I am a fine art photographer and educator born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. I have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and worked in my Oakland studio for more than twenty-five years. My work has been exhibited in galleries and museums nationally and resides in various corporate and public art collections, including those of the Alameda County Art Commission, Berkeley Civic Arts Center, the San Francisco Arts Commission, the David Brower Center, and the Kala Institute. My work is represented by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artists Gallery, Danielle Wohl Fine Art, SLATE Gallery, and the Kala Institute Art Gallery.
In recent years, I have been working on various public art commissions, creating large scale artworks for public spaces. I am particularly enthusiastic about public art as it provides an opportunity for art to enliven and add beauty to spaces that people experience as part of their daily lives. In this context the art can provide a bountiful visual experience that creates opportunities for reflection, contemplation and discourse. These projects are also exciting because they have enabled me to actualize my work at large scale and in many different types of materials.
I taught photography at California State University (East Bay) for more than a decade and was an adjunct professor in the photography departments at both Ohlone and Solano colleges. I currently teach photography at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in both the graduate and undergraduate divisions.
Artist Statements
Topographies series
In many of my works in the Topographies series I use the rigidity of the photographic picture plane and the grid structure as points of departure while looking for organic rhythms to emerge. I am interested in the contradictory nature within these constructions. For me these images present a discourse of contradictions- micro and macro, time and timelessness, and the containment of things that cannot be contained. The grid lends geometry and so tends to rationalize or abstract what would otherwise be mainly pictorial. I am filling a vast expanse, a kind of landscape, without perspective.
Here I use the idea of topography, a description or an analysis of a structured entity showing the relations among its components, as a format in which I can keep small details and still make a space that could go on and on, like the ocean itself. When we look at the world we assemble small views into a large idea like "the ocean.” We can't see it all at once and my views construct the whole from its parts.
Somewhere series
The Somewhere, relies upon different types of construction. I use digital drawing along with photographic data to create images with a compressed perspective. These works are also based on elements of time in that they are complex compositions that describe fragments of information, time, and space. Our sense of time is constructed from small views like hours, days, weeks, and we assemble those into a larger idea of life itself. The idea of making one photograph of any given moment in time is not enough for me. I prefer to gather together many moments, each with its own unique characteristics, into one unified whole. I often use layering of images to both obscure and reveal what lies beneath the surface. I want to capture the feeling of time, light with its reflections and refractions, and movement. This, to me, suggests the space both above and below the surface, the present and memory, gathered together into one.
Swim series
The Swim series is about the vernacular choreography inherent in figures as they move almost weightlessly through the water. In this watery environment the swimmers embody two of the six qualities of movement found in dance: suspend and sustain. Each person’s body responds to the freedom of weightless suspension in the water in a unique way. This is what fascinates me when observing ordinary people moving in the water. When digitally composing the pieces, I look for patterns of movement and rhythms that speak about how the subjects, who become my “dancers,” relate to each other in the overall choreography of the scene. The water becomes the medium through which the figures find connection to each other despite the rigid construction of the grid that is the underlying structure of these works. As I construct specific patterns of movement across the space of the photograph I’m interested in how each dancer’s movements lead into, compliment, contrast, and punctuate the movements of the other. The work both forces a separation between individuals by imposition of the grid and at the same time finds implied lines of movement that create a sense of individuals working in consort within the larger structure of “the dance.”
The works are constructed using the grid as a point of departure. Within the confines of the grid’s rigidity I look for the organic rhythms of the water and the “dancers” to emerge. I enjoy working within this contradictory space where the unyielding structure of the grid attempts to contain the fluidity of the water and the bodies and where the tension between visual separation and connection reflect the “push” and “pull” that are integral components of the language of dance itself.
