registrar for The Chase Manhattan Art Program. Soon, she became a curator and traveled nationally and internationally visiting local artists and acquiring art for Chase regional offices. She also curated traveling exhibitions from the Chase Collection.
Susan worked at Silvermine Arts Center as Gallery Director but soon left to open an Art Advisory with a partner. They worked with private collectors and major corporations, including SONY and Cadbury. While working as a consultant, Susan directed local art programs for Mustard Seed and Side By Side.
For the past 20 years, Susan was Director of Exhibitions and The Collection at Norwalk Community College. She curated and installed over 200 exhibitions.
SARAH KING
Sarah King is a painter, sculptor and children’s books illustrator who lives and works in Stamford Conn. Currently She is exploring the ever evolving theme of motherhood through a different variety mediums, all rooted in observation and her own experiences.
IYABA MANDINGO
I am honored to be a Korry Fellow. This recognition represents another show of encouragement and support from my peers and fellow art lovers. I have always been impressed with the collective of artists in Fairfield County. The Norwalk Art Space is an opportunity to bring these talents together to bring national attention to our state, to inspire all the budding homegrown artists who often imagine having to leave Connecticut for exposure. I am the product of a Stamford Art and English teacher who saw past the stereotypes of my demographic to encourage a shy immigrant boy to explore his imagination. I want to continue to pay that gift forward.
TARA BLACKWELL
Tara Blackwell is a mixed media pop artist working in Connecticut and New York. Raised in a household of artists, Tara was immersed in differing artistic styles and modalities from a young age. Experimenting with a variety of mediums and techniques, Tara employs bold colors, layers, and texture, often incorporating nostalgic pop culture to explore contemporary social issues.
LIZZY ROCKWELL
Lizzy Rockwell is the illustrator of numerous books and games for children and is the author and illustrator of Good Enough to Eat: A Kid’s Guide to Food and Nutrition, The Busy Body Book: A Kid’s Guide to Fitness, Plants Feed Me, A Mammal Is an Animal and How Do You Feel? Lizzy has worked with her mother, the late author/illustrator Anne Rockwell, as illustrator on Apples and Pumpkins in 1989, and Hiking Day most recently.
JOSEPH FUCIGNA
Joseph Fucigna is a multi-media artist whose work is rooted in process, play and the innate qualities of the materials used. Through experimentation, play and innovation he creates sculptures that are known for their power to transform materials, inventiveness and odd but suggestive subject matter.
KELLY ROSSETTI
Kelly Rossetti is a contemporary abstract and figurative painter based out of Westport, CT. While primarily self-taught, she studied classical oil painting at a small Atelier in NYC where she credits getting her foundation and love of the figure. Kelly works in both Acrylic and Oil and often utilizes an array of mixed media to achieve depth, texture and marks.
