2008 Fellows Biographies

Charles Burwell, 53, painting
Charles Burwell creates abstract paintings, often times on a large scale that are formally rigorous and visually stimulating. Burwell’s compositions are spatially complex, since the early 1990’s his work has involved a specific layering process that relies on the interaction of the controlled dripped line maze-like linear forms, and organic and geometric forms. His work is a balance of abstraction and representation, figure and ground, organic yet stylized-opposing processes that allow for a multitude of associations.

Burwell received a B.F.A. from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, in 1977 and an M.F.A. from Yale University, New Haven, Conn., in 1979. He has received many honors including grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation. Burwell’s recent solo shows have been exhibited at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery, Philadelphia; the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Wilmington; and at the List Gallery, Swarthmore College, Pa. Burwell’s work can be found in many major institutional collections, some of which include the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, the Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City. Burwell is represented by the Bridgette Mayer Gallery, Philadelphia.

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J. Rufus Caleb, 60, playwriting
While sitting on a Greyhound bus that was inching through traffic in Lake Placid, N.Y., Caleb was reading a book on slavery in the United States. In his application he writes, “I put down the book, look out the window, and see what I know is a salve coffle walking along beside the bus. The image is strong enough, for a few seconds, to see down there on the road a tired shuffling line of enslaved Africans.” This image led him to create an eight minute play entitled, Slave Coffle w/ Observer. J. Rufus Caleb describes himself as a writer of “quirky theatre pieces” that are highly personal in vision and presentation. He strives to create “theatre experiences that are as visceral as they are intellectual.” In addition to writing for the theatre, Caleb has also written extensively for radio and television.

Caleb received his B.A. from Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., in 1971 and his M.A. from John Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., in 1972. His plays have been produced by Theatre Double, Philadelphia; Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, Madison; People’s Light & Theatre, Malvern, Pa., and Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Ky. Caleb has also written a quartet of radio plays for WNYC’s “Radio Stage.” His work The Devil and Uncle Asa received a Special Achievement Award from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. In addition to this award, he has also received numerous other honors, some of which include fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a National Endowment for the Arts grant in Audio Production, and grants from the Samuel S. Fels Fund and the Pennsylvania Humanities Council. Caleb teaches in the theatre program at the Community College of Philadelphia.

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Matthew Cox, 46, painting
Matthew Cox creates psychologically charged figurative paintings that are technically ambitious as well as visually intriguing. He constructs narratives that seem to often contain elements of comedy and parody. He is interested in elevating the ordinary occurrences in our every day lives, and transforming these common events from banal to beautiful. One of his series was created first through text about a fictional criminal family called the Wonderfuls. He later pared down the writing to essential sentences and created the Wonderful Family portraits, each accompanied by its text.

Cox attended the Parsons School of Design, New York City and East Carolina University, Greenville, N.C. His solo exhibits include Recovery: Embroidered X-Rays at Finer Things Gallery, Nashville, Tenn.; Seated Figures: Laps and Illustrated Sentences, at the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, La., and Painted, Stamped and Stitched at the Aron Packer Gallery, Chicago, Ill. He has received awards from the New Orleans Art Association, the New World Festival of the Arts, and was named a fellow from the Louisiana Division of the Arts. His work is included in collections at the New Orleans Museum of Art, La., as well as the Georgetown College of Art, Ky.

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Russell Davis, 60, playwriting
Russell Davis is a politically engaged playwright with a long and distinguished career. In his view, “what makes a play is language, is subtext, and how language can play off of silence, or unacknowledged emotions or intentions, and be the mere surface, the very tip, of what is going on. What makes a play are the choices of setting and lighting, the choices of actors and director, and how all these can come together sometimes in one huge and surprising whole.”

Davis received his B.A. from Hobart College, Geneva, N.Y., in 1971. He also attended the New York School for Circus Arts and the Circus Arts Center in Hoboken, N.J. Davis’s plays include Cecilia’s Last Tea Party, Appointment with a High Wire Lady, Crispin’: The Cross of Lead, The Song of Grendelyn, The Second Death of Pricilla, and The Thoughts & Travels of Nicki. They have been produced at various theatres, some of which include the Passage Theatre Company, Trenton, N.J.; School House Theatre, Croton Falls, N.Y.; Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York City; People’s Light & Theatre Company, Malvern, Pa; and the Touchstone Theatre, Bethlehem, Pa. In 2004, Davis received a playwright fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and from 1999-2001 he was resident playwright at People's Light & Theatre Company for the Theatre Residency Program of the National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group. Davis received two earlier fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as grants from the McKnight Foundation, the Tennessee Arts Commission, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

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Katharine Clark Gray, 30, playwriting
Katharine Clark Gray is a writer, producer, actor, and artist. In 2001 she created Governor’s Laundress Productions to produce challenging work for stage, including her own The B Side and You See Me Comin’ You Better Run. Gray also co-founded A Chip & A Chair Films, acting as the director of design. Gray states that what she best loves to do is create works that explore the archetypes of sex, politics, or religion through the prism of “making a living.”

