It’s always pleasing when
we learn that an accomplished artist in the Hudson Valley has been acknowledged
for their work. So it was great to get the cool news that Hudson filmmaker and
educator Ephraim Asili has been designated a recipient of the 2025 United
States Artists Fellowship.
The award, which includes
a corresponding grant of $50,000, is given to bring national recognition for
their envelope-pushing work and the contributions they make to their communities.
The United States Artists organization supports the livelihood of artists
across the country by recognizing their work as being essential to the cultural
fabric of America and supporting artists.
Asili is an African American artist
and the director of Film and Electronic Arts at Bard College whose work explores
the African diaspora through films. His 2020 film The Inheritance was
featured at the Whitney Museum, and he has also received a 2021 Guggenheim
Fellowship, a 2023 Harvard Radcliffe Fellowship, and a 2024 Creative Capital
grant.
Asili’s films also
include Fluid Frontiers (2017), American Hunger (2013), Many
Thousands Gone (2014), Kindah (2016), Forged Ways (2011), and
The Idiotmaker’s Gravity Tour (2011). He studied film at Temple College
and attended Bard College for his graduate studies.
This article appears in February 2025.
Great Work