R&F's 2024 Artists-In-Residence: Julie Easton, Eric Hesse, and Aineki Traverso
Competition for our three artist residencies at Brown Pink this year was tough. With over 60 submissions, the panel of anonymous jurors had their work cut out for them. Thank you to all the artists who applied.
We’d like to introduce you to our 2024 Artists-In-Residence: Julie Easton, Eric Hesse, and Aineki Traverso. We are honored to welcome these talented artists to Brown Pink for a two week residency and look forward to seeing what they make.
JULIE EASTON
Born in Los Angeles, Julie Easton earned her B.A. Fine Arts at California State University, Long Beach and her M.A. Linguistics at California State University, Northridge.
Cigarette butts, cash register receipts, dry cleaning tags, mini video screens, and plastic are just some of the materials she uses to create work that radiates beauty and elegance.
Her sculpture, works on paper, and installations exemplify her view of the world in which the mundane often becomes extraordinary. As she notes, I Ching says: "The most perfect grace consists not in external ornamentation, but in allowing the original material to stand forth, beautified by being given form."
Trained as a formalist, Julie’s work is substantially about texture and structure; however it is the concept, whether conceived or intuited, that informs and directs her use of materials. In viewing her work, the audience is propelled to question current environmental and social practices. julieeaston.com
Julie Easton, White Frosting, 41” x 32”, cash register receipts and encaustic, 2022
Eric Hesse
Eric Hesse was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a student, he was introduced to encaustic and became fascinated with the malleable and durable nature of wax and pigment until it became his primary painting medium.
After attending Temple University in Philadelphia, Eric transferred to St. Olaf
College in Northfield, Minnesota where he received a B.A. with Departmental Distinction. He has received awards from the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts, the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.
Eric has exhibited in galleries throughout the United States, including the Corcoran Museum in Washington DC, and is currently represented by the George Billis Gallery in Los Angeles, CA. In 2018 and 2023, Hesse received artist residence permits from the French government. He lives with his wife and son in a village in the department of Tarn. erichesse.com
Eric Hesse, HighLit, 30” x 40”, encaustic on panel, 2021.
Aineki Traverso
Aineki Traverso is a painter living and working in Atlanta, GA. Aineki graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 2013 with a concentration in cinema studies.
Aineki’s work uses the rhetoric of painting to echo the way memories, fantasies, and identities are transformed, constructed, and intertwined. Aineki has exhibited at spaces such as Whitespace Gallery (Atlanta, GA), Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Greenville, SC), and Swivel Gallery (Brooklyn, NY).
Aineki has attended residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts, and Volatile House. She was recently named the recipient of the Edge Award from the Forward Arts Foundation and will be exhibiting at Swan Coach House Gallery in 2024. Aineki is the recipient of a residency at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, where she was awarded a 50th Anniversary Fellowship. aineki.com
Aineki Traverso, The Last Dream, 24” x 36”, oil on panel, 2023