The 2024 Artist Grant Recipients

PAAM proudly presents an exhibition of works by the recipients of our 2024 Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Grant for artists: Michelle Doll, of Hoboken, NJ; Deborah Druick, of Bronx County, NY; Lily Honglei of Flushing, NY; Jeff Ostergren of New Haven, CT; and Robin Tewes of New York, NY.

After a review of over 500 applications, the recipients were selected by Yaelle Amir, curator and educator, and instructor of curatorial studies and professional practice at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR; Jared Quinton, curator, writer, and current Emily Hall Tremaine Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, CT; and Cara Smulevitz, Professor of Art History at San Diego Mesa College. 

The recipients, who are American painters over the age of 45, are chosen annually from more than 500 applicants, recognized for their talent, as well their ability to greatly benefit from this grant. Offered to American painters 45 years or older who demonstrate financial need, the grant intends to promote public awareness and a commitment to American art, and interest in artists who lack adequate recognition.

Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed

The late Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed were students of Hans Hofmann and studied with him in both New York and Provincetown. They were active with PAAM as artist members and instructors in the summer school, and served on a variety of committees. Lillian, in particular, was sensitive to the challenges artists face, especially those working against the mainstream or outside of popular schools of art. Her desire to provide financial support to mature artists through this generous endowment gift speaks to her passionate commitment to art created regardless of the demands and whims of the marketplace. 

About The Artists

Michelle Doll, 54, of Hoboken, NJ

Michelle Doll was born in Canton, Ohio and received her BFA from Kent State University and her MFA from the New York Academy of Art in 2006. She currently lives and works in Hoboken, NJ and is an adjunct professor at the New Jersey City University while also teaching and mentoring artists both in person and online.

Doll writes, “I capture the sweet, physical and metaphysically fleeting moments that we all desperately try to hold on to. By rendering these moments, I explore how these sacred experiences are transformed through time, bring to light how memory always changes just a little bit with every recollection. Through the gentle touch between a loving couple or the closeness between a mother and a child, these inspirational and transient moment hold meaning in the creases, crevices, overlaps and fold of connecting bodies. Above all, I want to fill my own life with the positive energy of love, and these painted meditations are a way to both be present with those sensations and set examples for others.” 

Deborah Druick, of Bronx County, NY

Originally from Canada, Deborah Druick spent many years in Hong Kong before moving to New York in 2002. She has appeared twice in New American Paintings, in 2020 with curator Jerry Saltz and in 2023 with curator Bill Powers of Half Gallery. Her work has been in the British Publications Elephant Magazine and Artmaze. She had her first New York solo show at Stellarhighway Gallery, Brooklyn in 2022. Her show at David Nolan Gallery in New York opens in June 2024.

Druick writes “The female protagonists in my work present a femininity bound by conformity and the societal pressures restricting self-presentation and messaging. My paintings address issues of gender definition, self-identification, and female objectification. I emphasize and exaggerate stereotypical concepts of perfection, precision and beauty in femininity. In my work duality, stereotypes, ornamentation, patterning and exaggeration are all concepts that I investigate.”

Lily Honglei, 51, of Flushing, NY, by way of China

“As an Asian immigrant artist, I strive to make a strong voice for my community through painting. Since emigrating to the States in 2000, I have resided in Massachusetts and New York’s Chinatowns, where I witnessed endless stories of Asian immigrants – their tragedies, resilience, pain and joy. Yet, through the course studying Eastern contemporary art, I realize(d)(sic) there have been very few artworks addressing the experience of this group of people. To create visual metaphors unfolding the realities of Asian immigrants, I juxtaposed ancient characters and symbols in Asian mythologies with landscapes of Western metropolises.”

In 2022, Honglei’s work was featured at Bowne Playground in Flushing, Queens, and Columbus Park in Manhattan. The pops of color invited residents in surrounding neighborhoods to engage with Chinese heritage, immigrant narratives, and the modern reinterpretation of folklore outdoors. The series, The Red String, was created by Li and Lily Yang, an artistic duo known as Lily & Honglei. The project was supported by More Arts, a nonprofit organization with the mission of producing socially engaged public art in New York City.

Jeff Ostergren, 47, of New Haven, CT

Jeff Ostergren makes paintings, sculptures, videos, drawings, and installations about the intertwined histories of pharmaceuticals and color. His pointillist, color-saturated works, infused with actual pharmaceuticals and chemicals, utilize imagery from art history and advertising to explore the ecstasy and toxicity of our present moment.

Originally trained as an anthropologist, Jeff has been a practicing artist for two decades. Upcoming shows include a solo exhibition at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT, and a two part project called “A Suitcase” at Picture Theory in New York City and Kunstraum Super in Vienna, Austria. Recent exhibitions include “Double Take: Familiar Objects in Unexpected Materials” at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, CT, “The Past Pushes Forward” at Omola Studios in New Haven, CT, and “Circadian Rhythms,” curated by URSA Gallery in Bridgeport, CT.

Ostergren received a 2024 Artist Grant from the Puffin Foundation. Last year, he was awarded an Artist Fellowship Grant from the Connecticut Office of the Arts, and The Bitsie Clark Fund for Artists Grant, an annual project based-grant in New Haven. He was also chosen a 2021 “Artist-To-Watch” by Ortega y Gasset Projects in Brooklyn, NY. Ostergren received his MFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA in 2006, following upon receiving a BA in a double major of anthropology and gender studies at Rice University in Houston, TX in 1998. He lives and works in New Haven, CT.

“I make art about the intertwined histories of pharmaceuticals and color. My pointillist, color-saturated paintings…infused with actual pharmaceuticals and chemicals, utilize imagery from art history and advertising to explore the ecstasy and toxicity of our present moment. I work from images taken from pharmaceutical advertising that bear an uncanny reference to art historical works, particularly from the Impressionist period, which was contemporaneous with the rise of synthetic chemistry. These images of idealized leisure form potent means of understanding representations of race, gender, sexuality, class and disability.”

Robin Tewes, 73, of New York, NY

Included in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. Exhibited in galleries and museums. Some include, Boca Raton Museum, The New York Historical Society, The Whitney, Hunterdon, MOMA, Aldridge Museum, P.S. 1, Pelham Center of Art, Drawing Center, Zimmerli Museum, Art In General, A.I.R., Untitled Space, Adam Baumgold, P.P.O.W., Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, Tampa Museum of Art, White Columns, Pyramid Atlantic. Some reviews include, New York Times, Artforum, Brooklyn Rail, Artnews.com, Art in America, Art News, New York Magazine, The New Yorker, Tema Celeste, The Village Voice. Residency awards: The Golden Foundation, Brydcliffe, UCross, VSC, VCCA, Djerassi, Edwin Abbey Mural Workshop, Pyramid Atlantic. Some awards: Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Adolph and Esther Gottlieb, NYFA, Mid Atlantic. Some solo shows include: Payne Gallery-Moravian College, Adam Baumgold, Texas A&M, Fingesten Gallery, John Weber, Headbones, Spencertown Academy, Bill Maynes, Rutgers, Art in General, Queens College, Pace University, Faggionato Gallery, R.C.C.A. Currently on the Board of Directors of P.S.122 Painting Space.

Robin Tewes writes “I’m interested in how much a single narrative moment can tell us about ourselves and the culture we live in…I grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Queens. Class issues are a repeated theme. I have been and still am interested in painting interiors, specifically images of rooms. A home can be a place where one goes to seek protection from the outside world. A room is a place in a home where one creates their own world, and a painting of a room is a safe place where anything can happen.”