Djerassi Resident Artists Program

Announcing Artists and Jurors for our 2026 Residency Season✨ We are deeply grateful to the jurors who dedicated their time and expertise to reviewing applications for Djerassi’s 2026 residency season. This year’s applicant pool reflected an extraordinary breadth of creativity across disciplines, making the process both inspiring and highly competitive. Jurors: Jorge Bachmann @ruidobello Rita Bullwinkel @ritabullwinkel Vanessa Chang @allsfairinvanessy Safia Elhillo @safiamafia Aaron Harbour @harbouretal Candace Huey @re.riddle Jackie Im @etalgallerysf Aïda Jones @jones_institute Cole Solinger @vaticansnackbar Chloë L. Zimberg @chloelzimberg We are thrilled to announce the artists selected for our 2026 residency season. Over the course of 4–5 weeks, artists across disciplines will come together on the land for uninterrupted time, reflection, and interdisciplinary exchange. We are honored to welcome these artists into our community and look forward to the conversations, experimentation, and discoveries ahead. We extend our heartfelt thanks to every applicant who shared their work with us. The depth, originality, and range of submissions were truly moving, and it is always a privilege to witness the many ways artists are thinking, making, and engaging with the world. Congratulations to the selected artists. We are thrilled to welcome you to Djerassi and to support your time on the land.

Experience deep relaxation through the resonance of sound. Djerassi welcomes back Danny Goldberg for his Sound Immersion Experience—a meditative journey with gongs and singing bowls designed to calm the nervous system and restore balance. Rooted in ancient traditions and refined through decades of practice, this immersive session invites deep rest, renewal, and presence. Upcoming Sound Immersion Experience Dates: Saturday May 30 | 3:30 - 5:00 PM Saturday July 18 | 3:30 - 5:00 Join us for an afternoon of resonance and restoration. Visit the link in bio to register!

This past Sunday we invited group of guests for our WALK+TALK, a series of intimate conversations at Djerassi. We began the day with touring sculptures on site; walking to Bruce Johnson’s Torii gateway and through the forest to Mauro Staccioli’s large scale installations to a shared lunch and conversation on ‘Why We Collect.’ The afternoon unfolded through moments of reflection on how collecting art creates impact and how art lives in the world within collections and through relationships. We’re grateful to @ginnyduncan for guiding the conversation, and to @pauldavid777 @josefinhatet and Yuri Psinakis for their thoughtful perspectives on collecting as a practice shaped by curiosity, responsibility, and long-term engagement with artists and their work. At Djerassi, we often speak about the conditions that allow art to begin; time, space, and the freedom to explore. Gatherings like this extend that ethos outward, creating space for dialogue, connection, and deeper understanding.

Minoosh Zomorodinia has a deep fascination with our connection to the land. Drawing on her experience as an Iranian immigrant, Zomorodinia uses movement, mapping, and emerging technologies to explore how landscapes hold both personal and shared histories, and how our relationships to place shift as environments and narratives change. For the inaugural edition of Further Triennial, Zomorodinia will present Spirit Gleaning, a two-part collaborative project unfolding between Djerassi Resident Artists Program, where she was an artist-in-residence in 2016, and Root Division, where the exhibition will take place. Returning to Djerassi’s 583-acre landscape in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Zomorodinia will engage the land through field research, video, photography, movement, and 3D scans, exploring the impact of climate change, fluctuating weather patterns, and wildfire on the ecology of the site. The resulting work will invite visitors into her process, offering a meditation on memory, migration, environmental change, and our rapidly shifting relationship to the landscapes we inhabit. #FurtherTriennial #Djerassi #RootDivision #MinooshZomorodinia #ContemporaryArt

We’re leaving this year’s San Francisco Art Fair with full hearts and deep gratitude. It was a true joy to bring the Djerassi Resident Artists Program into the fair and to share something of the spirit of the residency with so many familiar and new faces. Our presentation, Where Art Originates, curated by our Creative Director Mushi Wooseong James, offered a reflection on the conditions that make artistic practice possible: time, space, experimentation, and the freedom to follow an idea wherever it may lead. At our booth, we were honored to feature works by David Nash, John Roloff, Barbara Nerness, Lauren DiCioccio, Robert Buelteman, Ruth Charlotte Kneass, and Amber Jean Young, alongside a reading library with books by Djerassi resident writers including Viet Thanh Nguyen, Sigrid Nunez, Tatsiana Zamirovskaya, and Sarah M. Broom. We were also sincerely grateful to take part in the panel Professionalizing Your Network: Artist Residencies in the Bay, alongside moderator Christine Wang and fellow panelists Kelly Sicat, Louisa Gloger, Jonathan Carver Moore, and Matthew McTire. It was a thoughtful and generous conversation, and meaningful to be in dialogue with others who care so deeply about how artists are supported through opportunity, access, exchange, and community. Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth, spent time with the work, shared conversation, and helped make the space feel so alive. We’re deeply thankful to the San Francisco Art Fair for the opportunity, and to the artists, supporters, and friends of Djerassi who continue to believe in the value of artistic process, creative risk, and the spaces that allow art to begin.