Virtually No Place Like Home series
In an era where our lives increasingly intersect with the digital realm, the series Virtually No Place Like Home seeks to delve into the intricate web of identity, self-presentation, and perception through altered photographs that use the exterior of homes as a metaphor for the self. As people often use their homes’s exteriors to project their identities by exhibiting religious icons, political signs and banners, paint colors and other forms of decoration this subject works as another way to explore identity in the modern world. Digitally manipulated and composited images of houses and landscapes invite viewers to contemplate the fascinating parallels between the curated online self and the exterior expressions of individuality found in the physical spaces we call home.
As each photograph emerges from a fusion of reality and imagination, the series mirrors the way we construct our online personas. In the same way that selfies often portray carefully selected moments to project a desired image, the houses in these images do the same; becoming canvases upon which objects of personal beliefs, affiliations, and aesthetics that I find prominently displayed on homes in my photographic wanderings are curated and assembled conveying, at best, half truths. In this series the exterior of a home, like a social media profile, is a stage where identity is manufactured, blending elements of concrete truth with fiction.
The intentional juxtaposition of religious icons, political symbols, and idiosyncratic decorations in the compositions challenges viewers to confront the evolving dynamics between authenticity and artifice. Just as online personas may only hint at aspects of our true selves, the external façades of these homes offer glimpses into the inhabitants' identities that are carefully curated to project preferred narratives. In this intersection between personal and public representation, the series underscores how our self-identity is increasingly influenced by a curated reality, where the boundaries between truth and fiction blur.
In Virtually No Place Like Home, the digital medium itself becomes a metaphor for the virtual landscape we navigate daily. The meticulously manipulated images mirror the malleable nature of online imagery, where filters and edits can transform even the most mundane into the extraordinary. As the series unfolds, viewers are prompted to examine the narrative threads that weave our perceptions, much like how social media filters alter the way we interpret the lives of others and, consequently, ourselves.
Ultimately, Virtually No Place Like Home challenges us to reflect on the stories we tell, both online and in the spaces we inhabit. By blurring the boundaries between fact and fiction, reality and curated representation, the series urges us to confront the complexity of our identities and the inherent desire to shape our identity narratives through carefully curated images that depart from the verifiable. In an age where authenticity is elusive, this collection of digitally manipulated compositions encourages us to explore the intricate dance between the way we present ourselves virtually and the deeply personal reality of who we are.
Past Tense series
All photographs are about death. Like a program running in the background of a computer, the presence of death is in every photograph and it drives the creation of all photographs. Photographs become our means of intruding into the flow of time. Our desire to capture and hold onto fleeting moments of life and the presence of those we share our lives with drives us to release the shutter. This is, in turn, a life-affirming act; the photograph, a life-affirming artifact. The critic John Berger has argued that photographs, “ by affirming the subjective experiences of ordinary people …are used to refer to that which historical time has no right to destroy.”
Photography is a powerful mechanism for preserving and in some cases constructing memory. In the Past Tense series I use vintage vernacular photographs as a starting point for my digitally constructed images. I do not know the identities of most of the photographs’ subjects or the photographers who made them. I’m particularly interested in the unselfconsciousness of the photographers who made these vernacular images that hold no pretense of artfulness. Using the opening and closing of a shutter at a precise moment in time these photographers summed up all of their impressions of that moment. The photographs are a beautiful and tragic response to a moment in time quickly passing from existence. The images reveal the rich history of amateur photography with its unique vision. I see these vernacular photographs as gifts from the past that pay homage to the life of their subjects, many now long forgotten, to the photographers who made them, and to the medium that has captivated our imaginations since its inception. I’m as interested in the photographer’s impulse to make the photograph as I am in the people pictured. For me, each person pictured calls out through time, “remember me" and each photographer has preserved a moment snatched from the flow of time.
In making these pictures the original photographers were tapping into what is perhaps photography’s greatest “naturally occurring genius”; its ability to tell so much and yet to leave so much untold. I have used these images as a starting point for my constructions, layering images from the past with my own photographs. My process becomes a way to ritually commemorate the individuals in the photographs and the photographers who responded to them while creating new narratives. My works re-imagine stories of lives gone by. They pay homage to the people I feel I’ve come to know in some small way through their photographs and to the powerful impulse to immortalize them on the part of the photographers who captured them.
