/ Our Staff
Morgan Ashcom (he/him) Morgan is an artist, as well as Founder and Director of Visible Records. Ashcom’s work has been exhibited and published nationally and internationally. Ashcom has been an artist in residence at Light Work and has taught at Western Connecticut State University, Ithaca College, University of Hartford, Cornell University and the University of Virginia. Ashcom leads the Exhibitions Committee for Visible Records.
bryan ortiz (he/him/they/them) bryan is an artist with roots in Southern California and Central/Southern Mexico. He has participated in exhibitions and residencies domestically and internationally. ortiz has taught at The Ohio State University and Colorado College. He has helped to curate exhibitions, facilitate workshops, and produce public facing events and dinners. bryan is a member of the transborder artist collective, Colectivo Rasquache, and co-founder of the Columbus, OH based performance group, Taco Reparations Brigade. He is currently the Assistant-Director of Visible Records.
/ OUR ARTIST COMMUNITY
Our community includes artists who currently have space at Visible Records, as well as those who have held their practice in our space in the past, and Visiting Artists in Residence. Read more or watch below. If you are an artist interested in renting studio space here and joining our growing community, reach out to us at studio@visible-records.com.
/ CURRENT
Ashon Crawley Ashon is a writer, artist and teacher, exploring the intersection of performance, blackness, queerness and spirituality. He is associate professor of Religious Studies and African-American and African Studies at the University of Virginia. He is author of Blackpentecostal Breath: The Aesthetics of Possibility (Fordham University Press) and The Lonely Letters (Duke University Press). He is currently at work on a book about the practice of contemporary black life as a spiritual disposition, posture, gesture and relation and a short story collection and a nonfiction volume—both about the Hammond B3 organ, the Black church and sexuality. A MacDowell interdisciplinary arts fellow, he is at work on an art installation featuring light sculpture and sound that serves as a memorial to blackqueer spiritual life, musicianship and erasures from official narratives. All his work is about otherwise possibility.
Federico Cuatlacuatl (he/him) Federico is a Nahua artist born in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico and currently an Assistant Professor of Studio Art at the University of Virginia. Federico’s work is invested in disseminating topics of transborder indigeneity, migrant indigenous futurisms, social art practice, and cultural sustainability. In 2016, Federico launched the Rasquache Artist Residency in Puebla, Mexico and continues to host artists internationally in his hometown San Francisco Coapan.
Matt Dhillon Matt is a poet and writer most recently from Blacksburg, VA. When not nomadically roaming from coast to coast, Matt is a freelance journalist for Cville Weekly, Appalachian Voices, and more. You can read some of Matt’s poetry on our Instagram. Matt joined us as first as a visiting artist in residence. We liked him so much that we convinced him to move to Charlottesville and retain a full time studio at Visible Records.
Sophie Gibson (she/her) Sophie is a ceramic sculptor and stop-motion animator who takes inspiration from people and natural environments. She currently maintains a studio at Visible Records and works part-time as the Studio Manager at City Clay, where she also teaches classes. An associate member at McGuffey Art Center, Sophie has also shown work at the Bridge PAI.
Sky Heiser (they/them) Sky Heiser is an interdisciplinary artist. They create through a confessional lens, exploring themes such as gender, sexuality, spirituality, and nature. Sky views art as a necessary co-creation with the universe, free from all boundaries and limitless in its expression.
Sophie McDowell Born 1998, Washington D.C., currently residing in Afton, Virginia. I am a graduate of Guilford College where I majored in Art (Printmaking) and minored in Music. My art lives in the in-between space of two mediums: printmaking and songwriting. I carve and print multi-block woodcuts and I enjoy creating large scale colorful installations. From July 2021-July 2022 I participated in the Incubator Residency Program at McGuffey Art Center in Charlottesville, Virginia, where I shared a studio space with 5 other artists. My current studio is within Visible Records, and Kendall King and I have opened up our studio as New Suns Print Studio. We have upcoming workshops and open studio hours. When I am not working in the printshop, you can find me writing songs and playing on the banjo, collecting wildflowers, or snuggling with my pup, Ruby.
