An interdisciplinary artist whose work moves between performance, video, sculpture and drawing, 2016 MFA candidate Angela Willetts has won a prestigious Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Fellowship. Willetts is among 65 artists chosen from over 2,000 applicants.

Willetts will attend an intensive nine-week residency over the summer at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, located on an historic 350-acre farm in rural Maine. Without the fellowship, the program costs $6,000.

Willetts hails from Northern England and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for 18 years. She received her bachelor’s degree from Cambridge University where she studied English literature and education. Willetts has attended residencies at Vermont Studio Center, The Post Contemporary, and will now add 2016 Skowhegan Graduate Fellow to her resumé. She also received the Mary Lou Osborn Award in 2015 and a UC Davis Humanities Graduate Research Award in 2015.  

“My work is very experimental. I try to remain open to new ways of working and thinking, so I anticipate my work finding new direction as a result of interacting with the visiting and resident faculty, and all the other fellows,” said Willetts.

Robin Hill, a sculptor and art studio professor, appraised Willetts’ work: “Her body gives agency to a host of everyday materials (dough and paper among them), ultimately pointing to process and making as her primary concerns. Angela’s work is a self-study, which has a uniquely poetic resonance and relevance to her viewers.”

Willetts is the fifth UC Davis Art Studio alumna to have won a Skowhegan Fellowship. Previous UC Davis recipients were May Wilson (MFA 2013), Colby Claycomb (BA 2009), Amanda Schoppel (MFA 2005), Hong Zhang (MFA 2003) and Carlos Jackson (MFA 2003).

Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture