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Gallery ScheduleExhibitions
Sugar and Spice May 2 - 28, 2008 Sugar and Spice Susan Anderson, Amy Stevens, Alex Prager The Photographic Center Northwest is proud to present Sugar and Spice, an exhibition of color photographs by Susan Anderson, Amy Stevens and Alex Prager. These three artists, hailing from Los Angeles and Philadelphia, contribute their own visual perspectives on our societyÕs obsessive desire to dress up, decorate and dramatize. The subtle oddities and imperfections within reveal an inherent and unexpected beauty all its own.
Susan Anderson's surreal documentary portrait series, High Glitz, is shot on location at several of our nation's child beauty pageants. Setting up her studio amidst the colorful spectacle, she captures the young girls at the height of their performance. Hours of preparation are spent on each child's appearance, her camera recording every detail. Children's pageants are a fascinating subculture, but more than anything they represent a strange microcosm of America itself. Our own values of beauty, success and glamour reflected in the dreams of thousands of young girls... Anderson is a Los Angeles-based fine art, commercial and editorial photographer specializing in portraiture, beauty, fashion and conceptual/narrative work. After earning her BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago, Anderson relocated to Los Angeles in 2001. Her editorial work has appeared in a variety of magazines including Los Angeles, Glamour and Playboy. Chronicle Books has commissioned her to illustrate their wildly successful series of humorous trade paperbacks, Porn for Women, and the sequel, Porn for New Moms. Her fine art photography is represented by Paul Kopeikin Gallery in Los Angeles.
Amy Stevens' Confections series started as a response to turning 30 with the idea that she would bake 30 cakes! She ordered a kit from Martha Stewart.com that included an instructional video. When she discovered her cakes were never going to look like the ones in the video she was free to make them as grotesque and amazing as possible-an act of rebellion. Stevens graduated with a BFA in Photography and a certificate in Women's Studies from Arizona State University in 1998. In 2005 she earned her MFA in Photography from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. In 2007 she completed a two-year career development fellowship with The Center for Emerging Visual Artists and was awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Independence Foundation. Her work has been included in numerous solo & group exhibitions in cities such as Albuquerque, Boston, Cleveland, Michigan, Montreal, Philadelphia & Portland.
In Polyester, Alex Prager's cinematic approach is reminiscent of the mid 20th century angst and naivety that Hitchcock, John Waters, and David Lynch portrayed. Stories unfold with each photograph that stimulate the senses. Playful yet bizarre scenes are a balancing act between fantasy and reality. Prager has caught her heroines in a gauzy instant, the moment just before we could have seen them stepping into some glamorous but debauched intrigue. A native to Los Angeles, Alex Prager's photography career began on the cusp of her teens. After holding down a slew of jobs in the private sector, from selling knives to washing cars, Prager, so inspired by the modern works of William Eggleston, decided to make the leap to full time photographer. At 22, Prager started shooting fashion editorials for high profile magazines such as Flaunt and V while simultaneously forging a path on the Los Angeles independent gallery circuit, hosting solo as well as group shows almost every other month. As her list of collectors grew, so did her list of clients: Geffen, Warner, I-D, Elle & Complex. Prager's fine art photography is represented by Robert Berman Gallery in Santa Monica.
What's Not to Love? Rachel Herman, Molly Landreth, Jenny Riffle
Rachel Herman dipicts how love bends but doesn't necessarily break. In her series, The Imp of Love, Rachel Herman photographs couples, who were once lovers but are now renegotiating their relationship in a new context. Even though they aren't romantically intertwined anymore, they still spend time together, sometimes compulsively -- even though that time can be painful, fumblingly awkward or confusingly tender. Herman received her MFA from the University of Chicago, and is currently an instructor at Evanston Art Center. She was a teaching assistant to Laura Letinsky for two years and was an artist in residence at Anderson Ranch, Snowmass, CO in 2007. Her work has been exhibited in group and solo shows in Chicago and Kansas City and has been published in the Chicago Tribune.
