Tiffany Baker, is a Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based visual artist, working in oil, acrylic, pencil, digital media, and glass. Tiffany has developed a unique style of realist portraiture. Marked by vibrant palettes and considered attention to her subject’s grooming, she merges the somber, the regal, and mundane, bringing forth her subject’s intensity. In her portraiture, Tiffany turns life experiences into emotive visual expressions that re-imagine trauma, embed messages of connection, and celebrate her identity as a black woman.
Leah is an interdisciplinary artist with a background in art, architecture, and graphic design. She’s interested in the delicate balance between nature and the built environment, with an emphasis on the implications of climate change and rising seas. Her work explores the balance between nature and the built environment, with an emphasis on marine ecosystems and rising seas.
ALI RUFRANO-RUFFNER, currently based in Brooklyn, creates sculptures, installations, and public art. Their practice is dedicated to a culture of revolution, focused on creating art and sculpture that helps us radically imagine worlds where we can really, really care about each other. This year, RUFRANO-RUFFNER is collaborating with the Metro Transit Authority to build Concrete Jungle (NY,NY), an installation that will creatively reimagine a dilapidated retail site at The 81st Street–Museum of Natural History station.
Karen Dawn Blondelis a trusted and respected local community leader and long-time resident of public housing in Red Hook, Brooklyn. She has been widely recognized and honored at the community, city and state federal levels for her grassroots community organizing efforts and unwavering commitment to social justice issues, including housing equity, climate change, Hurricane Sandy recovery, environmental health, and COVID-19 preparedness. Karen is a Havard Graduate School of Design Loeb Fellow 2022.The Human Impacts Institute and NYC Department of Transportation declared her an NYC Climate Hero. When NY State went on PAUSE, she partnered with the Red Hook Container Terminal and spearheaded the weekly distribution of fresh produce to Red Hook and Gowanus residents. Karen has trained as a Computer Aided Designer and Drafter, worked as a Construction Inspector and Civil Engineer Assistant and is certified in Biomedical and Behavioral Research with Human Participants. She has worked on the impacts of the Gowanus Canal remediation on NYCHA residents, as a community liaison for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and as a certified US Census Field Representative and Data Collector. In 2020, she founded the Public Housing Civic Association, a local community-based non-profit organization that gives voice to public housing residents as they address issues related to the built environment.
Karen is a Community Liaison for NASEM National Association for Science Engineering and Medicine raising awareness around PFAS contamination.
Karen is one of 5 2023 David Prize winners. This prize is awarded to ordinary New Yorkers who have ideas and visions that will benefit New Yorkers.
Sebastian is a licensed architect with 16 years of architecture experience. Prior to founding Tankhouse, Sebastian was an Associate Partner at Foster + Partners New York where he lead the design and project management for a range of North and South American projects spanning residential, cultural and commercial design.
Sebastian earned his Master of Science in Architecture from the University of Buenos Aires (2002) and has completed coursework at New York University’s Schack Institute for Real Estate Development. Sebastian previously held teaching positions at the University of Buenos Aires and the Boston Architectural College.
As the Executive Director of Gowanus Canal Conservancy, Andrea works to empower a community of environmental stewards and advocates in the rapidly changing Gowanus Watershed. As an instructor at City College of New York, she engages landscape architecture students with the complex ecological, economic and cultural forces at play in New York’s dynamic urban ecology. Her previous work as a landscape designer and gardener provides a pragmatic understanding of how landscapes are designed, built and maintained. She received a BA from the University of Chicago, studied Landscape Horticulture at Merritt College, and received a MLA from the University of Virginia.
Immanuel Oni is a first-generation Nigerian-American artist and space doula living between New York City and hometown Houston, TX. He believes design is not about what he is making, but who he is making it for. As for art, it is religion. His work explores loss, memory, and its deep connection with space. He utilizes spatial justice design and visual storytelling to unearth narratives related to trauma, healing, and ritual. His canvas consists of repurposing existing public space infrastructure such as light posts, fencing, underutilized green areas or mobile spaces to prompt community dialogue and connection. His aim is to fuse the physical with the spiritual. He has led and participated in international art and urbanism workshops in Venice, Hong Kong, and Lagos. He has been a Fellow for the Design Trust for Public Space, Culture Push, New York for Culture and Arts, More Art Engaging Artist Commission NY, and received awards from Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts NY, Office of Neighborhood Safety, Architectural League of New York, the New York State Council of the Arts, and commissioned by Fourth Arts Block (FABnyc) as the artist for the Chrystie Street African Burial Ground Memorial Installation in the Lower East Side. He is a former Director of Community Design at the New York City’s Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and Adjunct Professor at Parsons the New School for Design. He is the co-founder and Creative Director of Liminal, a non-profit that works at the intersection of art, unity, and space.
Lynn Neuman is a national leading eco-artist known for programs and performances layered with involvement and action. She has created 45 works for Artichoke Dance, been commissioned to create 22 works for other groups and directed nine operas. Her site specific work has been commissioned by The Soraya, connecting California State University with Los Angeles River restoration, Waterfront Alliance, reflecting on the effects of sea level rise, Texas A&M, engaging with water use and rights in the desert southwest, and National Gallery of Art, for Voices of the Ocean.
Eto Otitigbe is interested in recovering buried narratives and giving form to the unseen. He is a polymedia artist whose interdisciplinary practice includes sculpture, performance, installation, and public art. His public art intersects history, community, and biophilic design by using parametric modeling and generative design to transform historical and cultural references into biomorphic forms and patterns that reference nature. Otitigbe’s public works includes temporary installations in Socrates Sculpture Park (Queens, NY) and Randall’s Island Park (New York, NY). His current large-scale public commissions include: Peaceful Journey (Mt. Vernon, NY, 2022); Cascode (Philadelphia, PA, 2024); Emanativ (Harlem, NY, 2023); Passing Point (Alexandria, VA, 2023). He was a member of the Design Team for the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at UVA (Charlottesville, VA, 2019) where he contributed to the creative expression on the memorial’s exterior surface.