Today we remember Pamela Djerassi (1950–1978) on her birthday. An artist, poet, and a deep observer of the natural world, Pamela’s sensibility and connection to the land continue to shape the spirit of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. What began as a response to loss has become a lasting commitment to supporting artists with the time, space, and freedom to explore. Her legacy lives on through the countless artists, writers, composers, and thinkers who come to the land each year, finding inspiration in its quiet, its expansiveness, and its possibility. With gratitude, we remember Pamela today. Portrait of Pamela on the tree: “Sylvium Mysterium” by Ashia Solei

San Francisco Art Fair opens tomorrow, and we look forward to seeing you from April 16–19. Alongside works by David Nash and John Roloff, we’ll be presenting works by Barbara Nerness, Lauren DiCioccio, Robert Buelteman, and Amber Jean Young. Visitors are also invited to spend time with our reading library, featuring books by writers who have held residencies at Djerassi, including Viet Thanh Nguyen, Sigrid Nunez, and Sarah M. Broom. Come step into the spirit of Djerassi, where artists are given the gift of time and space to experiment, reflect, and create. Where Art Originates offers a glimpse into the creative conditions that make art possible, and we look forward to welcoming you and sharing that spirit in person. @artmarketproductions @mushiwooseongjames @johnroloffstudio @soupbetweenyourears @laurendicioccio @robertbueltemanstudio @amberjeanyoung @viet.thanh.nguyen.writer @sarah_m_broom

Tatsiana Zamirovskaya | Literature | 2023 Alumni Tatsiana Zamirovskaya is a Belarusian-born writer who moved to Brooklyn, New York, in 2015 after working as a journalist and music critic in Belarusian independent media. She holds an MFA from Bard College and is a recipient of MacDowell, Djerassi, and VCCA residency fellowships. Tatsiana is the author of three short story collections in Russian and a bestselling novel about digital resurrection, memory and digital dictatorships, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘵 (2021), which was shortlisted for several Russophone literary awards. Her book of memoir essays on emigration, war, music, and displacement, 𝘌𝘶𝘳𝘺𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘦, 𝘊𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬 𝘐𝘧 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘛𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘖𝘧𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘢𝘴, was published in 2024 by a Belarusian independent publisher in exile in Warsaw, Poland, receiving critical acclaim. A feature sci-fi film, 𝘌𝘹𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐𝘵 𝘚𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴, for which Tatsiana co-authored the script, based on her short story of the same name, is set to be filmed by Belarusian/American director Darya Zhuk in Poland in 2026. Tatsiana is currently working on the final editing of her first book in English, a collection of translated short stories, 𝘊𝘢𝘯 𝘐 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯? under contract for 2028 publication. @iamangiebowie

Jeremy Mende | Visual Arts | 2015 Alumni Jeremy Mende is an interdisciplinary artist based in San Francisco. His work choreographs encounters between the human body and the natural world. Drawing on a background in psychology (UCLA) and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, he creates site-specific installations, earthworks, and spatial experiences that use light, landscape, time, and movement to produce states of awe—re-sensitizing visitors to the ecological and temporal realities we inhabit. His most recent project, for the time being, is a permanent earthwork/installation at Djerassi Program, opening in October. Mende’s work has been exhibited internationally and is held in the permanent collection of SFMOMA. A Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome, he is a professor at California College of the Arts, where he teaches the design of experience and experimental methods. @jeremymende

Arturo Mendez | Visual Arts Community Partner: COVEN x ARTS.CO.LAB Arturo Méndez is a cultural producer, curator, visual artist, musician, and community organizer, advancing cultural equity in SF. Founder of community empowering projects, including Arts.Co.Lab, La Diáspora Festival, and Urban Prophets Illustrated and producer for the Mission Arts and Performance Project (MAPP) since 2016. He has curated shows for the Exploratorium SF, Harvard and Cornell University, and the United Nations. He has received the California Catalyst Grant, the Cultural Equity Initiatives Grant by the SFAC. He is a fellow with the National Arts Policy Alliance ‘25, the Greater Bay Area Arts Coalition ‘24/’25, the Advocacy Leadership Institute ‘23-’21, the Intercultural Leadership Institute ‘22, and the Emerging Arts Professionals SF/BA ‘19. His work strives to create generative narratives to empower people through arts and culture for collective joy and liberation and to advocate for institutional policies and practices that center the voices of people from the most vulnerable communities. “Culture is an essential tool to pursue dignity for all people.” @cultural.producer @arts.co.lab @coven_artsf

Charlene Tan | Visual Arts Community Partner: re.riddle Charlene Tan studied History and Theory of Contemporary Art, with a specialization in New Genres, at the San Francisco Art Institute. Her work has been exhibited at the Blaffer Museum, Houston, Asia Society, TX, Buffalo Institute of Contemporary Art, Triton Museum of Art, Museum of Craft and Design, and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco. She has been awarded national residencies at MASS MoCA, Children’s Creativity Museum, San Francisco. Born in Houston, TX, the artist lives and works in San Francisco, CA. @char.art.tan @re.riddle Image 2: 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘊𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘻 𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴, 2024 Capiz shells, rhinestones, PVA glue, digital print, plywood each panel 16 x 20” Image 3: 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘍𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘩𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘗𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭, 2024 Capiz shells, rhinestones, PVA glue, digital print, plywood each panel 16 x 20”

Briana Marela Lizárraga | Composer Community Partner: ArtBae Briana Marela Lizárraga is a Peruvian American composer, vocalist, and performing artist based out of Oakland, CA. Inspired by Magical Realism and using her voice as a focal point, she makes use of visually engaging elements of tech augmented gestures and objects to compose and perform her music live. Lizárraga’s gestural and lyrical song performances draw from elements of both experimental electronic music and vocal driven pop music. Using a visual programming language, sensors, and microprocessors, she is able to make custom tools to create compositions with varying fixed elements that transition into moments of improvisation. She is currently a Montalvo Lucas Arts Music and Composition Fellow. She was a spatial sound artist in residence for six months at Audium in San Francisco for their residency New Voices IV, performing her multi-channel piece live every weekend from February to April 2025. She received an MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College in 2020. Her newest full length album, My Inner Rest, was released on June 6th, 2025 via AKP Recordings. @brianamarela @artbae.info