Meet 2022-2024 RedLine Resident Artist Agnes Ma!
Agnes Ma is an Illinois native who relocated to Colorado in 2016. She’s currently an Assistant Professor and 3D Studios Coordinator in the Fine Arts + Foundations Department at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design.
She received her M.F.A. in Metalwork, Jewelry Design, and Digital Fabrication as well as a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies from Northern Illinois University and has a B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Her work combines traditional craft and modern methods of fabrication to examine the relationship between humans and their surrounding environment.
Agnes was the Artist in Residence for Metalwork and Glass at Lillstreet Art Center (Chicago, Illinois) in 2015-2016 and took part in a 4-week artist residency at Yellowstone National Park in the summer of 2018. Her artwork has been exhibited nationally, including at the Metal Museum in Memphis Tennessee. Her museum and curatorial endeavors have extended as far as Sicily.
Watch the video of Agnes in her RedLine studio to learn more about her and her practice!
"Hi, I'm Agnes Ma. I have been working a lot with industrial materials and then also sometimes referencing architecture or industry, but I oftentimes will juxtapose that with more organic forms and essentially nature, to kind of compare how we exist in society with this environment.
"Lately, I've been thinking that it's more of a metaphor of how we are as people as well. I'm not an outdoors person, but sometimes I force myself to be in nature. A lot of times like this, going and experiencing allows me to just see kind of what's out there, and I notice a lot of things that I might not even realize can exist in nature.
"This last year I've been working more with the 3D pen. My background is in digital fabrication as well as metal smithing and jewelry, so the 3D pen is a loose extension of that, in the sense that it uses the same sort of mechanical features as the 3D printer, except it's not controlled by the computer anymore.
"I work at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, and I know that there's a close relationship with faculty there as well as alum with this program here at RedLine. I also moved to the Denver Metro area in 2020, so I came in and didn't really have a way to build community in a more normal way. So this—I felt was a good opportunity for me to finally build that community now that we're a little bit more open instead of pandemic times."
Meet Resident Artist Chelsea Kaiah
Meet 2022-2024 RedLine Resident Artist Chelsea Kaiah! Chelsea Kaiah is Ute and Apache/Irish settler, born on the Northern Ute reservation. She is a passionate activist for Native rights, awareness, and sustainability.
Today, she learns traditional practices of pine needle weaving, beading, porcupine quilling, buffalo hunting, and hide work.
