NEWS
RECENT/UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS + PUBLICATIONS:
(click links in bold or see blog entries below for more info)
Recent and Upcoming Exhibitions:
- Small but Smaller, FLOOR_, Seoul, South Korea
- As Pretty Does, Alabama Contemporary Art Center, Mobile, AL (curated by Micah Mermilliod)
- Invisible Architectures | Social Contracts, Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD, May 16-June 29, 2024 (curated by Doreen Bolger)
- Just as Your Ship's Drifting in They're Pushing Out the Tide, Tempus Volta, Tampa, FL, March 6-May 7, 2024 (curated by Jenal Dolson)
- Context 2024, Filter Photo, Chicago, IL, Mar. 22-Apr. 27, 2024 (curated by Sarah Kennel)
- Mapping Perspectives, Throughline, Houston, TX, Mar. 8-30, 2024 (curated by Samantha Johnston)
- In the Shadow of the Moon, Windgate Museum of Art, Hendrix College, Jan. 26-Apr. 13, 2024 (curated by Christian Cutler)
Recent Select Publications:
- “Being Better People: Drug Using Careers and Petyote” published in Justice Quarterly, the top-ranked criminology journal in the world
- “What Has Been Will Be Again,” Southern Cultures
- “Slaying the vampire that is killing bats,” photographs for The Washington Post
- “Peyote as Earth Medicine: Examining How Symbolic Meanings Shape Experiences With Psychedelics” published in The British Journal of Criminology, featuring photographs from The Circle
- Upstreams Deadfalls, published by Deadfall Press
- “Biden’s renewable energy goals blow up against a painful WWII legacy,” photographs for The Washington Post
- Reckonings & Reconstructions published by UGA Press
- “Sex, Drugs, and Coercive Control: Gendered Narratives of Methamphetamine Use, Relationships, and Violence” photo essay published in Criminology, the first ever of its kind for the flagship social science journal
- “Visually Representing Rural: Ethics of Photographing Marginalized People in the Rural South” book chapter published in Research Methods for Rural Criminologists, Routledge
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Jared Ragland & Sara J. Winston, an unfixed pilgrimage, 2024
an unfixed pilgrimage, a limited edition artist book created in collaboration with Sara J. Winston, has been selected for On the Shelf, a photo book exhibition juried by photographer/curator/publisher Clint Woodside at Filter Photo in Chicago. The show runs Sept. 13-Oct. 19, 2024, with an opening reception scheduled for Sept. 20, 5-8pm. The exhibition is presented in conjunction with the 2024 Filter Photo Festival, a multi-day celebration of photography that takes place every September in Chicago.
an unfixed pilgrimage features 40 black and white photographs (20 by Ragland; 20 by Winston) alongside excerpts from Wendell Berry’s 1971 book, The Unforeseen Wilderness. Together the images and text reflect upon a range of intimate and quotidian moments while seeking beauty and meaning within domestic spaces and the wider landscapes of home. an unfixed pilgrimage was edited, designed, printed, and case bound as two artist proof books by Ragland and Winston in May 2024 at Nine Marks Studio in Richmond, Virginia.
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Phenix City, Russell County, Alabama — Michael, from What Has Been Will Be Again.
Seven pictures from What Has Been Will Be Again, each part of The Do Good Fund collection, are on view in As Pretty Does at the Alabama Contemporary Art Center in Mobile, Ala., Aug. 9-Oct. 19, 2024. Curated by Micah Mermilliod, the exhibition also features works by Lucinda Bunnen, Keith Calhoun, Rosalind Fox Solomon, Jill Frank, Carlos Gustavo, Betty Press, and Mark Steinmetz.
From the press release:
Growing up in the Deep South often feels like growing up in a different time or country. The unique landscape, history and ways of being stand apart from the monolith of mainstream culture. Viewed from the outside as backwards and lacking; stereotypes of southerness are inert, and fail to include the South’s true complexity, enduring charm, and diversity. The reality of the South is lived, active and chosen every day. There’s a colloquialism here that “pretty is as pretty does,” or in other words, pleasant behavior always outweighs pleasant looks.
In this exhibition, featuring work from eight photographers collected by The Do Good Fund of Columbus, GA, each artist captures what we do—a farmer fashioning a scarecrow for his garden, parading dancers, or a brass band performing for a church service. These images convey the ways we live, with intricate layers of identity and belonging woven into the fabric of Southern life. These are decisive moments. Intimate portraits and landscapes alike embody the spirit of the South as lived and living.
As Pretty Does celebrates ways of being, the familiar and unexpected alike. Through the lenses of these photographers, history and modernity intersect, and the ordinary becomes extraordinary. While not always traditionally beautiful, the allure, honesty, and unpredictability found in these everyday moments resonates like jazz through humid Southern air.
Curated by Micah Mermilliod in partnership with The Do Good Fund. The Do Good Fund is a collection of contemporary, post World War II photographs capturing the rich culture in the Southeastern United States. Since 2012 this public based Georgia charity has collected works from Guggenheim Fellows and emerging regional artists alike, and stands as one of the most complete artistic views of modern Southern living.
For more info, visit the ACAC website.
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Libra, 26, from The Circle.
