UnBound13! Artist Features: III
UNBOUND13!
July 5 – August 3
Join us for a breakdown of our annual juried + invitational photography exhibition. Throughout the exhibition, we’ll share information about our artists and the processes behind their featured pieces.
SUPPORT THE EXHIBITION:
UnBound! is our “non-profit” play we make once a year, raising money which directly supports artists in the exhibition. Works in the show are available for purchase (like a normal exhibition), but friends can also give to the UnBound! Fund, which will be used by the gallery to acquire select works for the growing Candela Collection. One day, this collection will be donated to the permanent collection of a notable arts institution.
This exhibition supports photographers through exposure, but most importantly through collecting. If you purchase a piece, you are directly supporting that artist and adding to your personal collection; if you give to the UnBound! Fund, you are allowing an artist to be acquired for a permanent collection. No matter what, your funds support an UnBound13! artist.
BRENT DEDAS | COLUMBIA, SC
All Together Under the Cosmic Sky, 2022.
Unique Lensless Photograms via Cyanotype Process on Archival Paper,
34 x 26 inches each.Set of Two Cyanotypes, 34 x 53 inches, Framed (total).
Growing up in a working-class blue-collar southern American family has greatly influenced my artistic themes. Being on and around construction sites, as a child and through adulthood, influenced my concepts of building and destroying. Years later these ideas have led to a focus on the “worker bees”.
This project is a collaboration with living honeybees and local beekeepers, resulting in largeworks on paper. The images are life size unique photograms, made in the sun (not from adigital negative). These images were made using salt, earth, sand and construction materials(broken glass, plastic) and the presence of living honeybees. Each blueprint is a record of light, time and labor. In the fleeting moments that pass during exposure, bees move and vibrate. This movement causes the bees to appear as little ghosts, or soft glowing orbs of light surround by a sea of Prussian blue. Their presence is recorded over long exposures. The bees both create the image while destroying and feeding upon it. They come and go freely, engaging with the organic components on top of an acrylic barrier, without any contact with the cyanotype process below. This project is greatly informed by professional beekeepers. Both myself (working within a protective bee suit) and the honeybees themselves never stop moving during the morning hours when this ritualistic process takes place. What is left are ephemeral images, which record something both fragile and vital. These works appear as atmospheric abstractions from a distance. However, a closer look allows viewers to discover the individual and recognizable bee shapes.
Whether it be rising of sea levels, a warming planet or the rise of poverty, it is the “worker bees” who will feel the brunt of relating hard-ships. Their struggles and way of life have much in common with our own. Honeybees are in no way harmed by this project.
Brent Dedas was born and raised in Louisville Ky. His work employs processes which explore labor, geography and the systems around us. Dedas maintains an extensive exhibition record both in the U.S. and internationally. His work was included in the Coined in the South: 2022 exhibition at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, aswell as, the Art/NaturSci Pavilion: Equilibrium exhibition at the 2019 Venice Biennale within Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello in partnership with the German-Italian Cultural Association (ACIT). In 2018 his work was exhibited at Humboldt-Universität in Berlin Germany. Other international exhibitions include: Art Prague International Art Fair, Solo Project Room, Kafka’s House, Prague, Czech Republic (2014), and in the Personally Political International Juried Exhibition, at Kunsthaus Tacheles in Berlin (2009).
His Masters of Fine Arts degree along with a Museum Studies Curatorial Certificate is from the College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning, University of Cincinnati. His Bachelor of Fine Arts is from the Hite Institute of Art & Design, University of Louisville.
YUXIANG DONG | JERSEY CITY, NJ
Central Union Railroad & Saint Denis, 2023
Gelatin Silver Print,
4 x 5 inches; 8.5 x 11 inches, Framed.
Edition #1 of 15 + 2AP.
Central Union Railroad & Saint Denis, 2023
Gelatin Silver Print,
4 x 5 inches; 8.5 x 11 inches, Framed.
Edition #1 of 15 + 2AP.
Central Union Railroad & Saint Denis (2022-2024) investigates the history of Chinese migrant workers during the construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad between 1863 and 1869. Through a series of darkroom contact prints with digital negative transfer film made out of video game screenshots, this body of work experiments with the materiality of photography across the digital and the analog and examines contemporary racial representations and historical narratives in the video game industry. Today, the advancement of video game technologies, virtual reality, augmented reality, facial and voice recognition, and wearable device, are extending our sensory perception and transforming our knowledge of nature, history, and personhood. This work explores how the pieces of the real and virtual world interact, fit together or clash, generate complex unforeseen consequences, and reinforce cultural references.