RESUME
INVITATIONAL
2023
Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA Enough Considered, solo show with collaborator, Anne Wolf
Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA, 50/50
ARC Gallery, 48 Pillars, opening winter 2024
2022
Dortort Center Gallery, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, Speak Memory, solo show
North Berkeley Wealth Management, Bekeley, CA, Buoyant, two person show
Jen Tough Gallery and ARTSY, Above and Below
2021
ARC Gallery, San Francisco, 48 Pillars
2019
Gray Loft Gallery, Oakland, CA, Blue
Albany Community Center Art Gallery, Albany, CA, Song Cycle, solo show
2018
Art San Diego/Jen Tough Gallery, awarded Best in Show
2016
Jingletown Art Center, Oakland, CA, Forty Fridas
2015
Rhythmix Cultural Center, Water, two-person show
Slate Gallery, Oakland, CA, Body Language, three person show
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, Counterpoint, solo show
2014
California State University, East Bay, University Art Gallery, Conceptual Photography
Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Oakland, CA, Spanning the Bay
2013
David Brower Center, Berkeley, CA, Congregating
333 Bush Street Lobby Installation, San Francisco, CA
Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Oakland, CA, Crossing Over, solo show
2012
Rhythmix Cultural Center, Alameda, CA, Counterpoint, solo show
Oakland Airport, From the Golden Gate Bridge to Oakland, Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA
Mills Building Lobby Installation, San Francisco, CA
2011
Kala Institute, Berkeley, CA, Fresh Work
Academy of Art University Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Faculty Show
Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA, Counterpoint, solo show
PHOTO Gallery, Oakland, CA, Counterpoint, solo show
Berkeley Civic Arts, Center, Berkeley, CA
Mills Building Gallery, San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Art Commission Gallery, San Francisco, CA, You Look Familiar
2010
Louie Meager Gallery, Ohlone College, The Educated Eye
California State University, East Bay, Hayward, CA, University Art Gallery, Annual Faculty Exhibit
2009
Alameda Public Library, Topographies and Past Tense, solo exhibition
Autobody Gallery, id:Entity, three person show
Academy of Art University Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Faculty and Alumni Show
Kala Institute, Berkeley, CA, Fresh Works
California State University East Bay Art Gallery, Hayward, CA, Annual Faculty Exhibition
2008
Soap Gallery, San Francisco, CA, By the Bay
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA, Innovation and Imagination
California State University East Bay Art Gallery, Hayward, CA, Annual Faculty Exhibition
Louie Meager Gallery, Ohlone College, Fremont, CA, The Art of Grief
Dorothy Herger Gallery, Solano College, Fairfield, CA, Annual Faculty Exhibition
Artwork SF Gallery, San Francisco, CA, One Night Stand
2007
K Gallery, Alameda, CA, The Locals, three person show
Kala Institute Gallery, Berkeley, CA, Artist in Residence Annual Exhibition
2007
Dorothy Herger Gallery, Solano College, Fairfield, CA, Annual Faculty Exhibition
Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA The Looking Glass
2005
California State University East Bay Art Gallery, Hayward, CA Annual Faculty Exhibition
Kala Institute Gallery, Berkeley, CA Artists in Residence Annual Exhibition
2004
Works/San Jose, San Jose, CA Beginnings and Endings, three person show
2003
California State University Art Gallery, Hayward, CA Annual Faculty Exhibition
2002
California State University Art Gallery, Hayward, CA Annual Faculty Exhibition
2001
Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA, Annual Awards Show
University YWCA at Cal Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, The Unfashionable Human Body, solo show
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2020
DeYoung Museum, San Francisco, CA, Bay Area Artists
Art Call, Summer Portfolio Show
2015
Center for Fine Art Photography, Ft. Collins, CO, H2O/Water, Honorable Mention award
