Safe Harbors of the Hudson and Ann Street Gallery are thrilled to introduce the
2026 Ann Street Gallery Emerging Artist Fellows:
We Know Nothing
cement, rebar, wood
6.8 x 5.8 x 5.8’
2024
No Human Is Illegal locally sources bamboo, crochet
3 x 30 ‘
2025
found and personal objects, digital media, Arduino
6 x 6 ‘
2020
Elena Kalkova (she/they) is an artistic researcher and educator living and working in Newburgh, NY. Born in Tver, Russia, she had to leave in 2016, first to Hong Kong and then to the United States. Working in conceptual sculpture and installation, she draws on the post-utopic landscape of her childhood to address state censorship, political violence, and the politics of memory. In her socially engaged practice, she explores weaponisations of memorylessness, state propaganda, alternatives to oppressive monumentality, resistance and care. Kalkova seeks to connect personal and collective experiences, prioritizing coming together to repair fractured social ties and fostering horizontal connections. She is interested in conversations about what is forgotten and what is pushed out or erased for those who are stuck in this liminal space of non-be/longing.
For her Fellowship project, Kalkova proposes to create a sculptural installation that will serve her ongoing archival research. The weaponization of memory has been a central concern in her practice for many years. Recently, U.S. public institutions have begun systematically removing references to diversity, queerness, and non-dominant histories from archives and memorial sites, reshaping public memory to support a narrow narrative of white, militarized nationalism and patriarchy. These acts of erasure diminish representation and contribute to ongoing cycles of exclusion and violence. Kalkova has been collecting documented instances of these removals, which will inform the creation of small cast reliefs in cement, plaster, textile and glass, incorporating images and text altered or erased. The final installation will consist of an aggregation of these reliefs, forming a collective yet fragmented structure. By subverting the aesthetics of monumental, ultra-masculine propaganda, the work centers individual queer histories that are currently being removed from public U.S. archives. The installation proposes the creation of counter-memories, using fragility, grief, and vulnerability not as signs of weakness, but as strategies of resistance and persistence.
Kalkova holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts, and an MA in Global Arts and Cultures from Rhode Island School of Design. She received her BA from Tver State University. In 2026, she was awarded a NYSCA Grant. Her work has been exhibited widely, including the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, the Ely Center for Contemporary Art, the Romanian Cultural Institute (NYC), The Invisible Dog Art Center, and the Terrain Biennial, among others. In addition to her practice, she has always been an educator; she has taught college classes, kindergartens, community workshops, and worked for boys and girls clubs. She believes in the vital importance of accessible liberal arts and art education. Currently, she works at SUNY with immigrants, volunteers with Ukrainian refugees, and teaches at RISD. She is also currently a member and participant of the Feminist Anti-War Resistance Group (FAR), an international horizontal human rights and activist organization.
Learn more at Kalkova’s website: elenakalkova.net
11.5 x 9 x 8”
Snapping turtle shell, porcelain tile, common turtle shell, pin cushion, pearl pins, chicken rings, and coat hanger
2024
8.5 x 24 x 7”
black acrylic interior of Limulus polyphemus (horseshoe crab) shell, wired onto glass lamp with sand-filled base, and vintage glass blown Edison lightbulb. The lamp is touch-activated at its base with a dimmable bulb
2024
42 x 64 x 10”
adult chital/axis deer hide (axis axis), cyanotype portrait of artist, paper cyanotype cutouts spotted spurge (euphorbia maculata)
2025
Duncan Richards (she/they) is a Hudson Valley-based interdisciplinary artist and spiritsmith, whose creative work intertwines contemporary art with traditional folk magic. Her work emerges from the understanding that we live in an inspirited world . Matter is never inert; image, object, body, land, and memory are all in continuous relation with forces both visible and invisible; for what are we if not spirits within a body? To create within an inspired world is also to refuse the colonial fantasy of the isolated artist in favor of remembering the self within the plural: composed through ancestry, environment, community, spirit, and the many forms of exchange that make up this little life we all share. Richards is interested in art as a co-creative act, a place where the small daemons that live in her heart can take shape in visual form. As a Trans artist, that sense of plurality is bound up with Richards’ relationship to change. Transition taught her early that the self is not singular or still. It shifts, opens, doubles back, sheds skin, and becomes. Change, for her, is not a problem to solve. It is the condition that makes creation possible. Using ritual and technology, body and image, Richards’ work is shaped by Trans and Queer resistance, by folk magic, and by esoteric traditions that seek to intertwine those legacies.