DONG Yuxiang (born 1990, Wujiang, Jiangsu Province, China) is an art, educational, and social worker. His current practices and research are driven by the contradiction between ethnography in the Anthropocene and speculation of object-oriented ontology. He received an Honorable Mention of the PhMuseum Photography Grant (2023) and was a longlist of The Lumen Prize for Art and Technology (2023) and a finalist of the Three Shadows Photography Award (2016). He has exhibited at Hermitage Museum & Gardens, Norfolk, VA (US), OCAT Institute, Beijing (China); Verzasca Foto, Canton of Ticino (Switzerland); Jakarta International Photo Festival, Jakarta, (Indonesia); PhMuseum Days, PhMuseum, Bologna (Italy); and other international venues. His documentaries and filmic works have been screened at Obskuur Ghent Film Festival (Belgium), Doc.Boston Documentary Film Festival (US), Stay Art Festival (China), and other global festivals.
JESSE EGNER | NEW YORK, NY
Ski Mask, 2022
Archival Pigment Print,
20 x 16 inches, image 24 x 20 inches, Framed.
Edition #1 of 12.
“Unaffixed” emerged as a testament to this struggle, initially manifesting as self-portraiture—an act that felt almost self-destructive due to years of body shaming. However, I unearthed a method of visually exploring non-normative queerness through absurdity, humor, and play. The series eventually moved beyond self-portraiture. It began to feel too personal, so I shifted the focus to other queer individuals, with me occasionally stepping into the frame. I rarely arrive with a concrete idea of what the photographs will look like, instead, we work together to create the images in the moment. Set within familiar spaces such as their homes, these photoshoots are spontaneous and playful, and we primarily use elements from their environment. This series not only cultivates a sanctuary of queer collaboration and play, but also defies the conventional sexualized gaze prevalent in contemporary queer photography.
Despite living in New York City, my work resists metronormativity—the notion that queer expression is confined to major city centers. By venturing into small towns and rural territories, such as my hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I seek to celebrate the vibrant and often overlooked queer communities thriving in these locales.
My photographs exist in a realm of ambiguity, in between reality and fantasy. They are not complete or rigid definitions, but rather fluid reflections of the transitional space of queerness. Spontaneity, collaboration, intimacy, play, humor, and absurdity all permeate throughout the series, echoing the boundless dynamism of non-normative queer existence.
Jesse Egner is a queer artist and educator currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Often taking the form of playful and absurd portraiture of himself and other individuals, his work explores themes such as queerness, body image, collaboration, humor, and play. He received his BA from Millersville University of Pennsylvania in 2016 and his MFA from Parsons School of Design in 2020. His work has been exhibited and published globally and is included in the permanent collection at the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts. He is a 2022 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Photography and has recently participated in residencies at the Santa Fe Art Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Bunnell Street Arts Center in Homer, Alaska; Studio Vortex in Arles, France; and Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, New York.
JACK FOX | RICHMOND, VA
Two Trees, 2023
Archival Pigment Print,
50 x 40 inches, Framed.
Edition #1 of 3.
The work in this publication is titled Apophenia which is “the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things”. The term, I must admit, has origins with negative connotations towards delusions; however, I am using this term in a more light-hearted, less sterile way. I am looking at these moments as delusions of a sort, in light of the fact that I do harp on and obsess over the way a friend leaps from a dune, the moon illuminates a spiderweb, the beauty of my best friend's body at the beach. It is in these intricacies that I convince my all too often cynical self that magic exists in some way. That the short time I have may not have some grand meaning or result but that everything is connected regardless of human intervention & smothering of the world, and that all that exists craves harmony.
Jack Fox (B. 2000) is a visual artist based in Richmond, Virginia. His long-form photographic projects are concerned with the surreal, the inexplicable, and phenomenological patterns. The work he produces considers all of this through the elasticity of memory, intimacy, and deep study of his familiar surroundings. He invokes a sense of magical realism within the landscape that can be seen as a gentle, momentary escape. The end goal of his process is to achieve a deeper, contemporary understanding of human connection both with one another and the natural world.
The installations in his ongoing series Quiet From Here use a variety of techniques and materials to reify the multiplicity of meanings in the work. He frequently uses concrete and wood in his practice to invoke common materiality and the growing scarcity of solitude that human intervention allows for. In short, the materials serve as a reminder of the challenges in the attempt of momentary escape. In May of 2023, this body of work was published by Virginia based photography book publisher Pomegranate Press.
In 2023 he received a BFA in Photography and Film from Virginia Commonwealth University. His publications are in the collections of the Harvard Houghton Library, William & Mary Earl Gregg Swem Library, the VCU Cabell Library Special Collections, and the New York Public Library. He has lectured at William & Mary University. He has worked with clients such as the New York Times Magazine, Outside Magazine, and Interscope Records.
HELEN GLAZER | OWINGS WILLS, MD
Canada Glacier from Lake Fryxell, Antarctica, 2024
Acrylic on 3D-printed PLA Plastic,
3.5 x 14 x 4 inches.
Variant Edition #2 of 3.
