studio summer: a residency with showcase at bushwick gallery

Studio Summer: A Residency with Showcase at Bushwick Gallery

Brooklyn, NY | July 1 – July 31, 2025

Final Showcase: June 26, 2025

Application Deadline: June 1 | Notification by June 11

Application Fee: $25 | No additional participation fees if accepted

In the heat of Brooklyn’s creative season, Bushwick Gallery opens its doors to three visual artists for a month-long summer residency designed not just for making—but for meaning. Studio Summer offers time, space, and visibility to artists committed to experimentation, process, and presence. The residency culminates in a one-night, non-commercial public showcase, offering a rare glimpse into the raw edge of creation—works in motion, ideas mid-flight.

Artists are provided access to a shared, open-plan studio space within the gallery, available daily from 8 AM to 8 PM. While the program does not include housing or a financial award, it offers something increasingly rare in New York’s art landscape: uninterrupted time in a professional gallery setting, supported by curatorial mentorship and institutional promotion.

The residency will be directed by Maëlis Tomassone, a France-born, New York-based artist whose work channels the spirit of the streets through layered paper, charcoal, and oil pastel. Known for her spontaneous yet deeply intuitive practice, Tomassone brings both critical rigor and expressive freedom to her role as curator and mentor.

Joining her on the selection panel are:

– Roman Cochet, painter and sculptor exploring post-human stillness and fragmented memory

– Gina Keatley, abstract artist and founder of Bushwick Gallery, whose work investigates erosion, endurance, and quiet resistance

Bushwick Gallery invites applications from painters, mixed-media artists, and those working across visual disciplines with a distinctive point of view. This is a residency for artists who are ready to go deep, challenge form, and create in community—without distraction, but with dialogue.

Two positions remain.

Submit no later than June 1, 2025. Artists will be notified by June 11.

In the spirit of summer—this is your time to work. Let the city move around you. Let the work take root.

Why Apply?

In a city where creative space is scarce and time to experiment even scarcer, Studio Summer stands out as a rare and meaningful opportunity. For one month, you’ll have access to a professional gallery studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn—New York’s epicenter of contemporary artistic energy. Unlike typical residencies that focus on production or commercial outcomes, this experience is about uninterrupted process, reflection, and growth.

Bushwick itself is a compelling reason to apply. Known for its street murals, boundary-pushing studios, and diverse artist communities, Bushwick is more than a location—it’s a live, breathing ecosystem of art and experimentation. Being embedded in this context allows you to feed off the city’s pulse while enjoying the freedom to retreat, refine, and create.

At Bushwick Gallery, our curatorial history reflects a commitment to powerful, boundary-challenging work. In the past year alone, we’ve hosted Love and Heartbreak: A Duality (February 2025), an emotionally charged exploration of vulnerability and resilience; Metamorphosis: Transformations in Art (March 2025), a deep dive into the process of becoming and change; and Urban Narratives: The City as Canvas (April 2025), which turned graffiti, street photography, and architectural remnants into powerful reflections of place and identity. These exhibitions don’t just show art—they create meaningful conversations.

We’ve also explored the fantastical in Wild Kingdoms: Animals Reimagined and the psychological in Specters of the Subconscious, always pushing toward themes that resonate with the moment and stretch the possibilities of visual storytelling. Our showcases are thoughtful, well-publicized, and deeply respected in Brooklyn’s evolving gallery landscape.

By participating in Studio Summer, you step into that same lineage—not to present a final product, but to invest in your voice, your practice, and your potential. You’ll be working alongside two other artists in a shared space where dialogue is welcome but distraction is minimized. There’s no pressure to sell, no demand for a polished outcome—just a one-night showcase that invites the public to witness the raw, compelling beauty of work in motion.

If you’re seeking clarity, expansion, or simply the time to see where your art can go when given space, this residency is for you. Bushwick is waiting. Let your work grow roots here.