For her Fellowship project, Angels in the Operating Room, Richards will explore the Trans body through its wounds: the wounds chosen, the wounds endured, and the spirits of those experiences that remain as light within them. The project centers on the idea that the body is not only flesh, but a site of archival experience—marked by trauma, pleasure, survival, intervention, and creating oneself in one's own image. Rather than treating wounds solely as sites of damage, Richards wants to approach them as thresholds, where euphoria and dysphoria coexist in the same opening. The project will consist of large-scale sculptural assemblages as a method of building through fragments—medical residue, domestic relics, devotional objects, and narrative writing—displaying the psychic and psychological effects within altered flesh. Angels in the Operating Room is ultimately about how bodies—and the spirit(s) that reside within their wounds—rework personal narrative through openings, and the light that emerges from them.
Through her moniker, WhereTheWaterFlows, she creates through sculptural, multimedia, and mediumistic techniques. Duncan's work has been featured in collaborations with the Kolaj Institute of New Orleans and the National Folklore Collection at the University of Dublin, and has appeared at Red Dot Miami as part of Art Basel week. In addition to her artistic pursuits, she holds a master’s degree from NYU’s Silver School of Social Work with a focus on Trans/Queer populations and postgraduate certifications in Trauma specialization from the International Trauma Training Institute (ITTI).
Learn more at Richards’ website: wherethewaterflows.net
Moses of the City (excerpt from photobook, pages 78-79)
Photographs and original writing
2022
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Jonathan and David
Photograph (A modern-day interpretation of biblical characters)
2025
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The Adventures of Pedro Pan
Photograph (self-portrait)
2024
Luis Mercedes Winter, aka Louie from the block, is a Black, Queer, Jewish, Neurodiverse Earthling based on Mohican Land, colonially known as the Hudson Valley of New York. With photography and poetry, the story of his life is told through allegory. As his existence is politicized, his work is inherently political. For Mercedes Winter, to live while Black, he must practice Anti-Racism. HIs "effeminate" nature is the target of hate, which necessitates his actions for Feminism. He declares his Love with Pride. Intentions are irrelevant in the face of impact, so rather than focus on intent, he looks to actions that repair the world. Mercedes Winter acts up by documenting, photographing, and making Art that speaks to this moment. He grounds his words in soft images, so their meaning is easier to digest. He sprinkles in absurd humor to disarm the reluctant. This work frees him from the public theater that this oppressive, fascist system expects. Here, he can speak with honesty and clarity to his experience as a Black, Queer, Jewish, Neurodiverse Being. He is free to write it as he sees it and capture moments that reflect the full picture of Shadow-and-Light.
For his Fellowship project, Mercedes Winter proposes to continue his experimental practice of combining images and poetry to tell his next story, “Daddy Issues,” a modern day interpretation of the Abraham and Isaac story. For his interpretation, Winter will cast drag kings as the male leads and a drag queen to play Sarah, a woman who is also the mother of Isaac and wife of Abraham. This project would also feature landscapes of the Hudson Valley as the background for, and a character in, the story; the Hudson Valley will act as the setting for Abraham and Isaac’s hike up a mountain. Mercedes Winter’s work often features biblical stories, which can be somewhat familiar to many, yet by placing them in a modern context, he aims to make them much more accessible and less patriarchal. He cuts through the noise of bigotry sprinkled into these stories to shine a light on their cores as wild stories.
Born in the Lower East Side of Manhattan and raised between three boroughs, Luis lived in Los Angeles from 2013 to 2018. He learned how to question at Phillips Exeter Academy and how to Art (to Be) at Bard College. His photography is often based in literature while his writing is visual and sensory. His work is colorful, like his Afro-Latinx roots. Mercedes Winter recently participated in group exhibitions at Photoville Festival and Sprout Society in Brooklyn as well as the Dwyer Cultural Center in Harlem. He has been featured in Dispatches Magazine and Hey Alma. His photobook, Moses of the City, is part of the collection at The Library for Arts & Culture in Brooklyn. He was previously a fellow with The Workshop in 2023 and 2024.
