Berlin Residency Program 2024-2025 Cycle

Christopher Blay is an artist as well as Chief Curator of the Houston Museum of African American Culture. Also a writer, Blay was the News Editor at Glasstire Magazine from 2019 – 2021 and served as curator for the Art Corridor Galleries at Tarrant County College in Fort Worth for the ten years prior to Glasstire. Blay has been a guest lecturer at the University of North Texas, Texas Christian University, Tarleton State University, Sam Houston State University, as well as the University of Texas at Arlington and Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Blay has spoken at length about his work at the Dallas Museum of Art, The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, and the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth where he moderated a panel discussion on the mural boom in Fort Worth. Blay’s engagement in conferences such as the Texas Society of Architects convention in 2014, and the New Cities, Future Ruinspresentation in Dallas in November 2016 are a few of several in a diverse scope of conversations since. His public lectures and panel discussions have also included a 2023 conversation with William Kentridge at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, a 2022 conversation with Mark Sealy of Autograph London, and Witnessing Worlds in Transition, a panel discussion at the Menil Collection in Houston.

A list of awards Blay has received for his work includes the Featured Artist Grant at ArtPrize, the Otis and Velma Davis Dozier travel grant from the Dallas Museum of Art, a Nasher Sculpture Center Artist’s Grant, and Critics Choice awards from the Dallas Observer and the Fort Worth Weekly.

Blay has served on jury panels for the Inaugural Nest Heritage Craft Prize, at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Southern Methodist University Meadows Museum’s Moss/Chumley award, Big Medium’s Tito’s Prize, and numerous University gallery exhibitions including at Texas State University in San Marcos, and the Juried Members exhibition of the South Central Chapter of the Society for Photographic Education in Dallas.

As an artist, Blay uses photography, video, sculpture, and performance in exhibitions, and his work considers the Black experience in America. His exhibitions and public art projects follow the themes of the Black experience and include the ongoing East Rosedale Monument Project in Fort Worth, Texas, and Dindi (for Annibel) in Dallas’ Coombs Creek park near Oak Cliff. His most recent exhibitions include Ritual SpLaVCe at the Galveston Arts Center, Christopher Blay: SpLaVCe Program at the Crowley Studios, Marfa, TX, and currently at the ION, Houston, Christopher Blay: SpLaVCe Ship, at the Barry Whistler Gallery in Dallas, and Power, Traps, and Targets: New Work by Christopher Blay at Big Medium gallery, Austin, Texas. Blay was also included in the Amarillo Biennial-600 in Amarillo, Texas in 2022, and the Texas Biennial in 2017. Blay’s work is in several private collections and at the Old Jail Art Center in Albany, Texas.

Blay is a 2003 Graduate of Texas Christian University with a BFA in Photography with a minor in Art History.

Hiromi Stringer was born in Kyoto, Japan. Currently, she is a Senior Lecturer of drawing and painting at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Stringer received multiple awards and recidency opportunities including the 2019-2020 Dedalus Foundation Master of Fine Arts Fellowship, the 2022 Dedalus Foundation Funds for Past fellows and Awardees, a grand prize for Eyes Got It!2014, the 2019-2020 Blue Star Contemporary Berlin Residency Program/ Künstlerhaus Bethanien International Studio Program, Berlin, Germany, and the 2021 Summer Arts Faculty Residency program at Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists’ Residency, Saugatuck, MI. A resident of the San Antonio area, her works are in public, corporate and private collections in Japan and the US.

Mia Lopez is an arts administrator, curator, writer, and educator with over fifteen years of experience working with contemporary art. In the fall of 2023, Lopez joined the McNay Art Museum as the first Curator of Latinx Art. Throughout her career, she has worked with leading museums and nonprofit organizations on exhibitions, publications, and public programs focused on expanding the art historical canon. Her practice specializations in Latinx art, socially engaged artists, and identity politics. Lopez has recently held curatorial positions at DePaul Art Museum and the Walker Art Center.

Lopez completed dual Masters at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Modern and Contemporary Art History, Theory, and Criticism and Arts Administration and Policy; She also has a BA in Art History from Rice University. Lopez has interned and worked at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Contemporary Art Museum Houston, and the Museo Alameda in San Antonio. She is a 2012 alumnus of the Smithsonian Latino Museum Studies Program and a 2016 alumnus of the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Leadership Institute. Her writing has appeared in publications by DePaul Art Museum, the Contemporary Art Museum Houston, the Walker Art Center, Prospect New Orleans, and Arte Publico Press. She regularly lectures and participate in juries and projects with organizations around the United States, including Artadia, the Hopper Prize, the Association of Art Museum Curators, the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, The College of New Jersey, Review Santa Fe Photo Festival, Lit & Luz Festival, and many others.