2025 GRANTEE INTERVIEWS

  • Lillian creates fantasy worlds where imagined beings and tangled narratives collide, unravel, and reassemble with humor in new inventive stories. The detail and complexity of her drawings create magical narratives that feel at once playful and profound. In this studio video, Lillian Ansell, a 2025 Tallichet Freedman Foundation micro grant artist, shares insight into her practice of world building through illustration, drawing, and animation.

    Links

    Artist Website | https://lillianansell.com/

    Artist IG | @lilliansell

    Favorite Ridgewood Spot | Forest Polish Grocery & Deli | Map

    Credits

    All images and video courtesy of the artist. © Lillian Ansell, all rights reserved.

    Music Credits

    Song: later time provided by mobygratis

    Song: also ran provided by mobygratis

    Song: Houses provided by mobygratis

    Song: Breathe It Out | Music by: CreatorMix.com

  • Nick’s curious and inquisitive nature leads to an abundance of creative investigations. It was fascinating to be in his studio and explore his inventive approaches and ways of working. In this studio video, Nicolas Calabresi, a 2025 Tallichet Freedman Foundation micro grant artist, shares insight into his art practice that draws from his background in philosophy, inherent punk ethos, and wild experimentation.

    Links

    Favorite Ridgewood Spot | Valentino Food Market  | Map

    Credits

    All images and video courtesy of the artist. © Nicolas Calabresi, all rights reserved.

    Music Credits

    Song: later time provided by mobygratis

    Song: jul 31 provided by mobygratis

    Song: name the places provided by mobygratis

    Song: Houses provided by mobygratis

  • With her camera always at hand, Apolline Guillerot-Malick is ready to catch the moment when chance transforms into story. She has honed her investigative and storytelling skills through her travels and research in many countries. In this studio video, Apolline Guillerot-Malick, a 2025 Tallichet Freedman Foundation micro grant artist, describes her photography as a form of gleaning, gathering overlooked and forgotten narratives

    Links

    Artist Website | https://apollineguillerot.wixsite.com/website/e

    Artist IG | @unpdeuxailes

    Favorite Ridgewood Spot | Topos Bookstore Cafe | Map

    Credits

    All images and video courtesy of the artist. © Apolline Guillerot-Malick, all rights reserved.

    Music Credits

    Song: later time provided by mobygratis

    Song: name the places provided by mobygratis

    Song: Houses provided by mobygratis

  • Anne Hart’s paintings expose the margins of life and perception, focusing on everyday spaces like waiting rooms, offices, and domestic interiors. What might seem invisible or mundane becomes a site of energetic tension in her work. She paints at a desk in front of a glorious window in her light-filled studio. In this studio video, Anne, a 2025 Tallichet Freedman Foundation micro grant artist, shares how she draws inspiration from overlooked places and transforms them into invitations to see the world differently.

    Artist Website | ahartworks.org

    Artist IG | @linelaundering

    Favorite Ridgewood Spot | Paradise Aquarium | Map

    Credits

    All images and video courtesy of the artist. © Anne Hart, all rights reserved.

    Music Credits

    Song: later time provided by mobygratis

    Song: liminal provided by mobygratis

    Song: Houses provided by mobygratis

    Song: Windy City | Artist: Owl Nest | Music by: CreatorMix.com | Video: https://youtu.be/BJbzT89Hl48

    Song: Avatar | Artist: Kia | Music by: CreatorMix.com

  • Amelia Heintzelman is pushing the limits of the body to expose both its power and vulnerability. She moves freely between comedy and intense dramatic scores. In this studio video, Amelia, a 2025 Tallichet Freedman Foundation micro grant artist, reflects on her choreographic practice and her piece Scratcher. She also talks about Comedy Pilates, an exercise class structured like dance but infused with improvisation and clowning. It is lighthearted, hilarious, and yes, you can feel your muscles burn while you are doing it.

    Links

    Artist Website | www.ameliakh.com

    Artist IG | @annonomus_rex

    Favorite Ridgewood Spot | Everyone Yoga | Map

    Credits

    All images and video performance clips courtesy of the artist. © Amelia Heintzelman, all rights reserved.

    • Comedy Pilates | 93 Canal | Vimeo

    • new moves (work in progress) | Kestrels Studio | Music performed by Dorothy Carlos | Brooklyn, NY | June 26th, 2024 | Vimeo

    • work in progress | Stone Circle Theater | Music performed by Dorothy Carlos | Ridgewood, Queens | Vimeo

    • Scratcher | Issue Project Room | Dancers: Amelia Heintzelman, Clara Kim | Music performed by Dorothy Carlos | Costumes: Sylvie Hayes-Wallace | Dramaturgy: Tess Michaelson | Brooklyn, NY | May 29th, 2025 | Vimeo

    Music Credits

    Song: Water Rail | Artist: Kia | Music by: CreatorMix.com

    Song: name the places provided by mobygratis

    Song: Houses provided by mobygratis

  • Michelle’s sculptures have a special power in their half-scale human form. They possess a certain unsettling intimacy. In this studio video, Michelle, a 2025 Tallichet Freedman Foundation micro grant artist, shares insight into her recent exhibition Hello Goodbye at Dimin Gallery. Inspired by the exacting perfection of Korean Air flight attendants, her figures are equal parts mesmerizing and eerie, revealing the tension between exterior polish and interior life.

