“Art History tends to label artists for convenient classification as realists, classicists, abstractionists, romanticists. Yet most artists, including myself, are combinations of all of these things.”
Artist Grants
The Martha Alf Foundation provides financial resources to artists working towards their MFA so they may focus on their work. Funding can be used to create new work, acquire supplies, prepare for exhibitions, attend a residency, or offset living expenses.
The Foundation is currently partnered with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Otis College of Art and Design to annually award MFA painting students based on exceptional merit and financial need.
Unsolicited proposals will not be considered at this time.
Martha Alf Foundation Grant Recipients
Shelby Lindsley (2023)
Shelby Lorraine Lindsley (b. 2000, they/she) is an MFA ’24 candidate at Otis College of Art and Design. She grounds their work within conceptual art, using her artwork to reference events from… READ MORE
Nehemiah Cisneros (2023)
Nehemiah Cisneros’ paintings bring to life magnified expressions of humanity through grotesquely exaggerated renderings of authority figures and icons… READ MORE
Yi Gao (2022)
Yi Gao (b. 1988, China) is a 2023 MFA candidate with a concentration in painting at UCLA. This is her second grant award from the Martha Alf Foundation. Through a series of improvisation, paint… READ MORE
Hayley Quentin (2022)
Hayley Quentin is a Los Angeles based artist using intuition and technical precision with the goal of merging the intuitive with the analytical… READ MORE
Xiouping (2021)
Xiouping is a 2021 MFA candidate at Otis College of Art and Design and a multi-media artist working in painting, performance, photography, sculpture, and video READ MORE
Yi Gao (2021)
Yi Gao (b. 1988, China) is a 2023 MFA candidate with a concentration in painting at UCLA. With a background in traditional Chinese painting, her mixed-media… READ MORE