Stephen Bivens’ Fellowship recipient, Christopher Mason began his 2022/23 residency straddling the mediums of photography and printmaking in the creation of this project, so it only seems like a natural step for the Cleveland Print Room to partner with us to show his work publicly. With a strict photoshoot schedule that included photographing the city, along with populating sketchbooks and journals with prints while working at Zygote, Mason’s determination to take his photography to another artistic realm in his practice is present in this new body of work.

Mason writes, “Like a silent power, my work speaks in enigmatic tones, impressing through brevity. Childhood memories bloom, guiding my creative journey. The art of youth’s joy and discovery emerges in blurred motion, textured grain, abstract repetition, and atypical compositions. Urban rhythms pulse, mirroring society’s urgency….Art becomes a compass for uncharted territories.”

Stephen Bivens Fellowship: Stephen Bivens was a self-taught photographer who preferred to work with 35mm film. A teaching artist with CPR, Bivens instructed students in Cleveland schools on shooting film. He was a 2018 Cleveland Arts Prize Verge Fellowship winner and 2016 received a Ballot Box Project award through the Kresge Foundation and ArtPlace America. Bivens died suddenly on June 1, 2020 after a short illness.

Thanks to Jen Bivens, artBIV and the George Gund Foundation for their support of the Bivens Fellowship.