    Links

    Artist Website | www.ratxchicks.club

    Artist IG | @michelle.s.im

    Favorite Ridgewood Spot | Mini Mart | Map

    Credits

    All images and video courtesy of the artist. © Michelle Im, all rights reserved.

    Music Credits

    Song: later time provided by mobygratis

    Song: air boa provided by mobygratis

    Song: Houses provided by mobygratis

  • Devin Osorio creates artifacts of the first-generation Dominican American experience, blending symbolism, magical realism, and personal narrative. Their work exudes warmth and generosity while reflecting on queer and trans histories in Washington Heights and honoring family and community. In this studio video, Devin, a 2025 Tallichet Freedman Foundation micro grant artist, shares how painting, embroidery, and ceramics become acts of world building, rebellion, and connection.

    Links

    Artist Website | http://www.devinosorio.com/

    Artist IG | @devinosorio

    Favorite Ridgewood Spot | E & U Grill & Deli Corp | Map

    Credits

    All images and video courtesy of the artist. © Devin Osorio, all rights reserved.

    Music Credits

    Song: Sunsets | Artist: Owl Nest | Music by: CreatorMix.com | Video: https://youtu.be/75R8ptgFr9U

    Song: Sweet And Deep | Music by: CreatorMix.com

    Song: Houses provided by mobygratis

  • TJ Proechel’s projects use time, history, and duration to expose what is overlooked amid the obvious narrative. He documents his subjects like a private detective, piecing things together over years to reveal how histories persist, change, and leave a footprint. In this studio video, TJ, a 2025 Tallichet Freedman Foundation micro grant artist, shares insight into his project 448 Monuments, a photographic survey of Confederate monuments across the United States, and 28 Feet 8 Inches, a book project that began as his search for the man who defrauded him during the foreclosure crisis and grew into a meditation on responsibility, performance, and historical memory.

    Links

    Artist Website | tjproechel.com

    Artist IG | @tjproechel

    Favorite Ridgewood Spot | Friezes on Catalpa Ave. | Map

    Credits

    All images and video courtesy of the artist. © TJ Proechel, all rights reserved.

    Music Credits

    Song: also ran provided by mobygratis

    Song: argon provided by mobygratis

    Song: molecules provided by mobygratis

    Song: Houses provided by mobygratis

  • Jeanette is a fearless and uncompromising photographer giving visibility to the lesbian community with complexity, generosity, and nuance. She is able to capture the female body in a truly unique way that is both bold and vulnerable. In this studio video, Jeanette Spicer, a 2025 Tallichet Freedman Foundation micro grant artist, shares insight into her long-term projects To the Ends of the Earth and What It Means to Be Here. She also reflects on her shift back to darkroom practices, where photomontage, double exposures, and other techniques bring layers of surrealism to her work.

    Links

    Artist Website | https://jeanettespicer.com/

    Artist IG | @jsp_icer

    Favorite Ridgewood Spot | Gottscheerhall | Map

    Credits

    All images and video courtesy of the artist. © Jeanette Spicer, all rights reserved.

    Music Credits

    Song: Lullaby | Artist: Owl Nest | Music by: CreatorMix.com | Video: https://youtu.be/OeBPTXZdaoY

    Song: Water Rail | Artist: Kia | Music by: CreatorMix.com

    Music: air boa provided by mobygratis

    Music: also ran provided by mobygratis

    Song: Houses provided by mobygratis

  • At the heart of Alina Tenser’s work is a mix of materiality, movement, and play, showing up in sculpture, performance, video, or all of the above. There is an inherent lightness to Alina’s work, not so much physically as energetically. In this studio video, Alina, a 2025 Tallichet Freedman Foundation micro grant artist, shares insight into her practice and her project Boundary Aggregation. Who knew embodied formalism could be so playful? And she has the tiniest welder we have ever seen!

    Links

    Artist Website | https://alinatenser.com/

    Artist IG | @alina_tenser

    Favorite Ridgewood Spot | Grover Cleveland Park | Map

    Credits

    All images and video courtesy of the artist. © Alina Tenser, all rights reserved.

    Images of historic meanders: Link

    Music Credits

    Song: Sunsets | Artist: Owl Nest | Music by: CreatorMix.com | Video

    Song: Sweet And Deep | Music by: CreatorMix.com

    Song: Houses provided by mobygratis