Alumnus Cameron Welch '16 Receives One River Emerging Art Award & NY Solo Exhibition

Visual Arts alumnus Cameron Welch '16 recently received the first annual One River Emerging Art Award, which includes a $5,000 grant from One River School, along with his first New York solo exhibition. Welch’s four-day Pop Up Solo Show was from April 30 to May 2 in Manhattan and coincided with the Frieze Art Fair.

The new award is the latest effort by One River Art and Design School to advocate for emerging artists in their professional journey by providing them a national platform and financial support. According to Matt Ross, One River School’s Founder and CEO, “Cameron’s work is as compelling as any you will see at Frieze and it is a testimony to his intelligent process and inventive language, which have been culled from history and personal experiences,” and adds that “the artwork is musical and in some ways seems simple, but when you really 'listen to them,' the tone, the story and the composition are so deep and personal to his roots as a biracial young man from the Midwest.”

Welch is a mixed-medium artist whose work “references mythology, black identity and modern society, [and] is made from discarded everyday items such as CDs, brooms and mirrors, which are combined with a mixture of mediums,” according to Hypebeast. The exhibition will include new works as well as pieces from his exhibition Monolith at the Nino Mier Gallery in Los Angeles. The exhibition “intertwines, paints and assembles various materials to form the scenes of his epic narratives. Often depicting heroic or quirky figures with whom he shares a kinship, or surrogates for himself, the artist sheds light on unsung histories through complex myriad of sensations set within the intricate topology of his works,” according to the Nino Mier Gallery.

Cameron Welch (b. 1990 / Indianapolis) lives and works in New York. BFA 2013, School of the Art Institute of Chicago.