YPEI-YSoA 2022 Fellow Receives Prestigious NXTHVN Fellowship

Congratulations to 2022 YPEI-Yale School of Art Fellowship Recipient, Alex Puz, who was selected for the NXTHVN Studio and Curatorial Fellows Cohort 05. Read the full press release here.

About the NXTHVN Fellowship: Founded by Titus Kaphar and Jason Price, NXTHVN offers one of the only Fellowships that unites curators and artists, furnishing them with fundamentals to thrive in their practice. During the course of the program, Curatorial Fellows receive a $45,000 stipend and Studio Fellows receive a $35,000 stipend for the Fellowship year, 24-hour access to dedicated work and/or studio space and subsidized on-site housing. The program culminates in a group exhibition at a prominent gallery, situating Fellows squarely in the art world.

In line with NXTHVN’s vision of providing intergenerational mentorship, each fellow is paired with a New Haven public high school student to guide them in their artistic and/or curatorial ambitions.

Since 2019, NXTHVN’s Fellowship program has served as a springboard for artist careers. Notable individuals who have completed the NXTHVN Fellowship include Felipe Baeza, Layo Bright, Kenturah Davis, Alexandria Smith, Vaugh Spann and Patrick Quarm, and many more.

“Each year, we are thrilled to welcome artists and curators from across the globe to utilize NXTHVN’s expansive resources and participate in the dynamic programming our Fellowship has to offer,” says Kaphar, founder and president. “We are committed to providing incoming artists with the tools and mentorship they need to accelerate their careers.”

ALEX PUZ

Alex Puz (b. 1989 Long Beach, CA) is a painter who lives and works in New Haven, Connecticut. His painting practice investigates how perception is influenced by both emotion and cognition. He focuses on color study, optics, and linear abstraction in order to explore how visual experience affects mental health and transforms bodily processes. Puz’ process oriented painting practice systematizes color and line resulting in dense, luminous, and ornate chromatic fields. He holds a BFA in Studio Art from CUNY Hunter College (2014) and an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale School of Art (2022). Alex Puz is a 2017 Rema Hot Mann Foundation Nominee and the 2022 recipient of the YPEI Teaching Fellowship. He has exhibited locally and internationally.