PROJECT ROOM E

BARBARA POLLACK’s Thesis Class


featuring work by:

Gabriel Barreto, Gabriel Byrro, Leon Febres-Cordero, Malik Herrera Frank, Stephen Kalogridis, Kai Kenyettie, Tyler Kiser, Zixuan Li, Kecheng Pan, Connie Park, Yoshiki Taniguchi, Tomas Vallejo, Patrick Woodling

STUDENT CURATORS:
Stephen Kalogridis and Tyler Kiser

Inward, Outward, Other

We’ve been in this place for four years. Four years that saw the Trump Presidency. That saw Women’s Marches. That saw countless hours in the labs, in the darkroom, in the studios. That saw two different department chairs. That sees the rise of social media. That sees the diminishing role of the photographer. That now sees the COVID-19 pandemic. That will see us leave this place. We are thirteen artists, each with unique backgrounds, but a common four years. Being instructed in art and culture, while the world seems to crumble and shift around us. We’ve responded with our work. 

Inward, Outward, Other is a group showing of thirteen artists’ work in relation to the titular three core ideas. A few of us, like Patrick Woodling, Connie Park, Tomás Vallejo Pineres, and Tyler Kiser, have chosen to look Inward, reexamining and reevaluating their own personal perspectives on the world, and how their photos can be used as a method of self-exploration and communication.

The artists Kai Roper, Malik Frank, León Febres Cordero, Kecheng Pan, and Gabriel Barreto Bentin have chosen to look Outward, to redouble the lens on society in an effort to combat stereotypes, speak their mind, and address the societal plagues on our culture. Some of us still have chosen to look at the Other, somewhere separate from ourselves and the world, to places without form where ideas and mindsets are key; artists like Zixuan Li, Yoshiki Taniguchi, Gabriel Miranda Byrro, and Stephen Kalogridis have made work that exemplify this.

These tenets exist in all the pieces present, we invite you to explore the space and consider the work not only in the context of itself, but also in the context of ourselves. Us thirteen artists, and our common four years.

—Stephen Kalogridis