ALEXA ROSE FELLOW
$25,000 ARTISTIC MERIT AWARD
ANNOUNCING THE 2025 FELLOW
KIRSTEN FURLONG
ALEXA ROSE FELLOW
LUMINOUS AND CHALLENGING BEAUTY
Kirsten Furlong educates and enchants the viewer, inviting us to engage more deeply.
“When I think about the word mastery and Kirsten Furlong’s work, I think about her mastery of materials, of technique, and of the ideas driving her work,” says Courtney Gilbert, Assistant Director and Curator at Sun Valley Museum of Art. “Furlong is fearless in her use of materials, whether rendering birds, hares, or other wildlife with astonishing precision, applying delicate gold leaf to the surfaces of her works, or working with wood or felt in new and innovative ways.”
Furlong has actively pursued her studio practice and had solo and group exhibitions in galleries, museums, and alternative art spaces in cities/towns all over the United States and abroad in Europe, China, and the Middle East. Her work is in the collections of institutions such as the Library of Congress, the Portland Art Museum, the Corcoran College of Art and Design, Denali National Park among many others.
Furlong was an artist-in-residence at Denali National Park and Preserve in 2010, having been selected from hundreds of applicants. “Being invited to stay in a remote historic cabin provided a lens to Denali—one of the most significant lands and landscapes in America. It was an incredible honor,” says the artist. The Audubon Society commissioned Kirsten Furlong’s work for their Fall 2023 Audubon print magazine as part of a stunning series called The Aviary.
The ideas underlying Furlong’s artwork are sophisticated and multi-layered. When she dives into a project, she has a remarkable ability to master new subject matter, says Gilbert. “Whether investigating the impact of Renaissance printmaking on the human imagining of the animal world, or studying complex ecosystems like the grasslands and the sagebrush steppe, Kirsten Furlong is able to digest complicated ideas and make them legible in her artwork.”
One of Furlong’s favorite pieces is a work of collage, ink, graphite, and colored pencil on paper purchased for the collection of the Portland Art Museum by the Northwest Arts Council after a visit to Furlong’s studio in Boise in 2014. “Promise and Purpose, the Ancestor’s Dream” is informed by multiple visits over twenty years to Lowndes County, Alabama (her in-laws’ place of origin) and the artist’s conflicted feelings experiencing the flora and fauna of their land while also considering the violent history of Lowndes as a mixed-race (Black and white) individual.
Grace Kook-Anderson, Curator of Northwest Art at Portland Art Museum, wrote, “Kirsten Furlong explores mark-making to understand and study natural patterns, letting her hand take her through the drawing…” “(The piece) is Furlong’s wide rumination of processing a place like “bloody Lowndes,” a stronghold of white supremacy; taking in the wonder of Alabama’s biodiversity; offering reverence for George Washington Carver for his infinite curiosity and dedicated career; and of the very place connected to love. Furlong’s work speaks to the bounty of this land, of harvest, as well as our tangled history connecting us all.” The piece was featured in the museum’s online Daily Art Moment.
Furlong is a two-time nominee for the prestigious USA Fellowships (2023 and 2026) and was nominated for the Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship in 2024. She was a featured artist in a remarkable exhibition at the Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA) curated by Montello Foundation founder Stefan Hagan (New York, NY) and curator Hikmet Sidney Loe (Las Vegas, NV) in 2021. The exhibition This Earth by international artists included two installations by Furlong. That same year (2021) she was invited by the Great Plains Art Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska to be the Elizabeth Rubedall Artist in Residence and had works commissioned for the museum’s permanent collection, plus a solo exhibition Over the Edge of the World.
“I have witnessed the beauty of the darkest skies in the country, where the Milky Way is still visible and decimated prairies turned to monoculture corn fields. Each place leaves a mark on my work and practice." Kirsten Furlong
Courtney Gilbert notes that the impact of Furlong’s work on both the art world and her viewers is deep. “During her time in Idaho, she’s been a critical part of the state’s cultural scene, and a model and mentor for other artists,” says the Curator and Assistant Director at Sun Valley Museum of Art. She also uses her practice to generate important conversations among viewers. “I recently brought a group of colleagues to her studio for a visit. As Kirsten shared her work, we learned not just about her process, but the decline in bird habitat in the Nebraska sandhills, the history of the Idaho National Laboratory, and the effects of climate change on species native to Idaho. The luminous beauty of Furlong’s work draws viewers in, inviting them to consider sometimes challenging ideas in new ways and to engage with those ideas more deeply.”
Skillful artmaking and quiet passion have defined Kirsten’s work for decades. “Kirsten Furlong educates and enchants the viewer,” says Amanda Hamilton, Chair of the Art Department of Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota. “Bringing attention to ecological concerns and the beauty of the birds, Kirsten is a creative and gifted advocate who champions all she cares about.”
Rachel Reichert, Residency Manager at the Ruth Foundation for the Arts in Milwaukee and a key driver in the opening of the James Castle House and Residency, came to admire Furlong not just as an artist, but as a force in the arts community.
“From commissioned public artist, educator, lecturer, mentor, and thinking partner, Kirsten Furlong brings impassioned, skilled, rigorous, and fresh perspective.” Rachel Reichert
Furlong’s commissioned public artworks include a piece at the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights, exquisite hand-drawn cast iron utility hole covers on Broad Street between 4th and 6th in downtown Boise, a traffic box on 9th Street, as well as works currently on view at City Hall, the Mayor’s Office, and in the City’s collections. As one of very few curators/visual artists/university educators of color in the Mountain West, Furlong serves on the Task Force for the Erma Hayman House cultural site in Boise, and brings a unique voice to local panel discussions around art.
In downtown Boise, Furlong was selected in 2024 for a new solo exhibition opportunity at The Sparrow Hotel on Grove Street, on view through January 22nd. “We are thrilled that Kirsten Furlong’s artwork launched and set the barre for the future of Boise Art Museum’s Local Exhibition Partnership, says Tara Centybear, Curator of Art at BAM. “She was the perfect fit for this inaugural exhibition.”
Kirsten Furlong’s work is on view at The Common Well in Garden City and was shown at Capitol Contemporary Gallery in 2024. Furlong will be part of The Alumni Show at the UNO Art Gallery at the University of Nebraska, Omaha through February 21st and the 2025 Biennial Faculty Exhibition at Boise State University’s Blue Galleries January 21st through March 28th of this year. Furlong was selected for the Chalk Hill Artist Residency in Healdsburg, California this summer. Her work represented by Olson Larsen Galleries with collectors nationwide.
“As the director of the Blue Galleries and a lecturer in the Department of Art, Design, and Visual Studies at Boise State University, her influence is profound and far-reaching,” notes Reichert, highlighting the artist’s unique impact in our state, “Under Furlong’s leadership, the Blue Galleries can be counted as one of the few spaces in Idaho offering criticality and deep research, making her work vital to the local arts ecosystem.” Kirsten Furlong’s resumé shows an endless curiosity through her curatorial work, having organized over 100 exhibitions of local, regional, national, and international artists, arranging for artists to get paid for their work, teaching art methods and professional practices for twenty-five years. Furlong’s mentorship has pushed students to think in new and expansive ways, while her professional practices class teaches the more practical sides of being an artist. “I cannot separate my studio practice from my work as an educator, curator, and arts administrator,” says Furlong. “As an established artist, it has meant never leaving a meeting or a new professional contact without suggesting an up and coming artist who should also be considered for an opportunity,” she says.
"While her two-dimensional practice is somewhat well known, her more sculptural work and fiber work were revelations to me."
Courtney Gilbert
Sun Valley Museum of Art Curator Courtney Gilbert feels there is no limit to what this artist can explore through the Alexa Rose Fellowship. “Kirsten Furlong’s career is gaining exciting momentum. While her two-dimensional practice is somewhat well known, her more sculptural work and fiber work were revelations to me. Her openness to experimentation has generated new directions in her multifaceted career, and I believe her impressive number of exhibitions in the past few years reflects the growing interest in her work within the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
Gilbert says, “I have worked with artists from across the country and around the world, and the quality of Kirsten’s work equals that of many nationally-known artists.“ Rachel Reichert concurs, “Not only does Kirsten Furlong have a steadfast commitment to her artmaking practice, but she is also rooted in her many local and national communities. I have intersected with many organizations that know and love Kirsten nationally,” said Reichert.
Kirsten Furlong’s selection for the 2025 Alexa Rose Fellowship, a $25,000 unrestricted award, has Furlong’s peer artists, curators, collaborators, public and private collectors, and art students eager to celebrate and see what gold she spins from the opportunity. Amanda Hamilton may have said it best, “Any support Kirsten Furlong receives will in some form return to enrich the larger arts community. I’m elated to see her celebrated publicly with the fanfare her remarkable career deserves.”
Please join us in congratulating Kirsten Furlong, the 2025 Alexa Rose Fellow. See the gallery below for a selection of her works.
To learn more, visit www.kirstenfurlong.com
Follow her on instagram @kirsten_furlong
Invite Kirsten Furlong to connect on LinkedIn
Kirsten Furlong is represented by Olson Larsen Galleries.
Contributions to this article were generously made by Courtney Gilbert, Amanda Hamilton and Rachel Reichert. Photographs of the artist are by Peter Lovera on location at The Sparrow.