Whitmore Merrick I am the father of three beautiful kids; two boys and a baby girl. I grew up in Charlottesville since the age of 4. I am employed with Charlottesville’s Home to Hope Reentry Program and serve as a Peer Support Specialist helping individuals navigate essential resources. I serve as a Board Member for Ready Kids, a local non-profit, as well as a member of Virginia’s Expungement Council. Last but surely not least, I’ve created a podcast known as “Freedom For Felons” that discusses individuals who have been impacted by the criminal justice system — changing lives, inspiring and educating others. As long as I can remember I've been an aspiring entrepreneur/artist. I currently co-own a Music Recording Studio "Suite 21" inside Visible Records and secondly I own a "Party Bus" Merrick Adventures & Transportation LLC. In my spare time I create clothing and started a clothing line called "P.U.R.E. PIZZAZZ” and help others bring their ideas to life!
Karina Monroy (she/her) Karina makes work driven by Definitions of femininity within Mexicano/Chicano culture. She explores and questions these definitions in relation to her own identity as a Mexican-American woman. Her practice involves identifying ordinary objects that are associated with femininity and motherhood: spoons, recipe books, and staple foods in Mexican culture, such as nopales and maize. She reproduces these objects by hand, and in doing so, draws aesthetic attention to otherwise overlooked aspects of Latina/Chicana visual culture.
Kweisi Morris Correcting for a decision made in the liminal space between high school and college, Kweisi found his way back to art after 40 years and a 10,000 mile round trip to West Africa. On those distant shores, he found his muse, a new name, and a renewed inspiration to create.
Patricia Nguyen is an artist, scholar, and educator based in Chicago and Charlottesville. She is an assistant professor in American Studies at the University of Virginia and earned her Ph.D. in Performance Studies at Northwestern University. She has performed and exhibited at the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Chile, Prague Quadrennial, Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco, Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Milwaukee Art Museum, and Nha San Collective in Vietnam. She is an award-winning memorial designer for the Chicago Torture Justice Memorial Project, the first monument in the United States to honor survivors of police violence. Patricia is also the co-founder and lead artist of Axis Lab, a community-based arts and architecture organization focused on inclusive and equitable development for immigrants and refugees.
Peter Russell Peter Russell’s work is concerned with the entanglement of perception, landscape, and climate.
Jackson Taylor Currently the Assistant Professor of Printmaking and Drawing at the University of Virginia, Jackson was born and raised in rural Kentucky on an intergenerational cattle and tobacco farm. He holds a BFA in 2D Studio Art from the University of Louisville and received his MFA in Printmaking and Drawing from the University of Iowa in 2021. He has exhibited work internationally, conducted printmaking workshops across the country, and in 2022 will be a visiting artist at the University of Akron, demonstrating waterless lithography procedures, in conjunction with the Mid America Printmaking Council biennial conference. His most recent work offers a record of warped pastoral landscapes, snapshots of decay, and precarious situations that examine the still-dissolving rose-colored vignette that shrouded/shrouds the American South. Layering together sequences of disjunctive photographic references, the work surveys instances of nefarious nature, where religious extremism and exasperated cultures highlight the fragility and degradation of man.
Annie Temmink is an avid explorer of unimagined worlds, inspired by ancient textiles, dance, and psychology. She’s known for her wild headwear but did you know she studied traditional textile fabrication in Indonesia, Japan, India, Uganda, Ghana, and Tanzania? Or that most of her work is made with reclaimed or ecological materials? Outside of the studio she spends part of her time as a scenic painter and set builder and loves helping others learn the skills to express themselves creatively. Find her on Instagram @annietemmink and online annietemink.com. Send an e-mail to learn about workshops and one-on-one art and sewing! Antemmink@gmail.com
Adrian Wood (they/them) Adrian Wood creates soundscapes, videos, transmissions and live works featuring sounds of water and wind, howls, whispers, seismic vibrations, and radio interference. Their work deals with sonic overlaps across identity and landscape. Adrian is moving towards transgender joy in their creative work that encompasses audio compositions, performance, video, drawing, collage and gardening. Adrian currently works as a Multimedia Producer with the University of Virginia's Repair Lab. You can find their new podcast, Wading Between Two Titans, on all platforms. The podcast is about sea-level rise, housing and the history of race in coastal Norfolk, Virginia.
/ PAST
Emma Brodeur (she/her) Emma is a painter, muralist, and embroiderer. She teaches embroidery classes and accepts commissions. “I strive to use the arts as a tool for forming strong interpersonal relationships, collaborating with individuals to promote the growth of their own valued communities.”
Katie Forward Katie is from Harrisonburg, VA, and she is currently based in Charlottesville. She graduated with her BA in Studio Art and Media Studies at the University of Virginia in May 2021. Much of her art practice is composed of creating process-based, abstract paintings that encapsulate different fleeting feelings. She uses the process of painting to explore her relationship to her thoughts, emotions, and surroundings. Materiality and the interaction between the behavior of the paint, other materials, and surface are important in the work.