2014
ARC Gallery, San Francisco, Four Square
2013
Dickerman Print, San Francisco, CA, New Residents Exhibition
333 Bush Street, San Francisco, an exhibition organized by Suzy Locke Associates and the Kala Institute, Berkeley, CA
2012
Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA Snap
2011
ARC Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Foto, Pushing Boundaries
San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, CA, You Look Familiar
Oakland International Airport, From the Golden Gate Bridge to Oakland: Trade and Tourism
Berkeley Civic Center, Berkeley, CA, Civic Art Exhibition
Mills Building Gallery, San Francisco, Kala Art Institute Artists
2010
Frank Bette Center, Alameda, CA, Alameda on Camera
Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA, Faculty and Alumni Photography Exhibition
Vermont Photo Space, Essex Junction, VT, Interactive Portraits
2008
Frank Bette Center, Alameda, CA, Alameda on Camera
2007
Frank Bette Center, Alameda, CA, Alameda on Camera
2006
University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, International Print Exhibition
NAU Art Museum, Flagstaff AZ, 3rd Biennial National Print Exhibition
2005
Kellogg Art Gallery, Cal Poly CSU, Pomona, CA, Ink and Clay Henry Hopkins, curator
2003
Lankershim Art Gallery, North Hollywood, Eye Feast (November) and Random Thoughts (December)
Millard Sheets Gallery, Pomona, CA, Envisioning the Future
2002
Napa Valley College Fine Arts Gallery, Bay Area Art V, Rene Di Rosa, Juror
2001
San Jose Art League, Genderplex
Napa Valley College Art Gallery, Bay Area Art IV, Rene Di Rosa, Juror
Buddy Holly Center Gallery, Lubbock, Texas, Illuminance
2000
Napa Valley College Art Gallery, Bay Area Art 3, Rene DiRosa, Juror
GRANTS, AWARDS, RESIDENCIES, PUBLIC ART COMMISSIONS
2021
Kaiser Permanente, Berkeley, commissioned to create two large scale artworks for medical facility.
2020
Art Call, Summer Portfolio Show, Awarded Best in Show
2019
Pollux Award Gala Exhibition, Honorable Mention for Collage Category
Alameda County Art Commission, commissioned to create 6 artworks for utility box project
2018
Art San Diego, Awarded Best In Show
2017
Beautiful San Francisco MUNI Public Art Project, commissioned to create 8 artworks for San Francisco MUNI buses
Alameda County Art Commission, Transition Day Reporting Center Decorative Glass Public Art Project, commissioned to create design for large glass element
Private Art Commission, San Francisco, commissioned to create large-scale mural translated to 3M Wall covering
Kaiser Permanente Offices, Oakland, CA, commissioned to create two artworks translated to metal for executive offices
923 Folsom Street, San Francisco, commissioned to create a design translated to architecturally integrated insulated glass unit for ground floor windows of a new SOMA mixed –use development
2016
Texas Tech University, finalist for commission to create large outdoor mural for Engineering building
Mountain View Community Center Project, commissioned to create large scale photographic entryway mural
2015
Center for Fine Art Photography, Ft. Collins, CO, H2O/Water, Honorable Mention award
Northern Texas University, Denton TX, commissioned to create large-scale artwork for Bruce Hall featuring imagery of university life and community
City of Newport, Oregon, finalist for commission of artwork for Newport Municipal Pool facility
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, commissioned to create artwork for new Police Headquarters facility
City of Morgan Hill, CA, finalist for commission of Gateway three-dimensional artwork for entrance to city
2014
Texas Tech University Rawls Golf Course Team Facility, commissioned to create a large-scale photographic tile mural for outdoor gateway
2013
San Francisco General Hospital Emergency Department Art Wall, San Francisco Art Commission, finalist
Elevate Atlanta 2013, commissioned by City of Atlanta office of Cultural Affairs to create large-scale banner installations
Temple Beth El, Charlotte, NC, artwork commission for large-scale photographic mural on metal
Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital Expansion Project, Stanford University, artwork commission for two large-scale photographic murals
Palo Alto Public Art Commission, finalist, Regional Water Quality Control Plant Project
Dickerman Prints, San Francisco, CA, Awarded Artist in Residence
San Lorenzo Public Library, finalist, commission of glass feature for library exterior
Alameda County Art Commission, Highland Hospital Public Art Project, 6 artworks commissioned for hospital
Los Angeles Metro Expo Line Public Art Project, finalist, station artwork commission
San Francisco Art Commission, Acquisition of 3 artworks for new Public Utilities Commission Headquarters, San Francisco, CA
Berkeley Civic Art Center, Honorarium Award
2011
Dimond District Public Art Commission, Oakland CA, mural artwork commission
Oakland Museum of California, Professional Services Division, artwork installed in Oakland City Center
Alameda County Art Commission, Ashland Youth Center Project, finalist, artwork commission Alameda County Art Commission, Ashland Youth Center Project, finalist, building exterior design
Kala Art Institute and City of Berkeley Public Art Exhibition, Milvia and Shattuck, Berkeley, CA
City of Berkeley Civic Arts Center installation of artwork
2010
San Francisco General Hospital Public Art Project, finalist, commission to create two large scale glass elements with photographic imagery, SF Arts Commission
Frank Bette Center, Alameda on Camera, Awarded Best in Show, Alameda, CA
2004-14
Artist in Residence, Kala Institute, Berkeley
2004
Millard Sheets Gallery (in association with The Smithsonian Institution), Pomona, CA, Envisioning the Future, Awarded Third Prize
PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA COVERAGE
2024
The Encyclopedia of Radical Helping, Enough Considered project, due for publication Spring 2024
The Book of Arts: Cancer - Never Give Up, Image from the Enough Considered project, due for publicaton Spring 2024
2019
Pollux Award Gala Exhibition, Honorable Mention for Collage Category
2018
The Photo Review, 2018 Competition, Some (Relatively) Small Buildings
2016
Academy of Art U News, Issue 10, 2016, Photography Instructors Team Up On Winning MUNI Project
2014
Shots Magazine, June 2014 Issue
Lens Culture Online Magazine, Editor's Pick, February
2011
Lenscratch online, Counterpoint project
2007
San Francisco Chronicle, The Great Bra Debate, November 7, 2007
2006
Like Sand from Orchid’s Lips, TCB-Cafe Publishing, San Francisco, CA, 2006
2001
Hayden’s Ferry Review, University of Arizona Press, Spring/Summer 2001, issue 28
TEACHING
2008-20
Adjunct Faculty, Photography Department, Academy of Art University graduate and undergraduate divisions, San Francisco, CA
2000-10
Lecturer in Photography, Art Department, California State University, East Bay
2003-08
Adjunct Faculty in Photography, Art Department, Ohlone College, Fremont, CA
2006-12
Adjunct Faculty in Photography, Art Department, Solano College, Fairfield, CA
EDUCATION
M.F.A. (Photography), CUNY-Brooklyn College
B.F.A. (Photography), School of Visual Arts, NYC
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
Alameda County Art Commission
Kala Institute, Berkeley, CA
Berkeley Civic Arts Center
San Francisco Art Commission, Laguna Honda Hospital
Dickerman Print, San Francisco, CA
The Brower Center, Berkeley, CA
San Francisco Public Utility Commission
City of Atlanta Cultural Affairs Commission
San Francisco General Hospital
Metropolitan Transportation Commission
Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center
Laguna Honda Hospital
Kaiser Permanente, Oakland and Berkeley, CA
Lucille Packard Children's Hospital, Stanford University
City of Mountain View, CA
REPRESENTATION
Springboard Arts, Chicago
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artist Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Kala Institute Gallery, Berkeley, CA
Danielle Wohl Fine Art, Palo Alto, CA
Suzy Locke and Associates Fine Art Consulting, Oakland, CA