01 Jun Processing Narratives
Detail of New Normal #2 (Dyptich) © Mariana Pereira Vieira
PROCESSING NARRATIVES
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HEIDI KIRKPATRICK, MARCY PALMER,
MARIANA PEREIRA VIEIRA, & MELANIE WALKER
October 5 – November 20, 2021
COLORADO PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS CENTER
1070 BANNOCK ST, DENVER, CO 80204
Art exhibit viewing times: Tues. – Fri. (11 am – 5 pm); Sat. (noon – 4 pm)
OPENING RECEPTION & PROGRAMMING
Opening Reception:
Saturday, October 9th between 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm.
Masks required for entry into the gallery.
Special Programming:
On Wednesday, October 20th at 6:00 pm (MST) a Zoom panel discussion took place with all four artists. Samantha Johnston, CPAC Executive Director and Curator of the exhibition, moderated the conversation. The panel was recorded and can be watched using the link below.
PROCESSING NARRATIVES ARTIST PANEL
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
In our modern era of digital cameras and post-processing software we document moments, experiences, connections with such a rapid frequency that we lose the sense of uniqueness that comes with traditional, chemical photography. With the recent resurgence of historical and alternative processes, such as cyanotypes, Lumen prints, platinum/palladium prints, gum bichromates, we once again are challenged to open our minds and truly expand the idea of what a photograph can be.
Processing Narratives explores alternative process photography through the one-of-a-kind works of four contemporary artists. Heidi Kirkpatrick, Marcy Palmer, Mariana Pereira Vieira, and Melanie Walker each use hands-on methods and diverse materials that both reflect early photographic history while furthering our understanding of the medium. They create singular images that record themes of family, history, love, and loss. Their works make a tangible connection to a changing world by imprinting subjects within the photographic object, incorporating physical touch, texture, and light-sensitivity. Each of these artists present us with artworks that depend upon direct contact as much as what appears in the image. We invite you to consider not only the beauty of these pieces, but the conditions and intentions that brought them into production.
EXHIBITION PREVIEW
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Heidi Kirkpatrick is a fine art photographer and educator based in Portland, Oregon. Throughout Kirkpatrick’s career her work has explored the female figure, family narratives and contemporary issues of being a woman. Kirkpatrick combines film positives with found objects such as vintage children’s blocks, books, mahjong tiles, and tins, to create intimate photo-based objects that explore themes of family, history, love, and loss. During the Oregon summers, Heidi makes cyanotypes in her backyard studio that address similar issues she draws from her own experiences. Kirkpatrick creates unique cyanotype works with vintage clothing and linens using personal possessions and specimens from her garden.
Kirkpatrick has exhibited widely over the last twenty years and her work is held in numerous private and public collections including The Fox Talbot Museum, Wiltshire, United Kingdom; The Harry Ransom Center, Austin, Texas; Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, Ohio; The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, Louisiana; Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado. Heidi was selected for the Photolucida Critical Mass Top 50 in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014, and was recognized with the solo show award in 2012. Heidi’s work was also selected for LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards Top 50 in 2014.
Kirkpatrick is represented by G. Gibson Projects, Seattle, Washington and Dina Mitrani Gallery, Miami, Florida.
Marcy Palmer‘s work circles around themes of home, beauty, nature, and science. Marcy has an M.F.A. in Photography & Related Media from the School of Visual Arts and a B.S. in Studio Art from Skidmore College.
Marcy’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at various spaces including The Griffin Museum of Photography, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Center for Photographic Art, The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, The Center for Fine Art Photography, The Berlin Biennial of Fine Art and Documentary Photography (GE), The Watershed Media Centre (UK), and other venues. Her work has been written about in The Boston Globe Sunday Edition, D Magazine, Humble Arts Foundation, L’Oiel de la Photographie, Lenscratch, One Twelve, and other publications. Marcy released a book with Yoffy Press at the end of 2020, titled “You Are Eternity, You Are the Mirror” which was chosen as a PhotoEye 2020 favorite photobook, The Luupe’s Best Women Made Photobooks of 2020, and Deep Red Press’s memorable photobooks of 2020. She lives and works in Dallas, TX.
Mariana Pereira Vieira (b. Brazil 1983) is a multi-media artist and arts educator based in Colorado, USA. She received a BFA in Photography from Georgia Southern University and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Media Arts Practices from the University of Colorado Boulder. Mariana’s artwork has been featured in exhibitions at the Museo de las Américas, Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, the Dairy Center for the Arts, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, the Center for Fine Art Photography, the Colorado Photographic Arts Center, Lenscratch, among others. In 2019, she was awarded the first Denis Roussel Fellowship from the Center for Fine Art Photography. In 2017, she curated the Colorado edition of The States Project for Lenscratch. Her latest project, Touching, received an Honorable Mention Award from the Center for the Humanities and the Arts from the University of Colorado Boulder. She is currently Interdisciplinary Media Arts Practices Coordinator at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Melanie Walker has an exhibition history that spans more than fifty years. She received a BA from San Francisco State University and an MFA from Florida State University. She is a mixed media artist invested in ideas. Her approach to materials includes photographic media, alternative processes, digital art, sculpture, installation, fiber art, printmaking, costume design and public art. She has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally and has work in more than 200 permanent collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson. She has received numerous grants and fellowships including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, Colorado Council on the Arts Fellowship, Polaroid Materials Grants and an Aaron Siskind Award. She is presently a Professor of Art in the Integrated Media Area where she teaches analog, digital and historical photographic processes at the University of Colorado, Boulder.