March 14 - May 13, 2022
From Wright Gallery:
“Wright Gallery at Texas A&M University presents a solo exhibition of photographic portraits by Keliy Anderson-Staley, an Associate Professor of Photography and Digital Media at the University of Houston. The exhibition titled, “Keliy Anderson-Staley: Fifteen Years of Portraits” is on view at Wright Gallery from March 14th – May 13th, 2022. Major public commissions for this work include City of Houston and United Airlines at IAH, with solo and two-person exhibitions presented by Southeast Museum of Photography and the Morris Museum of Art. Anderson-Staley presents an artist talk in the Adam’s Presentation Room (room 212) located next to Wright Gallery in Texas A&M’s College of Architecture on April 6th from 2 – 3 PM with a synchronous remote option available (Zoom Meeting ID: 983 9709 9387). Free and open to the public.
The exhibition features over 150 tintype portraits created using a historic wet-collodian photography process. Created using a wooden camera and hand mixed chemicals, the artist’s process results in photographs developed on tin with high contrast, captivating warm tones, soft light and shadow. The exhibition includes a small portion of the artist’s larger body of work more than 4200 portraits, a series started in 2005. In 2008, Roberta Smith, Co-chief art critic of the New York Times, compared the subjects in Anderson-Staley’s portraits to people, “that seem to hark from the past” like in the daguerreotype photographs by (the recently late) artist, Chuck Close. Appearing like historic black and white photographs, contemporary people seem timeless with relaxed facial expressions and gazes pointing directly at the viewer. The artist states that, “it is rare for a portrait of a stranger to arrest our attention, but [her] aim is to make us stop and look.” Many young people engage with digital portraits on social media daily, however, rarely spend time viewing photographic objects. Located on Texas A&M’s College Station campus, the exhibition will naturally welcome many young student visitors who may not know a time before the term “selfie” became popular, heavily filtered portraits became ubiquitous on Instagram and quick rehearsed scenes were the norm on TikTok.
People featured in the portraits as Anderson-Staley puts it, include “everybody and anybody interested in sitting.” They choose what to wear and sit with relaxed poses during the lengthy photography process. Anderson-Staley describes that her work, “explores the role that photographic technologies have played in defining identities, while building on a body of work that is expressive of the rich diversity of contemporary society.” Featured in the portraits are children, youth, young to middle-aged adults and seniors of different races and ethnicities, with group portraits featuring friends and same-sex couples. On view during a global pandemic, the exhibition includes over 150 portraits installed in clusters like crowds of individuals recalling a pre-Covid era (2005 – 2020) – a time when no one would think twice about large gatherings and/or unmasked faces. In this light, the exhibition brings an opportunity to contemplate the current moment in time, human connection and diversity.
“Keliy Anderson-Staley: Fifteen Years of Portraits” in on view in the Wright Gallery on the second floor of Langford Architecture Building A at Texas A&M in College Station. Wright Gallery is open weekdays 8 am – 4 pm. For questions, please contact the Curator, Rebecca Pugh: [email protected]. To learn more about the Wright Gallery, please visit www.arch.tamu.edu/inside/services/wright-gallery/.”
Artist talk: April 6, 2022 | 2–3 pm
Located in the Adam’s Presentation Room (room 212)
Wright Gallery, TAMU College Station
College of Architecture, Texas A&M University, 3137 TAMU, Langford Architecture Building A
College Station, 77843 Texas
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