Appell Fellow

“I received a Vagus Nerve Stimulator (VNS) in 2011, which was implanted in my chest and sends electrical impulses to my brain. My paintings portray the indescribable feeling of the impulse going through my body, as well as the emotional toll that the surgery has taken.” – Rita King 

Since receiving her BA in fine art from York College in 2010, Rita King has been an important figure in the York art scene while also building a reputation beyond York as an exciting young artist. As a senior at York College, King won the Best In Show award at the Juried Student Exhibition for the second year in a row. She was also awarded First Place in the Annual Senior Show and was named the Rozella Suzanne Olp Anstine Visual Arts Award winner. Since then, King has exhibited at the Columbia Arts Festival in Columbia, MD, City Arts Gallery and The Parliament House in York, and was featured in the national juriedYoung Artists Exhibition at the Washington Art Association in Washington Depot, CT. She also earned a residency at the Vermont Studio Center during Summer 2012, and has been the curator for The Parliament since 2011.

In 2012, King was awarded the first Appell Arts Fellowship, a residency program open to recent York College graduates that provides housing, parking, studio space, and a stipend. This exhibition is the culmination of a year’s worth of artistic production made possible by this fellowship.