Gray received her B.F.A. from Ithaca College, N.Y., in 1999. She also attended the Dell’arte School of Physical Theatre, Blue Lake, Calif., in 1999. Her plays include 516 (five sixteen), User 927, True Dreams of Wichita, Wired Shut, and Riot Standard. These works have been produced at various theatres including The Drilling Company, New York City; 3 Graces Theatre Company, New York City; and the Manhattan Theatre Source Estrogenius Festival. Most recently her play 516 (five sixteen) premiered at the New York International Fringe, courtesy of Roust Theatre Company, New York City. Gray received a Barrymore Award in 2007 with Brat Productions, Philadelphia.

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Nana Korantemaa, 57, folk and traditional arts
Nana Korantemaa is a drummer whose work is grounded within the Akan cultural and spiritual community of Ghana, Africa, and the Diaspora. She was introduced to the Akan community in 1974 when she traveled to Africa with her first mentor of 17 years, Arthur Hall. She later spent seven years in Ghana, furthering her learning of Akan drumming techniques in the context of religious and healing practices. During this time she was given the privileged opportunity to study under Nana Okomfohene Oparebea, priest of the Akonnedi shrine, where she was able to master the language, traditions, and protocols as well as drumming and dance. Nana became an initiate, continuing her training for 21 years. In 2002 she was raised to the level of the Akomfohene, Head Shaman of this Akan tradition for North America, a rare honor, especially for a woman.

In 1999 Korantemaa founded StarSpirit International, Inc., a non-profit that promotes education about African culture, facilitates international cultural exchanges, and sponsors health, education and economic development projects. She also serves as President of the Cecil B. Moore Community Partnerships, a grassroots community organization. Korantemaa has been the recipient of a Leeway Foundation Transformation Award and an Art and Change Award. She has been a multiple year recipient of the School Year Award from Bainbridge House, and the recipient of an Arts in Education Partnership Grant.

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Felix “Pupi” Legarreta, 68, folk and traditional arts
Felix “Pupi” Legarreta is a violinist, flutist, singer, arranger, pianist, and guitarist who has participated in several landmark periods of Latin music. Legarreta was born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, and started playing the violin when he was seven years old. When he was a teenager, he played with some of Cuba’s most famous musicians, performing live on both the radio and television. Legarreta left Cuba in the late 1950’s and moved to Chicago to play in the second Charanga group formed in the United States.  He taught himself to play the Cuban five-key flute in the 1960s, and toured throughout the United States during the 1970s and 1980s. Legarreta has been in Philadelphia for the past 30 years, working with and teaching local musicians, working as an electrician, and playing and recording music on a regular basis. He is in the unique position in his field to be a master of violin, flute, piano, vocals, and arrangements.

In 2006 En Honor a Pupi Legarreta was released, a studio recording with local Philadelphia band leader Foto Rodriguez and his group Charanga la Única. Legarreta has performed and recorded with many artists including pianist Larry Harlow, and bassist Israel “Cachao” Lopez. Legarreta was a member of the Fania All Stars, traveling internationally and recording as many as four albums with musical greats such as Celia Cruz, Johnny Pacheco, Héctor Lavoe, Ray Barretto, Papo Lucca, Ruben Blades, among others. 

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Vera Nakonechny, 61, folk and traditional arts
Vera Nakonechny is a Ukrainian embroiderer, bead worker, and weaver. She came to the United States as a teenager and continued studying the various techniques of Ukrainian embroidery her mother taught her as a young girl. She became a part of the Ukrainian-American community in Pennsylvania where she continued to expand her skills as an embroiderer. In 1991 Nakonechny was able to return to her homeland where she conducted archival research and studied with master craftspeople. The love for her culture gave her the inspiration to learn all she could about the various styles and techniques so that they could be preserved in their original pure form from different regions of the Ukraine.

