Join us at Surf Point on Friday, November 20th from 2 - 4 pm to meet artists in residence Abed Elmajid Shalabi, Vandana Jain, and Pat Shannon.
Meet the Residents is a public program series that offers resident artists and art professionals the option to extend their time at Surf Point to share their work with the public. These intimate gatherings begin with 20-minute presentations by each resident, followed by an opportunity to visit their studio spaces.
The studio is a creative space, a place of experimentation, research, and development. We invite visitors to observe and engage with respectful curiosity for each individual’s creative process.
Here are some helpful guidelines to keep in mind when visiting a resident’s studio:
Greet the resident! Say hi, introduce yourself, and listen to whatever they have to say. They will often give a brief overview of the projects or works in progress, and mention any relevant studio notes.
Ask before taking photos, and clarify whether or not the images may be shared on social media. If yes, tag accordingly.
Engage with the work. Look at it, think about it, ask questions if the resident seems receptive. Offer observations, as it can be really helpful to tell them how fresh eyes encounter the work. Ask before touching.
Sometimes residents will have material in their studios that is political, explicit, violent, or offensive. Try to engage with this material from a place of curiosity rather than judgement, and always maintain respectful communication.
Be kind, curious, and gracious. On your way out, sign the guest book if you see one, and thank them for sharing their practice.
In addition to the studio visit guidelines, we've found it is very helpful for people to understand our community values and expectations in advance. Please take the time to read through them here.
The event is free and open to the public. Space is limited and registration is required.
The address and directions will be shared in advance of the event.
For those who are able, we invite you to make a suggested contribution of $25 to support our public programs. We welcome donations above or below this amount based on your ability to give.
Surf Point is a 501(c)(3) public charity. Support from a broad base of donors helps us maintain that status by demonstrating public support. Contributions of any amount, including $1, make a difference. Your gift strengthens Surf Point’s public support and sustains our programs for artists and the broader community. Learn more about Surf Point here.
For questions, please contact info@surfpoint.me.
About the residents
Abed Elmajid Shalabi (Richmond, VA)
Abed Elmajid Shalabi is a Palestinian artist based in Richmond, Virginia. His work is concerned with migration, globalization, and Palestinian narratives of displacement and colonization. Shalabi creates highly reflective ceramic sculptures cast from industrial objects associated with protection, extraction, and infrastructure, including bulletproof vests, gas pumps, and safety seating systems. His work explores the failures of the modernization project in the Middle East. As the grandson of Palestinian laborers who became citizens of Israel following the 1948 Nakba, he is interested in the gap between labor and construction work and the polished, seductive surface of his glossy ceramic forms. By remaking these objects in ceramic, he shifts them from functional systems into unstable images of power, where surface and fragility contradict their original promise of safety and control.
Shalabi has been a fellow at Hamiltonian Artists, Washington, DC (2022–2024), the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA (2024, 2020), and Lighthouse Works,Fishers Island, NY (2023). He is a recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Artistic Research Grant (2024) and Emergency Grant (2023). He earned his MFA in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University,Richmond, VA (2021), his BFA in Fine Arts from Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art, Ramat Gan, Israel (2019), and studied at the Universität der Künste Berlin. He was an artist in residence at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Madison, ME (2022) and at ISCP, Brooklyn, NY (2024), NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, NY (2023) and The Virginia Center for Creative Arts (2023). His works have been featured in exhibitions nationally and internationally, including Luhring Augustine, New York; C24 Gallery, New York; SARA'S, New York; Vox Populi, Philadelphia; the OCCCA, Santa Ana, CA, and CCA in Tel Aviv.
Visit Abed’s website here.
Vandana Jain (Brooklyn, NY)
Vandana Jain is an artist, weaver and textile designer based in New York City. She received her Studio Art degree from New York University and went on to study Textile Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She makes weavings and sculpture with found materials, both on and off the loom. Her work explores the intersections of labor, cost, and value, and how this affects what we make, and what we throw away. Jain has had solo projects at Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, Buffalo, NY; Lakeeren, Mumbai, India; Station Independent Projects, Lower East Side, NY; and Smack Mellon in Brooklyn, NY. Her awards include the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant, the Emerging Artist’s Fellowship at Socrates Sculpture Park, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Residency. Her work has been profiled in Artforum, The New York Times, Hyperallergic, Mumbai Boss, Kyoorius and Beautiful Decay. She was an artist in residence at Pioneer Works in 2023.
You can see more of her work on instagram vuhn.duh.naa or one her website: vandanajain.net
Pat Shannon (Boston, MA)
Pat Shannon is a Boston based visual artist who uses objects, photography, text and moving image to create quiet ephemeral works that touch on questions of presence, memory and shared emotional understanding.
She is a graduate of The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and also holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Northeastern University. She’s exhibited in regional museums, academic venues, galleries, non-profit spaces and at the Hotel des Arts, Mediterranean Contemporary Art Center, Toulon France. Her work is held in private collections and she was awarded a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship Grant in Sculpture/Installation/ New Genres on multiple occasions. Her work has been published in “Paper Works” by Sandu Cultural Media in Gangzhou, China and “Villissima!: des artistes et des villes” by Guillaume Monsaingeon, Editions Parentheses, Marseille, France.
Visit Pat’s Instagram here.