Harold Mendez uses a multidisciplinary approach to illustrate the relationships between landscape, visibility, politics, and memory by employing stark, composed narratives. Mendez maps the liminal spaces of borders, charged sites with histories that address the political conventions of place, sites where something significant and hidden has seemed to occur. He received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois at Chicago, a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Columbia College Chicago and attended the University of Science and Technology, School of Art and Design, Ghana, West Africa. He was a resident at the Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA, and was featured in a 12 X 12: NEW ARTISTS / NEW WORK exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. He has exhibited nationally at the Museum of Modern Art / PS1, the Renaissance Society, the Knoxville Museum of Art, Project Row Houses, and is included in the fourth installment of the Studio Museum's "F" series, Fore. Publications include the New York Times and Frieze Magazine.

A former reporter for the Ulan Bataar Post, LuLing Osofsky's writing about Asia has been supported by the Freeman Foundation for East Asian Studies and the Indonesian Ministry of Culture. She’s currently at work on a book about Jewish boxers imprisoned at Auschwitz, who fought for the entertainment of Nazi officers. She received her MFA from the University of Wyoming and has recent and forthcoming publications in Orion Magazine.

Boru O'Brien O'Connell is an artist based in Brooklyn, NY who works primarily with film and video installation, photography, and writing. Recent projects include writing and a multi-channel video work for And lose the name of action with Miguel Gutierrez, a touring performance which premiered at the Walker Arts Center (MN) and BAM (NY). Recent exhibitions include Invisible Exports (NY), Night Gallery (LA), and a commission by Triple Canopy for Frieze NY. He curated the 2012 exhibition for Mount Tremper Arts (Mt. Tremper, NY), an exhibition of choreography, visual, and sound art. His work has been featured and written about in Blind Spot, Triple Canopy, Bidoun, Vice, DIS, The New Yorker, The New York Times and Frieze, among others.

Meredith James received her BA from Harvard University in 2004 and her MFA from Yale University in 2009. She has shown at Marc Jancou Contemporary in New York, David Castillo Gallery in Miami, NurtureArt in Brooklyn, LaMontagne Gallery in Boston, Robischon Gallery in Denver, Newman Popiashvili Gallery in New York, and Rivington Arms in New York. She was an artist in residence at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Land Arts of the American West, Sculpture Space, and Vermont Studio Center. She lives and works in New York City.

Born in Portland, Maine, Tyler McPhee received his undergraduate education in New Media and Philosophy from the University of Maine. After living in Montreal under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Education FLAS program, he completed his M.F.A. in Sculpture at Syracuse University. In 2011, he was a participant at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Recently, his work has been shown at the MoMA Studio, Tufts University Art Gallery, Center for Maine Contemporary Art Biennial, Space Gallery, Dumbo Arts Center, Real Art Ways, and Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum in Berlin, Germany. He has received awards from Space Gallery, Albert K. Murray Fine Arts Fund, Syracuse University, and the U.S. Department of Education. Previously, he was an artist-in-residence at Mildred’s Lane, École Nationale d'Arts Paris – Cergy, and Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

A native of Lawrence, Kansas, and a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Andrew Malan Milward has published fiction in many places including Zoetrope, The Southern Review, Columbia, Conjunctions, and Best New American Voices. He was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in 2008, and his first book, The Agriculture Hall of Fame, was awarded the Juniper Prize in Fiction and issued by the University of Massachusetts Press, 2012. He has served as the McCreight Fiction Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, a Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose State University, and has received fellowships and awards from the Lannan Foundation, the Santa Fe Art Institute, the Norman Mailer Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Willa Cather Foundation, and the Corporation of Yaddo. He is the editor in chief of Mississippi Review and teaches at the University of Southern Mississippi's Center for Writers.

Jules Buck Jones is a practicing artist living and working in Austin, TX. Jules was born in Northampton MA but grew up in Northern and Central VA. He got his BFA from VCU in Richmond, VA in 2005 and received his MFA from UT Austin in 2008. Over the years Jules has developed a body of work dealing primarily with animal imagery and thoughts on biology, ecology, mythology, and transformation. He participated in the Austin Museum of Art’s “20 to Watch” show in the spring of 2008 and was the Artist in Residence in Everglades National Park in May and June of 2009. He has also completed residencies at the Vermont Studio Center in VT, the Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture in ME, and Buoy Gallery, ME. Jules shows extensively throughout TX with solo shows in Dallas, Austin, and Houston. Jules is also part of several collaborative teams practicing large scale installations and collage.

