Candice Hopkins leads the curatorial direction of the Biennial including new art commissions, exhibitions, and publications. Most recently co-curator for SITE Santa Fe’s 2018 Sitelines Biennial and the Canadian Pavilion for the 2019 Venice Biennial, Hopkins has developed major international exhibitions, including Sakahàn: International Indigenous Art (2013), National Gallery of Canada, Close Encounters: The Next 500 Years (2011), Plug In ICA , and, dOCUMENTA 14 in Kassel and Athens (2017). She has been published widely and lectured internationally and is the recipient of the 2015 Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Art. Originally from Whitehorse, Yukon, Hopkins is a citizen of Carcross/Tagish First Nation.

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Whitney Johnson leads the team responsible for photography, emerging formats, video, and podcast operations. Prior to joining National Geographic magazine, she was the director of photography at The New Yorker where her work was widely recognized, earning awards from the American Society of Magazine Editors; Awards of Excellence from the Society of Publication Designers; and a Peabody, in collaboration with Human Rights Watch and the photographer Platon. Whitney also enjoys teaching and mentoring in photography.

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Artist, writer, activist and teacher Gregory Sholette specializes in the history and theory of contemporary socially engaged art. His research and artistic practices focus on issues of equitable labor justice for artists, the activist agency of “dark matter” art, critical pedagogy and organizing counter-institutional resistance to authoritarianism, neoliberalism, and oppressive, racialized historical narratives. A co-founder of several artists’ collectives including Political Art Documentation/Distribution (1980), REPOhistory (1989), and Gulf Labor Coalition (2010), as well as the curator of Imaginary Archive, a collection of documents about a past whose future never arrived, his publications include a special double issue of FIELD Journal of Socially Engaged Art with over thirty global reports focusing on “Art, Anti-Globalism, and the Neo-Authoritarian Turn,” and the books Art as Social Action (with Chloë Bass, 2018, Skyhorse Press); Delirium & Resistance: Art Activism & the Crisis of Capitalism; Dark Matter: Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise Culture. (Pluto Press 2017 & 2010); Collectivism After Modernism (U. Minn., 2006); The Interventionists with Nato Thompson (MIT 2004). Sholette is a graduate of the Whitney Program in Critical Theory (1996), did his MFA at UC San Diego (1995), BFA at The Cooper Union (1979), and received his PhD in Heritage and Memory Studies from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2017). He is associate faculty at the Art, Design and the Public Domain program of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, and the past decade he has co-directed the pedagogical art and social justice initiative Social Practice Queens where he is a professor of art. Sholette blogs at Welcome To Our Bare Art World: gregsholette.tumblr.com

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Post-2020: Forays into the future of art and lens-based media explores the current state of contemporary art in 2020 and offers aspirations for the field and application of lens-based media.

Watch the recorded event here.

Image-making technology has become ubiquitous as the digital age has inspired new modes of connectivity, and photography and lens-based media have served as a crucial tool for change. The 21st Century paradigm shift of 2020 will forever be underscored by the COVID-19 global pandemic and framed within the sociopolitical tensions fueling civil unrest throughout the world. We are witnessing the negotiation of the new era and CENTER is collaborating with unique voices in the field to investigate the trajectory of lens-based media practices and speculate on the future within this pivotal context.

Thank you to those that joined us online for the Panel Discussion moderated by Will Wilson, Program Head of Photography at the Santa Fe Community College, and Photographer. Exploring alternatives to the current state of the art world and discussing new ways of producing, sharing, and supporting art with the following panelists: Candice Hopkins, Senior Curator of the Toronto Biennial of Art, Whitney Johnson, Vice President of Visuals and Immersive Experiences at National Geographic, and Gregory Sholette, Associate of the Arts, Design & the Public Domain program of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

PANELIST BIOS:

Candice Hopkins leads the curatorial direction of the Biennial including new art commissions, exhibitions, and publications. Most recently co-curator for SITE Santa Fe’s 2018 Sitelines Biennial and the Canadian Pavilion for the 2019 Venice Biennial, Hopkins has developed major international exhibitions, including Sakahàn: International Indigenous Art (2013), National Gallery of Canada, Close Encounters: The Next 500 Years (2011), Plug In ICA , and, dOCUMENTA 14 in Kassel and Athens (2017). She has been published widely and lectured internationally and is the recipient of the 2015 Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Art. Originally from Whitehorse, Yukon, Hopkins is a citizen of Carcross/Tagish First Nation.

Whitney Johnson leads the team responsible for photography, emerging formats, video, and podcast operations. Prior to joining National Geographic magazine, she was the director of photography at The New Yorker where her work was widely recognized, earning awards from the American Society of Magazine Editors; Awards of Excellence from the Society of Publication Designers; and a Peabody, in collaboration with Human Rights Watch and the photographer Platon. Whitney also enjoys teaching and mentoring in photography.

