Penumbra Foundation is pleased to announce
the 2025 Workspace Program artists

Dana Bell

Magda Biernat

Brian Van Lau

Penumbra Foundation is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2025 Penumbra Workspace Program (A-I-R), which supports outstanding emerging artists working in the photographic arts. They are Dana Bell (Brooklyn, New York), Magda Biernat (Brooklyn, New York), Brian Van Lau (Los Angeles, California).

The Jury also recognized Arturo Soto (Encino, California), Allie Tsubota (Beacon, New York), and Zhidong Zhang (Brooklyn, NY) as Finalists.

This year, the residency period has increased to two months during which residents have liberal access to Penumbra’s darkrooms, digital tools, library, workshops, photo labs and shooting studios as well as technical and critical support. Each artist receives a stipend to aid them in all stages of creative activity, whether it is research and experimentation, the development of new work, completing a project already in progress, working on an exhibition, or editing a book.

The 2025 Jury was composed of Lindsay Caplan (Art Historian, Brown University), Liz Nielsen (Artist, New York), and Brian Scholis (Writer, Editor, and Co-founder of Valise). Full Juror bios are below.

FINALISTS

Allie Tsubota

Arturo Soto

Zhidong Zhang

JURORS

Lindsay Caplan is Assistant Professor of modern and contemporary art history at Brown University and the author of Arte Programmata: Freedom, Control, and the Computer in 1960s Italy (Minnesota, 2022).

Liz Nielsen is a New York-based artist known for her vibrant, camera-less photographs, or "light paintings." Working in total darkness, she employs a complex layering system of materials and objects to expose light-sensitive paper, creating dynamic, multi-exposure compositions that explore themes of connection, perception, and quantum physics. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions at Miles McEnery Gallery in New York, SOCO Gallery in Charlotte, and Black Box Projects in London. Nielsen holds an MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
liznielsen.com

Brian Sholis is a writer, editor, and the cofounder of the software company Valise, which builds inventory software for artists. He was previously the executive director of Gallery TPW in Toronto, curator of photography at the Cincinnati Art Museum, and an editor at Aperture Foundation and Artforum. He lives in Toronto.
sholis.com

About the Workspace A-I-R Program

The Penumbra Workspace Program benefits three US-based emerging artists* with access to time, facilities, critical and technical support, and honoraria. The extension of the program ranges from six to eight weeks depending on the time requested by the selected artists. Participants have liberal access to the workspace facilities. They are expected to use their time to pursue their own projects: researching, photographing, scanning, printing, working on an exhibition or editing a book.

* An emerging artist is someone in the early stage of their career, who takes risks and embraces challenges, and who hasn't yet established a solid reputation as an artist amongst other artists, curators, producers, critics, and arts administrators.