In 2009, Ashleigh Pedersen earned her MFA in fiction writing from the University of Pittsburgh. Her first published short story "Small and Heavy World" was named one of the 100 Most Distinguished Stories in Best American Short Stories 2010, and was anthologized in New Stories from the South: This Year's Best 2010. Originally appearing in The Iowa Review, it has been recently republished in Places, an online literary journal. She recently had another story, “Sleeping Giant,” published in The Kenyon Review Online. Ashleigh currently lives in Austin, Texas, where she is teaching high school English, writing her first novel, and completing a collection of short stories.

Shara Hughes (b. 1981) paints imaginary spaces; her portrayals of interiors are furnished with a non-functional inner life – stairs lead to nowhere, chairs and tables are tumultuously arranged. Hughes uses wide-ranging materials, from sequins and glitter to spray paint, oils, and enamels. She studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she earned her BFA in 2004. Since then, she has attended residencies at the Andersen Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, CO, the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT, and Ox-Bow in Saugatuck, MI. Hughes attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in the summer of 2011 and is looking forward to participating in the upcoming PAINT show at the Saatchi Gallery in London. Hughes is represented by American Contemporary in New York City, Michael Andersen Gallery in Copenhagen and Berlin, and Metroquadro in Turin. Hughes currently lives and works in Atlanta, GA.

Maya Hayuk obsesses with symmetry and nourishing color played out in what might be views from the Hubble Telescope, airbrushed nail art, Ukrainian Easter eggs, chandeliers, mandalas, Rorschach tests and/or holograms. Her work has been exhibited and published extensively internationally in galleries, museums, on the streets and in various printed and electronic media. Hayuk attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2011. In April of this year, she opened her solo show 2012 APOCABLISS at Anonymous Gallery in Mexico City and HIGH FIVE, a group show at New Image Art Gallery in Los Angeles. In June she will launch a 2-person show with Paul Wackers at A.L.I.C.E. Gallery in Brussels and will be publishing another series of screen prints with Pictures on Walls. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Matthew Fischer lives and works in New York City. His work is influenced by the natural world, Western history and Paleolithic art. He attended Columbia University School of the Arts where he received an MFA in Visual Art. He has been an artist in residence at The Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT and was the studio manager of the painting and drawing program at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, CO before moving to New York. Fischer has shown at Jack Tilton Gallery in New York and Bridgette Mayer Gallery in Philadelphia.

Jacques Louis Vidal's work has many of the characteristics of folk art - a rejection of academic technique, a preference for generosity over austerity, and a prioritization of the local rather than the general. And yet his use of folk idioms has very little to do with the populist and wholesome values that underpin the majority of the work, which usually bears that name. Vidal takes what is best from regional traditions: their mystery, their iconoclasm, and their agency, exposing and documenting them in their own languages. The "local" in his work extends to the realms of the internet, conspiratorial town meetings, inside jokes from large institutions, and even the more frayed and imperfect gossip of his own life. His work ranges from drawing and painting, to poetry and music, to wood carving and large scale theatrical performance. He is constantly trying to cultivate new and better habits.

Paul Curreri was born January 28, 1976 in Seattle, Washington. He was raised in Richmond, Virginia, where he first put bands together and performed as a musician. He was high-school buddies with fellow musician Drew Gibson, who now lives in Falls Church, Virginia, "from ages 13 to 18, playing in bands together, writing songs and encouraging each other." He performs mainly in the folk and blues music styles. Known best for his solo acoustic performances, he also contributes electric guitar stylings to his wife's band, and has fielded his own band at times. He is renowned for intricate guitar work, and often plays all accompanying instruments himself on his recordings. Since the release in 2002 of his debut CD, Long Gones to Hawkmoth, as the Washington Post states: "he's been collecting critical praise ever since for his bluesy Americana tunes and wild-eyed tales."

Born to hippie parents on a commune named Dandelion in Kingston, Ontario, Sproule claims dual citizenship with both Canada and the United States. She spent her childhood on the 465-acre (1.88 km2), 100-member Twin Oaks Community founded in 1967 as an intentional community and ecovillage in Louisa County, Virginia. She released her first album when she was 16. Her second album, Long Sleeve Story, was released in 2001 with praise from The Village Voice. Upstate Songs, released in 2003, made it in Rolling Stone's Critics Top Albums of the year. Sproule's music shares elements of folk, country, and jazz, delivered in an affecting, personal style.

"Vintage country...with jazzy sophistication...beautifully sparse arrangements and melodies that surprise the ear when you first hear them, but which then get under your skin much more than anything more obvious would."

—BBC