Art Space Is Your Space

The Wave Pool Art Space Is Your Space Program awards sponsored residencies to local, national, and international artists interested in engaging Cincinnati with their artistic practice. Residencies of 2-6 weeks include flexible live/work studio space, a month long exhibition in our gallery (when appropriate), opportunities for artistic community engagement and programming, and a $2000 stipend for the project (which includes living/travel expenses). Residents become part of the dynamic artistic community of Cincinnati, Ohio and are asked to engage the community in at least one public workshop, program, or performance during their stay.

Wave Pool’s artist in residency program is unique in that the artists live across the street in the AIR apartment and conduct a project aimed at a specific audience and/or purpose within our diverse urban climate.

Successful proposals are projects that collaborate with the community, utilizing a social practice methodology that makes the place and the people who are here integral to the project. Projects are to be artist developed and in line with their work to date. The program emphasizes two-way engagement, offering exceptional arts experiences to Wave Pool’s local community as well as unique benefits and exhibition opportunities to the artists in residence.

Applications for 2024 are now closed but will open again in the summer for 2025.

Announcing our 2024 Art Space is Your Space Resident: Okyoung Noh

"I take care of you and survive" will transform the Wave Pool gallery into a massage parlor, adorned with neon signs, vibrantly beaded curtains, and crimson LED lighting. In this revamped space, Noh, a Korean-born female newcomer, will perform massage, utilizing skills acquired from other Asian migrant caregivers in Cincinnati. The gallery will welcome all individuals seeking healing or wanting to learn about AAPI caregiving history.

About the Artist in Resident: Okyoung Noh (b. Seoul, South Korea) is an interdisciplinary artist and educator. Her lived experiences in Seoul with her mother from Jeju Island and her grandmother from North Korea informed her practice of multimedia installations, social practice, and performance in the United States.

In her work, Noh focuses on various manifestations of dehumanization that the bodies of Asian female diasporas – especially, their movements and vocals – exhibit during the processes of resistance and adaptation in a state of mis/dislocation. By dwelling on them, Noh maps and visualizes the socio-cultural violence and pressures that contribute to their dehumanization and creates a platform for challenging the power dynamics associated with them.

Tracing the transgenerational and living trauma of Asian diasporas, Noh unveils their marginalized narratives under neo-nationalism and imperialism accompanying xenophobia and white supremacy.

Wave Pool's 2024 Artist Residency is generously supported by Miriam & Jake Hodesh, and Judy Williams.