Anuja Jaitly (she/her) Anuja is a fiber and mixed-media artist. Informed by her experiences in social impact work across the U.S., Asia and Africa, she has developed a keen passion for lifting up old-world art, heritage and voices from places near and far. Anuja’s art weaves together the old and the new, and breaks new ground in its portrayal of what we have in common across place and time.
David Joo (he/him) David is an origami artist and papermaker pursuing new expressions in folded paper. David was a resident incubator artist at the McGuffey Art Center (2019) and the winner of the fall 2019 SOUP grant award.
Charlie Lambert (he/him) Charlie is a sculptor and video artist. Charlie works with common building materials such as concrete, metal and wood. Charlie is interested in how materiality can reflect ideas of resistance and in pushing materials to their useful limits and experimenting with their failure.
Ava Lonergan (she/they) Ava is an artist, writer, and educator. After receiving her BA in Studio Art from the University of Virginia, she worked at Elsewhere Museum (NC), Penland School of Craft (NC), Page Bond Gallery (VA), and Richmond Camera (VA) before moving to Spain to work as an English language teaching assistant for two years. Her artistic practice includes figurative paintings, videos, photographs, creative writing, and sewing. Ava is currently pursuing a Masters in Teaching K-12 Arts Education at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Calista Lyon Calista is an Australian artist and Ruffin Assistant Professor of New Media at the University of Virginia. She lives and works in Charlottesville, Virginia on the ancestral and contemporary territory of the Monacan Indian Nation. Working in photography’s expanded field she utilizes research and image-based strategies to explore dynamics of memory and resistance in the wake of eco-social collapse. She employs multiple modes of knowledge production, drawing from the fields of ethnography and archival practices to create installations, performances and community engaged works that make visible the complexity of ecological destruction, communicate the internalized experience of “ecological grief” and offer reparative forms of existence through artistic inquiry.
Ramona Martinez (she/her) Ramona is a visual artist and writer whose work seeks to reclaim Christianity for misfits, radicals, anarchists, feminists, and outcasts of all types. She makes linocut prints and drawings that explore power and the occult -- often through traditional Catholic imagery.
Tobiah Mundt (she/her) Tobiah is a fiber artist and co-runs The Hive Arts & Crafts Bar. Currently her work captures and encases her own fears and anxieties in sculpted form by exploring different methods of textile art. Tobiah combines sculpted wool with macramé and weaving techniques and incorporates unconventional objects such as local found quartz and smoke.
LaRissa Rogers (she/her) LaRissa is an interdisciplinary artist whose work looks at the intersections of culture, identity, and embedded forms of colonization expressed through perception and psyche. Combining aspects of memory, history, and personal experience, she delves into what is her blackness by addressing ideas of hybridity, authenticity, and visibility as an Afro-Asian woman. LaRissa is currently pursuing an MFA in New Genres at UCLA.
/ VISITING
in chronological order from most recent to a while back…
Matt Dhillon Matt is a poet and writer most recently from Blacksburg, VA. When not nomadically roaming from coast to coast, Matt is a freelance journalist. You can read some of Matt’s poetry on our Instagram.
Walker Bankson (he/him) Walker “makes pictures to investigate how historical narratives and myths shape current institutions and power dynamics in small towns and throughout the South. I’m interested in collaboration with folks, places and archives while using fiction and levity to challenge the singular gaze of the photograph”. Walker graduated in 2021 with a BFA from Bard College and is currently working in the darkroom at Richmond’s Visual Arts Center. Walker joined us for the month of October, 2021.
Olivia Crowe Reavey (she/her) Olivia is a photo artist who works primarily in the dark room and is currently interested in the phallus as a fine art object. She holds a BFA in Photography from Rhode Island School of Design (2020) and is currently working in the darkroom at Richmond’s Visual Arts Center. Olivia joined us for the month of October, 2021.
Terry Burton Terry A. Burton is a an artistic entrepreneur, citizen journalist and small business marketing consultant of 10+ years. He crafts a variety of mediums and creative pursuits: painting, collage, photography, video art, graphic design, poetry and sound art. His art work has been presented at the Toledo Museum of Art Community Gallery (OH), Mansfield Art Center (OH), Laneway Festival (Australia), 333 Midland (Highland Park, MI), Collingwood Arts Center (Toledo, OH) and 555 Gallery (Detroit, MI). Terry joined us as the first ever Visiting Artist in Residence in July 2021.