The Plumbing Museum is pleased to announce the recipients of 2018 spring Manoog Family Artist Residency are Emily Belz and Ponnapa Prakkamakul.
Emily Belz is a photographer and educator based in Cambridge, MA. Her work focuses on domestic still lifes, and many of her images bear traces of the people who occupy, or occupied these spaces: hairpins, a handprint on chalkboard, a piece of paper taped to the wall about to fall down.
Emily Belz, Yellow House, Archival Digital Print, 2016
Belz has exhibited her photographs both regionally and nationally. She was the recipient of a 2014 artist grant from the Cambridge Arts Council, and a 2015 Critical Mass Finalist.
Belz holds a BA in photography and art history from Hampshire College, an MA in art and design education from the Rhode Island School of Design, and an MFA from the New Hampshire Institute of Art (2017).
Ponnapa Prakkamakul is a painter and practicing landscape architect. Learning how to draw by observing her mother at a young age, she grew up working closely with natural materials in a highly creative studio environment.
Ponnapa Prakkamakul, Mossasuck’s Winter, mixed media on paper with soil particles, water, and plant materials from Moshassuck River, 2009
This process continues to resonate throughout her work and influenced her emerging design style. Ponnapa’s current work explores the use of painting both as a tool and process to understand and experience a site, creating a greater connection between the painting, the site, and herself.
Ponnapa is currently a landscape architect at the Sasaki design firm in Watertown, MA and holds a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Stay tuned for more updates as the artists develop their work in the studio this spring.
