Bridget Mullen Awarded Fountainhead Artist Residency

January 2022 — Wisdom & Energy: Multigenerational Artists

Fountainhead was founded in 2008 by collectors and  passionate art appreciators Kathryn and Dan Mikesell, who believe connecting people intimately with artists impacts how we move through this world, treat one another and confront today’s most critical issues.  They created Fountainhead to positively impact the lives and careers of artists and nurture and grow their local arts ecosystem. Establishing a residency program for visiting national and international artists alongside an artists’ studios complex to serve the local artist community, Fountainhead has served over 450 artists from 47 countries and engages thousands of art lovers each year. In 2019, Fountainhead launched Artists Open, a countywide open studios event that welcomes the public into over 300 artists studios all over Miami.

 

Fountainhead’s approach empowers artists by making connections that lead to growth in their work and careers, providing time and space to experiment and challenge their practice, and mentorship and business skills to help them lead thriving careers. In its 13-year history, Fountainhead has become a pioneering force in the arts and culture landscape developing innovative artist and community engagement programs, and cultivating key relationships with leading art institutions in South Florida and beyond.

 

Fountainhead elevates the voices, visibility and value of artists in our society and makes their work accessible in a welcoming and inclusive environment.

 

Offering a year-round residency program, flexible and affordable artists’ studios, Miami’s only countywide open studios event, and a series of career-focused programs, Fountainhead empowers artists to build thriving careers while cultivating and nurturing a community that supports them and their work.

Harnessing the power in our diversity, Fountainhead is building a global family of artists and appreciators, one personal connection at a time.

 

 

 

Bridget Mullen’s paintings combine decisive mark-making with intuition and experimentation to conjure psychedelic compositions that oscillate between abstraction and figuration. Instead of sketching or initiating a painting with a concrete idea in mind, Mullen begins each piece with abstract marks, undulating lines, and a layering of color. Each formal development on the canvas informs the next until the totality of choices begins to evoke characteristics of a body—eyes appear and gaze lazily, hair and eyelashes unfurl, and arms and legs spring into motion.

The repetition of lines and a stutter of pigment are signature gestures in her practice, alluding to rapid movement or the passage of time. A visible tension between density and open space remains palpable regardless of composition, favoring exaggerated compression or an illusion of elastic expanse. Sculptural dimensionality and flatness, abstraction and representation, and solidity and fluidity are not oppositions within Mullen’s practice, but rather complementary halves of an enigmatic whole.

November 20, 2021