Alter Space’s Jail Cell Residency is a new program offering artists a unique and supportive environment to work deep below the streets of San Francisco. The 1-3 month project-based residency is located in the Alter Space basement, a dungeon-like environment that sits below Howard Street in the SOMA area of the city. The 9′ x 12′ jail cell, located within a 22′ x 25′ room, is the most prominent remnant to be left behind by the BDSM store that previously occupied the building, who used the cell for film shoots and other endeavors. The cell provides each artist with lighting, a desk and some space to expand one’s process throughout the surrounding basement area. Alter Space will be offering a short term open studio of the work completed during the residency upon each project’s completion. Though it may not offer beach-side views or even wonderful natural lighting, it does provide a very unique, provocative and distraction-free spot for locking yourself into hard work – complete with an endless supply of metaphors for the tortured artist. We are currently accepting proposals for the Jail Cell Residency in 2014. Please email contact@alterspace.

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CURRENT ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE: BEX FREUND Bex Freund is an artist living and working in the East Bay. Her work takes shape through painting and collage working towards a narrative. An avid traveler, Freund has visited nearly 30 countries. Throughout her travels she encounters cities, thriving and lost. What becomes clear through her work and her desire for adventure is the history of place and the stories that surround it. During her time in Alter Space’s Jail Cell Residency Freund will work on her graphic novel, Fever-Dreams of the City That Never Was. It is an investigation of “The City,” not tied to one in particular but those, which have come and gone, perhaps forgotten. The polarizing account of a city is based in power with the idea that those esteemed enough would not, and have not perished. Civilization, however, is delicate and try as they might people move from one place to another leaving behind nothing but the ghost in the metropolis. In describing the project, Freund states, “The City’s many aspects are not always cognizant of each other; their inhabitants mostly unaware but subtly influenced by the unique character of their environment. The graphic novel is split into a dozen different stories, some nested within others, exploring the many faces of the City and the people who live within them.” Alter Space and the Jail Cell nestled in the basement have their own unique history tied to San Francisco. Fever-Dreams of the City That Never Was will come to fruition in this thriving city whose archives are written in the architectures both above and below ground. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Bex Freund cultivated a love affair with oil painting at the age of seven and has been exhibiting since 2004. In 2007, she moved to the Bay Area to earn her BFA at California College of the Arts. In 2008, Bex worked as a prop/set fabrication intern for the Emmy award-winning series Robot Chicken, learning how to craft tiny worlds alongside Hollywood industry veterans. More recently, Bex has spent the last two years working as a studio assistant for internationally exhibited painter Joshua Hagler in Berkeley. Her work has been exhibited at the de Young Museum of San Francisco and showcased on the popular entertainment weblog, Autostraddle. 

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PREVIOUS RESIDENTS:

February 2013 – June 2013 – MELISSA DICKENSON

September 2012 – January 2013 – JOSHUA HAGLER

May 2012 – August 2012 – MATT SILADY