In 2007 Nakonechny received a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship in Folk Arts. In 2003 and 2006 she received a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts to apprentice with Master Yuriy Melnychuk from the Honchar Museum, Kyiv, Ukraine. She has also studied with Masters Zenovia Shulha from the College of Textiles and Arts in Lviv, Ukraine and Eudokia Sorokhaniuk and Stephanie Shumska-Mayer. Her work has been exhibited widely at such places as The Down Jersey Folklife Center, Millville, N.J.; the Joseph Kobrinskiy Museum in Kolomyia, Ukraine; the Philadelphia Folklore Project; the Ukrainian Museum, New York City; and the Ukrainian Festival, Washington, D.C.

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Venissa Santí, 30, folk and traditional arts
Venissa Santí inherited her musical passion from her grandfather, a composer in Cuba. Santí moved to Philadelphia when she was 17 and attended the University of the Arts. She became a trained vocalist with classical- and jazz-based technique, all the while seeking to find her own voice. Santí began an intense listening regimen of early Celia Cruz which inspired her to travel to Cuba and find a master to train her. At the same time she began teaching at the Asociación de Músicos Latino Americanos, a community music school in North Philadelphia. Santí has become an active participant in the Latin community and the Latin music scene of Philadelphia as a soloist in many world and jazz group’s concerts and recordings.

Santí received her B.A. from the University of the Arts in 2001. She has done four one-month research trips to Havana and Matanzas, Cuba. Working with master singers she immersed herself in African Yoruba religious music and Rumba. From 2002 Venissa studied with master singer Jorge Salazar in Havana, Cuba. She has mentored with Orlando Fiol, pianist, from 2002-2006, and continues her studies with Elizabeth Sayre with whom she’s been studying since 2001. Her first solo recording, Bienvenida (unreleased), is a bilingual album of jazz and Cuban standards and Afro-Cuban folkloric songs, written and arranged by Santí.

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Anne Seidman, 58, painting
Anne Seidman describes her work as rigorous and controlled, while at the same time allowing room for spontaneity, irony, and consciousness. Seidman’s practice has allowed her to explore the nature of pure painting through abstraction, suggesting friction, awkwardness, and ultimately a sense of self. Her painting relies on a commitment to process, working through the unfamiliar until it becomes recognizable, eventually reaching a resolution. 

Seidman earned her B.F.A. from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in coordination with the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, in 1973, and her M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, in 1976. She also earned her M.A. from Ohio State University, Columbus, in 1986. Seidman has exhibited extensively over the years, most recently at Mercer Gallery, New York City; George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles; and Arcadia University, Glenside, Pa. She currently has a solo exhibition on view at Schmidt-Dean Gallery, Philadelphia, by whom she is represented. Seidman has received many honors including grants from the Leeway Foundation and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and Purchase Awards from both the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Arcadia University. She is currently a Professor at Moore College of Art & Design, where she has been teaching since 1986.

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Edgar J. Shockley III, 51, playwriting
Edgar Shockley sees his unique contribution to the world as reconciling African and European theatrical aesthetics allowing him to make us all more aware of what it means to be human. Because the scope of his vision is so wide, 30 years ago he set a goal for himself to write 100 plays—currently he is at work on his 71st.

Edgar received his M.F.A. in Playwriting from Temple University, Philadelphia, in 1994, attended Columbia University, New York City, from 1974-78 for Creative Writing and has participated in numerous workshops throughout the country. He is the founder of the Temple Playwrights Lab, as well as the co-founder of the Philadelphia Dramatists Center, serving as the artistic director for more than ten years.  His plays include Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, The Oracle, Slave Narratives Revisited, The Corner, Badman, Stone Mansion, and Bobos. Shockley has received numerous awards throughout his career, most notable a W. Alton Jones Foundation Grant, which he received with music collaborator James McBride, a Richard Rogers Award, as well as the Stephen Sondheim Award for Outstanding Contributions to American Musical Theatre. In 2005 Edgar was awarded a Pennsylvania Arts Council Fellowship. Shockley continues to teach courses at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, as well as Rutgers University, N.J.

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Mauro Zamora, 34, painter
Mauro Zamora is compelled to make paintings of landscapes although he is not always interested in the landscape itself. Zamora’s images derive from nature, architecture, and print media. He states that his work is rooted in the affects of “care/neglect, entropy/growth, and construction/destruction,” believing that architecture cannot exist without nature and nature cannot exist without architecture. He is most interested in understanding how we are all tied to the land and how its use ebbs and flows throughout our lives.

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