Artist, writer, activist, and teacher Gregory Sholette specializes in the history and theory of contemporary socially engaged art. His research and artistic practices focus on issues of equitable labor justice for artists, the activist agency of “dark matter” art, critical pedagogy, and organizing counter-institutional resistance to authoritarianism, neoliberalism, and oppressive, racialized historical narratives. A co-founder of several artists’ collectives including Political Art Documentation/Distribution (1980), REPOhistory (1989), and Gulf Labor Coalition (2010), as well as the curator of Imaginary Archive, a collection of documents about a past whose future never arrived, his publications, include a special double issue of FIELD Journal of Socially Engaged Art with over thirty global reports focusing on “Art, Anti-Globalism, and the Neo-Authoritarian Turn,” and the books Art as Social Action (with Chloë Bass, 2018, Skyhorse Press); Delirium & Resistance: Art Activism & the Crisis of Capitalism; Dark Matter: Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise Culture. (Pluto Press 2017 & 2010); Collectivism After Modernism (U. Minn., 2006); The Interventionists with Nato Thompson (MIT 2004). Sholette is a graduate of the Whitney Program in Critical Theory (1996), did his MFA at UC San Diego (1995), BFA at The Cooper Union (1979), and received his Ph.D. in Heritage and Memory Studies from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2017). He is associate faculty at the Art, Design, and the Public Domain program of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, and in the past decade he has co-directed the pedagogical art and social justice initiative Social Practice Queens where he is a professor of art. Sholette blogs at Welcome To Our Bare Art World: gregsholette.tumblr.com

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CENTER presents the Photographer Presentations with the Grant and 1st place recipients of our Award categories. Each artist shares an intimate view into their project, followed by a moderated discussion and audience Q&A with Mary Statzer, Ph.D., Curator of Prints and Photographs at the University of New Mexico Art Museum. This year the presentations were hosted virtually, allowing us to document and share the presentations with global audiences.

CENTER is thrilled to share with you the Photographer Presentation’s LIVE recorded event. Watch the individual presentations below:
Kathleen Clark // “The White House China”
Frank Lopez // Photographer & Educator
Noelle Mason // “X-Ray Vision vs. Invisibility”
Justin Maxon // “Livin’ the Dream”
Catherine Panebianco // “No Memory is Ever Alone”
Brandy Trigueros // “The Dadabyte Theater”
Ada Trillo // “La Caravana Del Diablo”
Kari Wehrs // “Shot”
Sandra Chen Weinstein // “Transcend”

This program is made possible with the support of the New Mexico Humanities Council.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the New Mexico Humanities Council.

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Project Development Grant Recipient
Juror: Erin O’Toole, Baker Street Foundation Associate Curator of Photography, SFMOMA

“Livin’ the Dream” is a participatory media project in Humboldt County, California, undertaken in collaboration with artists Leslie Castellano and Laura Montagna. The work engages incarcerated individuals held at the Humboldt County Correction Facility in Eureka. The program is one chapter of three that navigates substance abuse recovery for the currently and formerly incarcerated in Humboldt County.

Watch Justin’s presentation here.

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Director’s Choice Award 1st Place
Juror: Rubén Esparza, Independent Curator; Founder and Director, Queer Biennial

This is a story of relationships, but most importantly it is a story of love. A collection of intimate portraits and stories of people and their loved ones, families, or chosen families—including the photographer’s own family—are drawn from the diverse LGBTQ community, which constantly struggles for equality and acceptance.

Watch Sandra’s presentation here.

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Project Launch Grant Honorable Mention
Juror: Rebecca Senf, Chief Curator, Center for Creative Photography

The artist writes, “From scenes of gun violence that make the national news to my 61-year-old mother suddenly deciding to carry, incidents of gun use haunt me with curiosity and fear. Having no personal attachment to guns, I am grappling with present-day societal reverberations and implications of the gun in American culture.

To create this series, I set up my darkroom tent and tintype gear at known target shooting locations in the Arizona desert. I met gun-enthusiast strangers and asked them to participate in my project. I created their tintype portraits, and when complete, I gave them the option to use the image as a target. Some took part — leaving bullet holes in the plate. “Shot” refers simultaneously to my use of the camera and the participant’s use of the gun.”

Watch Kari’s presentation here.

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me&EVE Award Recipient
Juror: Jennifer Pritheeva Samuel, Photo Editor, National Geographic

When the migrants arrived at the border of Guatemala and Mexico, they were gassed and pepper-sprayed on their first attempt to cross. The government officials began to trick asylum seekers into entering Mexico in smaller, more manageable groups. They were promised a chance at applying for asylum or continuing on to the US border, only to force them onto buses so that they can be deported back to their respective countries in Central America. Their journey ahead was obstructed by cruel government policies, yet returning to their homeland could mean living a life of extortion, impoverishment, and possibly death at the hands of the ruling gangs.

Watch Ada’s presentation here.

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Curator’s Choice Award, 1st Place
Juror: Marina Chao, Assistant Curator, International Center of Photography

An ode to the Dadaists and Bauhauslers, “The Dadabyte Theater” explores the technologized body within the present Fourth Industrial Revolution. Utilizing in-camera auto portraiture, Trigueros reflects on the complexity of contemporary cyborg configurations in an attempt to find balanced modes of being in a hyper-connected, mechanical society dominated by technology. Autonomous machines of war, labor, pleasure, care, and other computational systems of control and comfort are being produced within this dizzying systemic capitalist merry-go-round. By using products of industry, Trigueros illustrates the constraints, contradictions, and complexities of our technological entanglement.

Watch Brandy’s presentation here.

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