Announcing the 2026 Faculty Fellowship Awardees: David Heshmatpour & Benjamin Fedosky
Fleisher Art Memorial is proud to announce the recipients of the 2026 Faculty Fellowships: the Dene M. Louchheim Fellowship and the Fred and Naomi Hazell Award. These distinguished awards celebrate the exceptional talent and dedication of our teaching artists, supporting their ongoing creative practice and contribution to Fleisher’s vibrant artistic community.
The 2026 recipients are Benjamin Fedosky, awarded the Dene M. Louchheim Fellowship, and David Heshmatpour, recipient of the Fred and Naomi Hazell Award.
Each fellow will have a designated space in our gallery to showcase their work in a group exhibition on view from August 31 through September 26, 2026, featuring new and recent works created during their fellowship periods. The exhibition reflects Fleisher’s continued commitment to nurturing faculty artists and honoring two remarkable legacies.
Established in memory of Dene Louchheim, former chairperson of Fleisher Art Memorial, the fellowship celebrates her legacy of leadership and dedication to the arts. Awarded every two years through a juried process, the Dene Louchheim Fellowship supports the recipient’s artistic practice and fosters continued creative growth.
Established to celebrate the creative spirit of Naomi Hazell, an artist, musician, poet, and craftswoman, the award recognizes excellence in oil painting at Fleisher. Presented annually to an outstanding faculty member, the Fred and Naomi Hazell Art Award honors work that demonstrates skill, vision, and dedication to artistic practice, continuing Naomi’s legacy of creativity and expression.
Join us as we recognize the 2026 fellows and their contributions to contemporary art and education. Stay tuned for more information about the artists and their exhibitions in 2026.
Benjamin Fedosky
Benjamin Fedosky is an artist living and working in Philadelphia, PA. His work explores the landscape of figuration in sculpture, drawing, and printmaking. Utilizing an intuitive, process-based studio practice, Fedosky draws inspiration from various sources including experimental poetry, naturally occurring sculptural phenomena (such as the plaster figures at Pompeii), and early photography.
Fedosky graduated with a BA in Art Practice from the University of California – Berkeley and an MFA in Ceramics at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University. He is an elected member of the London-based Society of Portrait Sculptors and has exhibited in solo and group shows in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. His works are held in select private collections.
David Heshmatpour
Dave is from Effingham, Illinois – the home of America’s second-largest cross.
The son of a Persian surgeon and a child of the Iranian Diaspora, Dave is a multidisciplinary visual artist working in painting, sculpture, drawing, digital photography, and performance exploring narrative, ambiguity, symbolism, and the poetry of color and light. Being of two cultures in conflict, his work focuses on the search for self, institutional oppression, reconciliation, and the ongoing integration of digital and physical spaces.
He gained a degree in Applied Science, specializing in welding technology, before graduating with a BFA in painting from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 2020.
He is a member of various local arts organizations including Da Vinci Art Alliance (DVAA), The Center For Emerging Visual Artists (CFEVA), and The Fellowship of The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (FPAFA), and teaches painting at Fleisher Art Memorial.