A new article, coauthored with Heith Copes, Curdajah Bonner, and Peter S. Hendricks and featuring photographs from the series, The Circle, has been published in the journal, Justice Quarterly. “Being Better People: Drug Using Careers and Peyote” combines photographs, interview texts, and analysis to understand how narratives, identities, and specific drugs shape experiences. The article is available to those with institutional access here. An abstract of the article is below.
The eight photographs published in the journal were made in collaboration with study participants, with each person directing where and how they were photographed as a means of visualizing their personal experiences with peyote.
Justice Quarterly was listed by Google Scholar in its most recent rankings as the top academic journal in the discipline of criminology.
Abstract:
Our aim is to understand how narratives relating to personal identities and specific drugs shape people’s drug using careers. To do this, we rely on data from a photo-ethnography of people who used peyote in ceremonial contexts in the Southern United States. We found that the desire to become better people plot stories at each stage of their careers. The hope of positive personal change (e.g. heal trauma or break addiction) often motivates decisions to try peyote, while those who continue using do so because they believe peyote has aided in personal growth. Some desist because the discomfort from the acute effects of peyote outweighs the long-term benefits. Others stop using do so because they believe peyote has helped them reach their goals and they no longer need to continue. Findings have implications for broader understandings of drug using careers.
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Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa County, Ala.
A large scale Photo Tex installation of an image from What Has Been Will Be Again is included in the exhibition, Invisible Architectures | Social Contracts curated by Doreen Boyd at the Maryland Art Place in Baltimore, May 16-June 29. Press release is below.
INVISIBLE ARCHITECTURES | SOCIAL CONTRACTS
MARYLAND ART PLACE, Baltimore
May 16-June 29
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 16, 2024, 5-9pm
Maryland Art Place, in collaboration with COFAC CoLab Directors Dr. Kalima Young and Ada Pinkston, are excited to present "Invisible Architectures | Social Contracts." This exhibition explores the impact of geographic, economic, social, and institutional structures on personal relationships. This dynamic interdisciplinary art festival and Co-Lab sponsored project (Spring 2024) investigates the past, present and future directions social contracts may take. Join us on Thursday, May 16 from 5 pm to 9 pm for the opening reception taking place during the BROMO Art Walk with accompanying performances held on Friday, June 14.
About Invisible Architectures:
As we approach another election year in the United States, agreements about what is included in an American social contract continue to be up for debate.The term social contract started when philosophers from France to England started to think about the nature of humanity and the tensions that exist between the people who enact power and the people who do not. What are the agreed upon boundaries that exist within our social, family and political structures? How do these boundaries create or negate cognitive distance with what actually happens in any social theater? Artistic interventions have the potential to offer us much needed insights and possibilities for our collective future.
Exhibiting Artists:
Visual Art - Elizabeth Ashe, Samia, Bzioui, Se Jong Cho, Monique Crabb, Noël Da, Julianna Dail, Pack, G., Katie Gill-Harvey, Helen Glazer, QRCKY, Sanzi Kermes, Nate Larson, George Lorio, Dereck, Mangus, Kellan Marriott, Hope & Faith McCorkle, Claudia McDonough, Bruce, McKaig, Sasha-Loriene McClain, Lisa Moren, Pamela Thompson, Jamal Thorne, Jared Ragland, Agustin Rosa, and Heidi Younger.Video - Gabriel Bejarano, Nia Hampton, Jackie, Hoysted, Alexandra Garove, Patrick Riley, and Tima Aflitunov. Performances by - Jacob Budenz, Laure Drogoul, Sheila Gaskins, Nora Howell, Nigel Semaj, Peter Redgrave, VILLAGER, Move Move Collaborative, and Monsieur Zohore
Doreen Bolger Bio:
Doreen Bolger, retired Director of The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA), served from 1998 to 2015. During her 17-year tenure, she led a successful $100 million fundraising campaign, oversaw BMA's renovation, implemented free admission, and transitioned the institution from a city agency to a private organization. Bolger holds a BA magna cum laude from Bucknell University, an MA from the University of Delaware, and a PhD from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. Prior to her BMA role, she worked at The Metropolitan Museum of Art as Curator and Manager of the Henry R. Luce Center for American Art, Curator at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, TX, and served as Director of the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. Since retirement, Bolger has contributed to local arts organizations including: Creative Alliance, Maryland Citizens for the Arts, Maryland Art Place, and Woman’s Club of Roland Park; curated exhibitions in the co-curation of MICA’s 2015/2016 Graduate Exhibition; and gifted twenty works to the Reginald F. Lewis Museum. She also contributed to Bmore Art’s publication City of Artists Baltimore (2023).
About Invisible Architectures in Co-Lab:
The COFAC Co-Lab is an incubator for ideas, projects and collaboration. The lab is a home for interdisciplinary work. It's a hub where ideas can be cross-fertilized and put into motion. Designed as a space where fields of study are porous, the objective is to build new knowledge for an ever-evolving world. Professors Dr. Kalima Young, (Department of Electronic Media & Film) and Ada Pinkston (Department of Art + Design, Art History Art Education) were selected to be Towson University’s College of Fine Arts and Communication Co-Lab Directors from 2021-2024.About Maryland Art Place Maryland Art Place (MAP) inspires, supports, and encourages artistic expression through innovative programming, exhibitions, and educational opportunities while recognizing the powerful impact art can have on our community. MAP creates a dynamic environment for artists of our time to engage the public by nurturing and promoting new ideas. MAP has served as a critical resource for contemporary art in the Mid-Atlantic since 1981.
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