In Embodiment: A Portrait of Queer Life in America, Molly Landreth's photographs serve as an archive and a journey through a rapidly changing community and the lives of people who bravely offer new visions of what it means to be queer. Even in a world where progressive attitudes are beginning to take hold, to be "out" and visible, is to become both empowered and vulnerable. Embodiment is about love and the process of growing into ones self and the complexity of relationships found between diverse groups of people. Molly Landreth received her B.A. in Studio Art from Scripps College in Claremont, California in 2001 where she cultivated her love for photography, digital & feminist art and art history. In 2005 she received a M.F.A. in Photography and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She is currently living and working in Seattle, WA and exhibiting nationally. This project is being funded in part by a grant from the Humble Arts Foundation.
In her series, The Space In Between, Jenny Riffle investigates the practice of empathy and the psychological spaces of people that surround her and are most dear to her. Drawing attention to small gestures she turns the mundane into the mythical, creating allegorical tableaus that relate the emotional state of her friends and family. Riffle was born in Washington State in 1979. She studied at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY and received her BA in photography in 2001. Her work has been exhibited in group and solo shows in WA, CA and NY. Recent awards include: Critical Mass Finalist 2007, PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris, Honorable Mention in 2007, and Photographer's Forum, Best of Photography 2006, Finalist.
January 19 – February 27, 2008 Snowbound & The Last Iceberg
Lisa M. Robinson For five winters, the young American photographer Lisa M. Robinson made photographs in the snow. Snowbound depicts landscapes in which everyday objects-alienated and sunken in snow – civilize the natural surroundings. Traces of human existence set accents in the white landscape, delimiting it and often popping up in an amusing or incongruous way. A lonely hammock, a trampoline or swimming pool are echoes of both the summer past and of personal memories. But Lisa M. Robinson is not interested in showing the obvious; instead, the photographer makes use of the many aggregate states of water – ice, snow, fog, water – as metaphors for life and transience. Lisa Robinson graduate cum laude from Columbia University, and received her MFA in Photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design. After moving to NY, she became printing assistant for George Tice. Awards include a Fulbright Grant, as well as “Curator’s Choice” at Houston Center of Photography Membership Exhibition and “Top 50 Photographers” chosen by Critical Mass. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at Light Work, and was recently selected as the Evelyn Stefansson Nef Fellow at the MacDowell Colony. Snowbound has been exhibited internationally in Argentina, Syria, Lithuania, Denmark, Uruguay, Chile and Bolivia. Her work is in such collections as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego; the Ogden Museum of Southern Art; and Fidelity Investments. Lisa M. Robinson was recently nominated for a Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant.
Camille Seaman The Last Iceberg, a series by Camille Seaman chronicles a handful of the many thousands of icebergs that are currently headed to their end. Seaman approaches the images of icebergs as portraits of individuals, much like family photos of her ancestors. She seeks a moment in their life in which they convey their unique personality, some connection to our own experience and a glimpse of their soul which endures. These images were made in both the Arctic regions of Svalbard, Greenland, and Antarctica. Camille Seaman (Shinnecock Tribe b.1969) is an Award winning American photographer best known for her evocative Polar images. Capturing the essence of awe and beauty of indigenous cultures and environments, in a sophisticated documentary/fine art tradition is her trademark. Camille has traveled to over 30 countries creating timeless images. Seaman's work has been exhibited and published in magazines internationally. Recent awards include an Artist in Residence onboard M/V Orlova in Antarctica, 2007, Critical Mass Top Monograph Book Award, 2006, & National Geographic Award, 2006. Her education includes Master Workshops with Seve McCurry, Sebastiao Salgado, Paul Fusco, Eli Reed and Donovan Wylie, Antonin Kratochvil. She has a BFA from State University of New York at Purchase. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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