Artist and professional printer Chris Fox recently created the Felsen/ Johnson Memorial Scholarship at Tamarind Institute, honoring two people who were influential in her creative life. The endowed scholarship will benefit students studying in Tamarind’s renowned Printer Training Program.
View the Scholarship
Sidney B. Felsen
The recently created scholarship fund honors Sidney B. Felsen (1924-2024), co-founder of Gemini G.E.L. (Graphic Editions Limited) workshop in Los Angeles. An influential publisher of fine-art limited edition prints and sculptures, Gemini G.E.L. was co-founded in 1966 in Los Angeles by Felsen, Stanley Grinstein, and Kenneth Tyler. Tyler, who was the Master Printer during the first eight years of the Gemini workshop, received his training at Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles (Tamarind relocated to Albuquerque and The University of New Mexico in 1970 where it continues its educational mission today).
Fox worked as a printer at Gemini during the late 1970s and early ’80s, and credits Felsen with the many opportunities he bestowed upon her as a printer. As she describes her Gemini experience, Felsen gave her access to a world she never would have known-where she collaborated with some of the most significant artists of the 20th century. At Gemini, Fox worked on projects with artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Dorothea Rockburne, and Robert Rauschenberg. Fox says, “my Gemini experience changed my life forever. I loved Sidney, as so many others did and have such a sense of gratitude for him.”
Bill Johnson
The scholarship also honors the memory of Bill Johnson, who Fox met during the time that she was working at the storied Gemini G.E.L. workshop. Johnson was a lover of all artistic pursuits, particularly film and opera, and became Fox’s biggest supporter and art critic.
After his passing in April 2024, Fox discovered that she was one of the beneficiaries of his estate, and as she describes it, she knew she “had to pay it forward.”
It was during an opening in an artist studio in Galisteo, New Mexico in the Fall 2024 that Fox met Tamarind’s Master Printer Valpuri Remling and it became clear that she could do something extraordinary to benefit Tamarind’s program. “My hope is that this scholarship will help students who otherwise would not be able to attend Tamarind and learn this wonderful art of lithography. I also wanted to thank Joni Weyl Felsen and Suzanne Felsen for their support over the years.”
The Felsen/Johnson Memorial Scholarship will be awarded for the first time in the Fall of 2025 to a student participating in the Tamarind Printer Training Program at The University of New Mexico. Fox established the scholarship to support printers at the beginning of their creative journey.
For more information about the endowed scholarship fund, including opportunities to support student printers by contributing to the fund, visit Tamarind’s website here or call 505-277-3901 to speak with Tamarind staff.
Originally published by UNM News, on March 7, 2025, by Megan Borders, mborders@unm.edu, University Communications Representative.
https://news.unm.edu/news/tamarind-institute-establishes-a-new-endowed-student-scholarship
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