Photographer Justine Kurland is a strong protagonist in the Yale School.
Gregory Crewdson was a Yale photography grad who returned to teach. He gracfully narrated his arc in an art talk arranged by Matthew Stadler in collaboration with Stephanie Snyder and the late Ripe Family dinner. From that talk, you can understand the Yale School of observation and fiction. Crewdson has continued to build elaborate sets and scenes as would a movie, making momentary images suggesting a narrative before and after that time zero.
Crewdson, with collaboration by Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, famously promoted some students in the Another Girl Another Planet show in 1999. In that show, Kurland launched her narrative of women in landscape. We all know the Mark Twain story of Tom Sawyer and Huckeberry Fin, young vagabonds living freely and having adventures. What if women did the same with no fear?
Kurland was part of the late Linda Ferris' Seattle Contemporary Art Project. Kurland has shown in Portland galleries, most recently the Elizabeth Leach Gallery. She collaborated with Jon Raymond on a small book Old Joy in 2004 and was guested by old PICA in 2005. In the pandemic, she created a new body of work, SCRUM Manifesto, sutting up photo books in her personal collection. It's a peowerful observation worth reader's look. Today she generously has curated a show, The Rose, with the Lumber Room.
"The Rose considers collage as a subversive action and a feminist strategy. The title borrows its name from Jay DeFeo’s seminal painting and refers to her iterative practice, where one thing turns into something else, gathering rotational gravity as it orbits."
The artists include Ruth Asawa, Natalie Ball, Lee Bontecou, Vija Celmins, Philo Cohen, Jay DeFeo, Mary Beth Edelson, Tatiana Florival, Vanessa German, Bean Gilsdorf, Janice Guy, K8 Hardy, Leslie Hewitt, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, AK Jenkins, Baseera Khan, Kiki Kogelnik, Tarrah Krajnek, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Jacky Marshall, Aspen Mays, Qiana Mestrich, Helina Metaferia, Shala Miller, Joiri Minaya, Rachelle Mozman-Solano, Wangechi Mutu, Yamini Nayar, B. Ingrid Olson, Frida Orupabo, Gina Osterloh, Olivia Reavy, Deborah Roberts, Martha Naranjo Sandoval, Sally Saul, Keisha Scarville, Gwen Smith, Pamela Sneed, Lorna Simpson, Lau Wai, Della Wells, Hannah Wilke, and Francesca Woodman. Strongly recommended.
Sunday Kurland speaks with artist Keisha Scarville and gallery director of Higher Pictures https://higherpictures.com/ Kim Bourus. Higher Pictures, operating since 2007, is now in Brooklyn.
They are friends in the art world and real life with a strong perspective on photography now.
Seating is limited. The event will be recorded and available for viewing on the Lumber Room website in due time.
Talk at 2 Sunday. Opening Saturday 4-7.
At The Lumber Room https://lumberroom.com/exhibitions/2023/the-rose 419 SW 9th, above Liz Leach Map 4PM-7 Saturday 2PM-3 Sunday Free
