Emilio Chiofalo - Summer 2026 NEW WORK grantee
Emilio Chiofalo is an Italian visual artist and researcher based in Paris. Following an initial career in international policy research, he earned an MFA in Photography and Contemporary Art from Université Paris 8.
His practice explores the intersections of experimental photography and neuroscience. Grounded in the concept of plasticity, he treats the photographic medium as a mutating body, altering physical emulsions, burning, and laser etching photographic surfaces to embrace physicochemical instability and algorithmic processes. Since 2024, he has been collaborating with neuroscientists on issues related to cerebral plasticity and brain organoids, a project begun during a residency at La Capsule (Le Bourget, France) and now supported by a research grant and residency at the Université de Strasbourg (2026–2028).
Alongside his practice, he teaches experimental photography at Université Paris 8 and serves as an art educator for institutions including the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection and Art Basel Paris as well as art centers and associations, guiding educational projects on experimental photography.
PROJECT PROPOSAL
Morphogenesis is a research-creation project exploring the brain as shared, more-than-human terrain. Working with neuroscientists from Inserm (Strasbourg, France) and ICM (Paris, France), the project draws on brain organoid research and neural network cultivation, mimicking this biotechnology research through non-human agents.
Over 12 months, Physarum polycephalum (the "blob") and fungal cultures will grow on substrates shaped to look like brain organoids and synaptic maps, placed directly in contact with photographic emulsions. Growth, decay, and enzymatic activity will merge the organic substrate with the image itself.
The result will be photographs made with living systems, not of them. They will be preserved in resin on plates and Petri dishes, likely paired with scientific images and a time lapse video that stages image making.
-Emilio Chiofalo
Summer 2026 REVIEW COMMITTEE
Adler Guerrier [2021 ONE WORK artist] was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and lives and works in Miami, FL, where he received a BFA at the New World School of the Arts. Guerrier recently had a solo exhibition at Perez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL. He has exhibited work at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, Miami, FL; The Bass Museum of Art, Miami, FL; Harn Musem of Art, Gainesville, FL; and The Whitney Biennial 2008. His works can be found in public collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, NY. His work has appeared in Art Forum, Art in America, The New York Times and ARTNews, among others.
Duong Thuy Nguyen [2025 NEW WORK grantee] (b. Vietnam) is an artist and writer working between Hanoi and London. Her interdisciplinary practice engages with memory, displacement, and overlooked histories. Through experimental strategies, she reshapes knowledge production and fosters critical dialogue around colonial legacies, marginalization, and industrialization. Nguyen holds an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins, where she was awarded the Maison/0 This Earth Award and the FRESH TAKE Art Writing 2023 Prize. Her work is also held in the UAL Collection. Recent exhibitions include: New Art Exchange Open 24 (Nottingham), Enigma of Arrival (RCA, London), No Place Like Home (Museum of the Home, London), and The Space Between (TMLightning Gallery, London). She is currently a resident artist at the Museum of the Home as part of the Vietnamese Archives Artist Residency: Library of Ancestral Knowledge.
Alma Sammel [2026-27 Curatorial research fellow] is a French-Italian-German curator and cultural facilitator working in contemporary art through exhibitions, performances, and research-driven projects. She studied Curatorial Studies at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and Communication and Cultural Management in Germany. Her practice focuses on developing exhibitions as spaces of inquiry and collaboration, informed by her experience in institutions such as the École nationale supérieure de la photographie and Lee Ufan Arles. Alongside her curatorial work, she supports artists in the development of exhibitions and publications.