Learn more at Mercedes Winter’s website: louiefromtheblock.com
Photographs and original writing
2022
Photograph (A modern-day interpretation of biblical characters)
2025
Photograph (self-portrait)
2024
Luis Mercedes Winter, aka Louie from the block, is a Black, Queer, Jewish, Neurodiverse Earthling based on Mohican Land, colonially known as the Hudson Valley of New York. With photography and poetry, the story of his life is told through allegory. As his existence is politicized, his work is inherently political. For Mercedes Winter, to live while Black, he must practice Anti-Racism. HIs "effeminate" nature is the target of hate, which necessitates his actions for Feminism. He declares his Love with Pride. Intentions are irrelevant in the face of impact, so rather than focus on intent, he looks to actions that repair the world. Mercedes Winter acts up by documenting, photographing, and making Art that speaks to this moment. He grounds his words in soft images, so their meaning is easier to digest. He sprinkles in absurd humor to disarm the reluctant. This work frees him from the public theater that this oppressive, fascist system expects. Here, he can speak with honesty and clarity to his experience as a Black, Queer, Jewish, Neurodiverse Being. He is free to write it as he sees it and capture moments that reflect the full picture of Shadow-and-Light.
For his Fellowship project, Mercedes Winter proposes to continue his experimental practice of combining images and poetry to tell his next story, “Daddy Issues,” a modern day interpretation of the Abraham and Isaac story. For his interpretation, Winter will cast drag kings as the male leads and a drag queen to play Sarah, a woman who is also the mother of Isaac and wife of Abraham. This project would also feature landscapes of the Hudson Valley as the background for, and a character in, the story; the Hudson Valley will act as the setting for Abraham and Isaac’s hike up a mountain. Mercedes Winter’s work often features biblical stories, which can be somewhat familiar to many, yet by placing them in a modern context, he aims to make them much more accessible and less patriarchal. He cuts through the noise of bigotry sprinkled into these stories to shine a light on their cores as wild stories.
Born in the Lower East Side of Manhattan and raised between three boroughs, Luis lived in Los Angeles from 2013 to 2018. He learned how to question at Phillips Exeter Academy and how to Art (to Be) at Bard College. His photography is often based in literature while his writing is visual and sensory. His work is colorful, like his Afro-Latinx roots. Mercedes Winter recently participated in group exhibitions at Photoville Festival and Sprout Society in Brooklyn as well as the Dwyer Cultural Center in Harlem. He has been featured in Dispatches Magazine and Hey Alma. His photobook, Moses of the City, is part of the collection at The Library for Arts & Culture in Brooklyn. He was previously a fellow with The Workshop in 2023 and 2024.
Learn more at Mercedes Winter’s website: louiefromtheblock.com
Now in our fifth year, the Ann Street Gallery Emerging Artist Fellowship program aims to provide a supportive platform for early-career or under-recognized artists in Newburgh and the Hudson Valley, with a focus on artists from historically marginalized communities. The fellowship provides three artists with opportunities for mentorship, networking, and professional development as well as a $2000 USD materials and supplies allowance, a cohort exhibition in the gallery during Newburgh Open Studios, and individual guidance toward identifying goals and further opportunities.
The Fellowship program supports experimental and substantive growth for a six-month fellowship from June through November 2026. Located in the heart of Newburgh NY, Ann Street Gallery is situated at the nexus of community and the arts. Fellows have direct access to Ann Street Gallery's and Safe Harbors Of the Hudson's exhibitions and programming, can explore the resources offered by Newburgh’s vibrant arts scene and cultural institutions, and have the possibility to connect and engage with arts professionals and practitioners based in Newburgh and surrounding areas, and those participating in Ann Street Gallery and Safe Harbors of the Hudson programming.
We are proud to bolster artists with experimental practices within the visual arts, performance, and interdisciplinary practice as an essential part of our program and mission. The Fellowship places special emphasis on artists exploring narratives aside or sub-current to those formally acknowledged by art historians, especially practices that foster an active exchange with local organizations and communities, or are rooted in exploring aspects of place, history, or non-dominant cultural competencies and practices.
The 2026 program is led by Gallery Director, Alison McNulty and includes the mentorship of regional artists and arts professionals in the form of workshops, conversations, presentations, critiques, studio visits, and trips to regional art institutions and spaces. Emerging Artist Fellows are selected by a jury led by McNulty with members from the region’s arts community from applications submitted during an annual open call.
Emerging Artist Fellowship:
Safe Harbors' Ann Street Gallery programming is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, the Cowles Charitable Trust, the Dominican Sisters of Hope Ministry Fund, M&T Charitable Foundation, and individual donors. The Emerging Artist Fellowship is made possible with support from the TD Charitable Foundation.
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Safe Harbors' Ann Street Gallery programming is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, the Cowles Charitable Trust, the Dominican Sisters of Hope Ministry Fund, M&T Charitable Foundation, and individual donors. The Emerging Artist Fellowship is made possible with support from the TD Charitable Foundation.
We are proud to partner with Newburgh Art Supply to offer discounts on art supplies to current-year Fellows.
