FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 17, 2003
FOR MORE INFORMATION: please call (512) 322-2099
Cynthia Camlin, Director, Creative Research Laboratory
EXHIBITION DATES: March 8-23, 2003
RECEPTION: Friday, March 21, 7 to 9 pm
Gallery Hours: Tues.-Sat., 12 – 5 pm

Twenty Years of Graduate Photography
MFA Alumni 1982 - 2002

March 8 - 23, 2003 at Creative Research Laboratory

The photographic work of twenty Master of Fine Arts alumni (1982 to 2002) from the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin will be exhibited from March 8 through March 23, 2003 at Creative Research Laboratory, 2832 E. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in Austin, Texas. A closing reception will take place Friday, March 21, 7 to 9 pm.

Curated by Mark Goodman, Professor of Photography at UT at Austin, the exhibition explores life after graduate school for the twenty photographers through their work and thought. Each photographer is represented by recent work, an example of work completed in graduate school, and by their writing about their lives and careers.

“ We come to know these photographers and their works from multiple points of view as they share with us their experiences and realizations about their artistic vision or the vision of themselves as artists” explains Goodman.
The photographers in the exhibition are:

Matthew Albritton [Kentucky], Amy Blakemore [Texas], Kate Breakey [Arizona], Byron Brauchli [Mexico], Terri Bright [South Carolina], Nine Francois [Texas], Barbara Hagen [Nebraska], Martin Harris [Texas], Jeanne-Marie Head [Illinois], Marie R. Kennedy [North Carolina], Yeonglan Kim [Missouri], Alex Labry [Texas], Lidia Marte [Texas], Ann N. Paterra [Texas], Donna Pinckley [Arkansas], R. Kim Rushing [Mississippi], Barry Stone [New York], Dorothy Tuma [Washington], David Wharton [Mississippi], and Wendel A. White [New Jersey].

Amy Blakemore photographs friends and family in a casual, snapshot-like style with a Diana (a simple plastic toy camera made in the 1950s and 1960s for children), without sentimentality, yet still evoking strong emotions. After receiving her MFA in 1985, Blakemore moved to Houston where she is currently the head of the photography department at the Glassell School of Art -- "by default," she adds. For years she photographed relentlessly around Houston, exhibiting at the Museum of Fine Arts, the Contemporary Arts Museum, and the Galveston Arts Center -- and annually at the Inman Gallery. In 1999, the catalogue, Amy Blakemore: Ten Years reproduced many of her images. She says photographing "used to be my passion and obsession 24 hours a day," but now, approaching middle-age, she concludes, "I only have the energy and time to do my work during school breaks and feel frustration around that." Nevertheless, she continues actively making art. "Every now and then, I have to remind myself why I have chosen this life and it simply comes down to -- so I can make my work. All in all, I'm fortunate."

Kate Breakey makes hand-colored photographs of dead birds, flowers, lizards, and insects that are both intimate and monumental, beautiful and mythic. She exhibits her photographs widely -- more than thirty individual shows across the United States and an equal number of group exhibitions, including a triennial at the Phoenix Art Museum and the international Photo-Biennial in Tokyo. In 2001, UT Press published her first book, Small Deaths; later this year, Eastland Books will publish her second monograph, Flowers/Birds. After receiving her MFA in 1991, she taught photography half time at UT from 1995 to 1998. "I recognize that I am one of the lucky few," she says. "I couldn't have hoped for things to have gone better in my life and career as an artist." Ms. Breakey lives on the outskirts of Tucson, Arizona and works full-time in her studio next to the Saguaro National Park.

David Wharton's Soul of a Small Texas Town, published in 2000 by Oklahoma University Press, is a detailed study in words and pictures of a small town thirty-five miles east of Austin -- McDade. This book chronicles the town's growth and decline over a century, recounts and records shared family histories and traditions, crises and celebrations, and depicts the residents in photographs taken between 1984 and 1989. Wharton received his MFA in 1986 and went on to earn a Ph.D. in American Studies at UT eight years later. Currently, Dr. Wharton is Director of Documentary Projects at the University of Mississippi's Center for the Study of Southern Culture; he says of his job, "I get to teach, which I enjoy, and to make the kinds of photographs I find meaningful, which I love."

Wendel A. White photographed twelve small towns in southern New Jersey intensely beginning in 1989. The photographs of these towns (originally all-black communities) describe landscapes, cemetery markers, and portraits of individuals and families together at home, at work, and at church; people and places carefully seen, not taken for granted -- cherished. Recently published, Small Towns, Black Lives, is a book containing seventy-five of these pictures accompanying a major exhibition at the Noyes Museum of Art in New Jersey before traveling to other locations. Mr. White received his MFA in 1982. He says, "At UT, I got the notion that teaching was interesting and might well serve my desire to pursue image-making in ways not suited to commercial applications (in either the business or the art markets)." He is now Professor of Photography at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.

Among the photographers working and teaching in Austin are Nine Francois, Martin Harris, Alex Labry, Lidia Marte, and Ann N. Paterra.

Others from around the country include Matthew Albritton [Kentucky], Terri Bright [South Carolina], Barbara Hagen [Nebraska], Jeanne-Marie Head Illinois], Marie R. Kennedy [North Carolina], Yeonglan Kim [Missouri], Donna Pinckley [Arkansas], R. Kim Rushing [Mississippi], Barry Stone [New York], and Dorothy Tuma [Washington]. Byron Brauchli now lives in Vera Cruz State in Mexico.

Creative Research Laboratory is located in east Austin at 2832 East Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, inside Flatbed World Headquarters, and presents a year-round schedule of exhibitions of work by students and faculty at the University of Texas at Austin. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 12 to 5 p.m.

For further information about Creative Research Laboratory, contact Cynthia Camlin, Director, Creative Research Laboratory, crlab@uts.cc.utexas.edu, or 512.322.2099. For information about the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin, contact Carolyn Porter, carolynp@mail.utexas.edu, 512.471.3379.