5 Lambertville Artists Selected for NJ Individual Artist Fellowship Awards

LAMBERTVILLE, NJ — Five artists from Lambertville, New Jersey, have been awarded fellowships through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship program.

The fellowships - carried out in partnership with Mid Atlantic Arts - are competitive awards given to New Jersey artists, in 13 rotating disciplines, granted solely on independent peer panel assessment of work samples. The anonymous process is focused on artistic quality, and awards may be used to help artists produce new work and advance their careers.

This year, 893 New Jersey artists applied for awards in the categories of Film/Video, Digital/Electronic, Interdisciplinary, Painting, Printmaking/Drawing/Book Arts, and Prose.

In 2022, the Council voted to authorize an unprecedented investment of $2 million in the Fellowship program, and this continued commitment to funding makes these significant awards to New Jersey artists possible once a year.

“It’s energizing to start my work with the Council by providing vital support and recognition for these amazing New Jersey artists,” said Lieutenant Governor Dr. Dale Caldwell, who oversees the State Arts Council in his capacity as Secretary of State. “Thousands of artists choose to live and work here in New Jersey, inspiring us all through their presence as change agents, teachers, healers, and connectors.”

Lambertville artists receiving fellowship awards are Gwenn Seemel, Sean Mount, Lauren Rosenthal McManus, Michelle Farro, and Jason Bereswill.

About The Artists

Since 2003, Gwenn Seemel has been painting in a polka-dot Cubist style that lends their work an aura of joy, even as the artist addresses serious issues. Seemel’s paintings have been featured everywhere from Newsweek to the cover of an Oxford University Press book. Their work is on display throughout 2026 in Philadelphia as part of 52 Weeks of Firsts, an art-and-history initiative organized by Mural Arts Philadelphia and the National Constitution Center. See their art at gwennseemel.com.

Since 2003, Gwenn Seemel has been painting in a polka-dot Cubist style that lends their work to an aura of joy.

Sean Mount is known for his huge, intricate landscapes of tangled winter woods and sun-dappled creeks as well as his precise still-life watercolors. A Solebury native, the Lambertville painter has been recognized most notably by the Michener Art Museum, which recently acquired a major work for their permanent collection. Sean is self-taught, can't wait to take some risks afforded by this grant, and welcomes studio visits for interested buyers. See his art at seanmount.com.

Lambertville artist Sean Mount.

Lauren Rosenthal McManus is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose work explores ecology, community boundaries, and notions of home through mapping, material research, and collaborative practice. She holds an MFA in interdisciplinary art and has exhibited and led programs nationally. Alongside her studio practice, she is the founder of Ampersand Made, a custom picture framing studio rooted in craft and preservation. See her art at laurenrosenthalmcmanus.com.

Michelle Farro is a painter and printmaker based in New Jersey. She received her BFA from Laguna College of Art & Design and also studied at the Florence Academy of Art in Italy. Her work functions as a visual diary, shaped by an interest in old photographs, overlooked objects, and moments of quiet observation in nature. Recent projects include paintings for HBO, Chairish, Bergdorf Goodman, and Anthropologie. Her work is held in private collections worldwide. See her art at michellefarro.com.

Michelle Farro, a painter and printmaker based in Lambertville, created this work.

Jason Bereswill is a painter who combines contemporary tools and traditional techniques to relate landscape painting with modern methods of navigation and world experience. Much of his work examines his relationship to space, from the point of mapping/planning to executing paintings on-site. He earned his BFA from Ringling College of Art and Design in 2002, his MFA in painting from the New York Academy of Art in 2005, and was a Painting Fellow at the Academy through late 2006. See Jason Bereswill's art at jasonbereswill.com.