ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - AIR

2025 Artist in Residence: HANK EHRENFRIED

Residency:

Exhibition:

Hank Ehrenfried’s process begins with the assemblage of collages made from old auction catalogs, gay erotica, instructional guides, museum catalogs, and other assorted imagery. Materials are cut, folded and stuck back together repeatedly to make haphazard compositions that force histories and images together unexpectedly. These collages are then affixed to the walls of his studio and painted from life as trompe l’oeil. But Ehrenfried’s approach is not photorealistic. Imagery goes in and out of focus. His loyalty is not to exactly how it was but to the affective and the procedure of observation. The paintings themselves do not confess to ownership of this imagery and their origins, only the plain observation of their time stuck to the studio wall.

This process of presentation and concealing is a critical component of how the erotic operates for Ehrenfried, an important means for him to point at queerness while holding it at a distance. The paradox of pictorial excess and the inevitable violence as loss through an archival act is central to Ehrenfried’s process. Folds in the collage pulls information out of view, simultaneously present and erased in the translation from paper to paint. Pin and screw holes in the studio wall rupture the actual studio wall and the seemingly flat surface of the painting - decay through time is inevitable but what remains points one hand towards history and another towards the predictable and unknowable nature of what follows. Despite the random and abject violence of our times, something does come next.

Hank Ehrenfried (b. 1992, New Jersey) is a painter and currently resides in Oklahoma City. He holds a BFA in Fine Art from Carnegie Mellon University (2014) and a MFA in Painting from PrattInstitute (2019). He has exhibited nationally and internationally with solo exhibitions at Vardan Gallery (Los Angeles, CA) AuxierKline (New York, NY), Quappi Projects (Louisville, KY) and Welcome Gallery (Charlottesville, VA), as well as group exhibitions at Fierman (New York, NY), Fredericks & Freiser Gallery (New York, NY), Semiose Galerie (Paris, FR), and Turley Gallery (Hudson, NY), among others. His work has been written about in publications such as Whitewall Magazine and Two Coats of Paint and has been featured in New American Paintings. Ehrenfried has completed residencies at The Macedonia Institute in Chatham, NY and Trestle Art Space in Brooklyn, NY. He is currently an artist in residence at Artspace, Untitled in Oklahoma City. He will be a Visiting Assistant Professor of Painting at University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in Fall 2025.

Our [AIR] program includes a national residency BY invitation and local residencies By APPLICATION

We offer three residency opportunities for local artists who are interested in expanding their practice through printmaking.

Photography: Evan Beasley

14-Week Artist Residency (oPEN to Various mediums)

This residency is open to local artists with no printmaking knowledge required. Our working studio provides a space for multiple disciplines and this residency is available to both those who wish to pursue printmaking or other mediums.

Artists applying to ARTSPACE at Untitled’s residency program should not be enrolled in an academic program during the residency timeline. Applications consisting of small collaboratives (2-3 total members) are eligible to apply. Each artist included in the collaborative must submit a resume.

Artists in Residence are encouraged to participate in other public programming by providing the public a glimpse into their process through demonstrations, workshops, talks and an exhibit in the Press Gallery. Local artists have the opportunity to work alongside our national and international visiting AIR.

• Artist will commit to spending 20 hours a week utilizing our equipment in the ARTSPACE studio to complete their projects. The 20 hours must be during normal operating hours, Tuesday-Saturday 10am-6pm. However, the studio is always open to the Artist in Residence during after hours programming. Agreements must be met or the residency is subject to termination.

• Agrees to teach either a workshop or host a lecture concerning processes and methods they are utilizing in their own work.

• If the resident completes their requirements, they will be given the opportunity to exhibit in our PRESS gallery.

• Artist will be expected to complete an edition of 40 prints, 11” x 14” in size. The edition will be split 50/50 with ARTSPACE. The print edition for the 14 week resident does not have to be their main focus, but it must be an original idea that corresponds with the body of work they are producing during their residency. ARTSPACE covers all the costs of the edition.

• This can be a collaborative residency, but you must apply as a collaboration if you are wanting more than one artist to work on your ARTSPACE edition. 

• Preference will be given to educators for the summer residency. 

• Preference will be given to artists with some knowledge of printmaking due to the nature of the artists working independently. 

• The Artist in Residence has the opportunity to participate in any workshops hosted by ARTSPACE at Untitled throughout the duration of their residency.