Shadowcliff artists share work shaped by family, landscape and community

GRAND LAKE — Poetry, photographs and an unfinished cello composition offered a glimpse into Shadowcliff’s artist residency Sept. 11 at the Grand Lake Community House.

The creative reflections and practice-sharing program, presented with the Grand Lake Creative District, featured four artists in person and choreographer Kimberly Bartosik via recording. Host Alex Thompson guided an evening that connected the artists’ work with two weeks of shared meals, friendships and time outside their usual routines.

Tommy Kha followed with self-portraits, props and installations. In one work, he exchanged puzzle pieces between photographs of himself and his mother, using photography to explore identity and spend time with family.

Questions of belonging also anchor Other Things Uttered, his first museum solo exhibition, which ran at the Addison Gallery of American Art from September 2025 through January 2026.

Shadowcliff gave the Memphis-raised photographer time away from teaching and editorial work to explore connections among collage, photography and installation.

“It’s been really fun to be in a new place that I’m not familiar with,” Kha said during intermission.

The four artists returned for questions about their work and what the residency made possible. Kha contrasted his time and space at Shadowcliff with the jobs needed to support his practice and the cost of a New York studio. Yepa-Pappan said stepping away from a busy schedule supporting other artists allowed her to care for herself and consider her own work. A finished body of work might take longer to emerge, she said,; because the experience needed time to settle.