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TRUTH TELLERS invites artists to submit art reflecting their personal experiences and commentary on social, political, and environmental injustices. Accepted artwork will include, but is not limited to themes of inequality, race, gender, immigration, and mental health. We are looking for artwork and performances that run the gamut from raw to refined, darkly humorous to stark condemnation of unbalanced society, willing to speak truth to power through creativity and the arts.  Truth Tellers aims to enlighten and as well as inspire others.

Background of Curators:

 

Karen Gormandy is the Director for Fountain House Studio. She began as a volunteer with the gallery 10 years ago when her son, a Fountain House member, introduced her to the gallery. Along with an intrepid group of determined artists she saw the growth of the studio program from two trays of markers, pens, pencils and a few tubes of acrylic paint to a full blown fully equipped art studio in Long Island City. She is a former board member for NAMI New York City, NAMI New York state and NAMI Harlem and is also a literary agent at Harold Ober Associates who proudly represent the estate of Langston Hughes. She attended the High School of Art & Design, has a bachelor's degree in film from Montana State University and received her master's degree in creative writing at Manhattanville College, all of these disciplines now serve to enrich the experience of offering guidance, support and education to the artists of Fountain House. She currently facilitates Fountain House's virtual studio program which includes art history, technique and lively artists discussions.

 

Boo Lynn Walsh is a contemporary, multi-disciplinary artist utilizing paint, photography and assemblages in response to current world events and the New York City urban environment where she currently resides. A graduate of Hunter College with a BS in Sociology, Ms. Walsh combines a lifetime of world travel, immersed in culture and arts, along with self-taught skills and intermittent studies at The New School, Pratt Institute, FIT and The Art Students League to manifest a distinctive, bold vision.  Ms. Walsh’s artistic projects span a wide range of expression, from traditional gallery shows and installations, to body painting, on skin, adult puppet theater productions, and participating in large scale creations that have contributed to the performance art and pageantry of many of New York’s premier parades and festivals. 

 

Issa Ibrahim is a graduate of New York City’s High School of Art and Design, and studied at the School of Visual Arts and the Art Students League. He was institutionalized at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center’s Living Museum, where he reclaimed his life and found meaning as an artist, musician, writer, activist, and 25-year artist-in-residence. Issa is the author of The Hospital Always Wins: A Memoir, published in 2016 by Chicago Review Press. The book was met with laudatory reviews leading to interviews on NPR and other radio outlets, international press, and features including coverage in O, the Oprah Winfrey Magazine.He is an active member-artist of Fountain House Gallery.

​photos by: Reiko Yoo Yanagi