This piece came out of a 2015 residency in Antarctica through the National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program. I worked out of remote Antarctic scientific field camps, including one in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, a largely ice free area where I took the photographs on site for this sculpture while standing on Lake Fryxell, a permanently frozen inland freshwater lake. My goal was to capture and communicate experiences of remote places that few people get to witness in person.
Some of the photographs are produced as archival prints. I also make sculptures of landscape forms generated from a series of still photographs taken on site and reconstructed as 3D scans by photogrammetry software. After further editing in 3D modeling software, the resulting digital files become the basis for hand-painted sculptures made with digital fabrication technologies — in this case, a 3D printer. They provide the viewer a visceral experience of form and texture that differs from the flat image and fixed point of view delivered by a photographic print.
I have also produced a five-foot-wide sculpture from this file, which is part of the exhibition Helen Glazer: Walking in Antarctica, currently touring the US through 2027 under the auspices of the Mid-America Arts Alliance. That exhibition also includes a large print of one of the 162 source photos for the 3D file.
Helen Glazer’s work in photography and photogrammetry-based sculpture is informed by scientific insights into interacting forces affecting ecosystems and shaping landscapes, including the impact of human activity and decisions. She has spent her entire career since her early 20s as a working artist. Over time, her focus shifted from drawing and painting, to painted sculpture, to a current emphasis on photography and photo-based sculpture combining digital fabrication and hand finishing. She has also completed two large public art projects. Photography became central to her process about 15 years ago to investigate and understand complex, ephemeral forms in nature, and capture the quirky incidents and surprising and evocative moments of transformation. Her past experiences working in other media still inform the way she perceives the world and presents it in her photographs. In 2013 she began exploring new photographic technologies, creating 3D scans from still photographs via photogrammetry and producing hand-painted sculpture from them, a process she continues to refine. Experiences as a year-long Baltimore Ecosystem Study artist-in-residence and as a National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program grantee in 2015 have shaped her most recent projects.
From her Antarctic residency came the solo exhibition Walking in Antarctica which premiered at Goucher College, Baltimore, funded with grants from the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance and Puffin Foundation. The show has been on a five-year tour of US museums and galleries under the auspices of ExhibitsUSA (eusa.org) since 2022, with seven past and confirmed upcoming venues in six states to date. Two photos from the project enlarged to 7 x 10 feet are in a rotating exhibition at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Another billboard-size enlargement was in a year-long outdoor exhibition at the Palacio de las Aguas Corrientes in Buenos Aires, Argentina from April 2023 to March 2024. The Center for Art + Environment of the Nevada Museum of Art houses her Antarctica archive and purchased one of her glacier sculptures for their collection. She has been interviewed by Vice Media’s Creators Project, AtlasObscura.com, Adobe 99U Magazine, and WYPR, Baltimore’s NPR news station. In 2012 she received an Individual Artist Award in photography from the Maryland State Arts Council and had a solo show of her photographs at Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York. She received a grant from the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation to fund a photography project begun in 2021 of the former US Sondrestrom Air Base in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland for an eventual book. The Kangerlussuaq Museum mounted a permanent exhibition based on her photographs in 2023, funded by a grant from the US Embassy in Copenhagen.
Glazer graduated cum laude from Yale University with a B.A. in art and earned an M.F.A. from the Mount Royal School of the Maryland Institute College of Art, also studying at the renowned Skowhegan School of Art. Her works are in private and public collections, which in addition to those mentioned above include the Fairfield University Art Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Chautauqua Institution, and two public art murals in Baltimore.
RILEY GOODMAN | RICHMOND, VA
Boys of Summer, In Their Ruin, 2024
Archival Pigment Print,
40 x 32 inches, Framed.
Edition #1 of 5.
After moving from the suburbs of Baltimore in 2014 to pursue a BFA in Photography at VCUarts, Richmond, Virginia became a shelter to take refuge in as I faced leaving my childhood home for the first time. In this unfamiliar Southern city, once the capital of the Confederacy and a chair of Southern aristocracy, I found myself as an 18-year-old closeted queer man, looking to mature into a working artist and begin to know myself truly along the way.
Through the search to find my place in the world over the past (almost) ten years, Richmond has been watching over me like a silent guardian. Though one state over from where I grew up, the cultural differences between the gem of the Mid-Atlantic and the gateway to the South couldn't be more varied. And a city alive with its own history, everything in Richmond brushes the threshold of the contemporary and the historic. From the wafts of gardenias, magnolias, and night-blooming tobacco, the remnants of the Counterculture scene that exploded in the 1960s at VCU's formation, and the James River in the summer — to phantom soldiers on midnight strolls, downtown streets turned Hollywood sets at golden hour, forgotten rooms down flocked wallpaper hallways, and a contemporary reckoning with Lost Cause ideology, Richmond has blossomed into a city that recognizes where it came from, with the passion to grow into something new. In all seasons, the city creates an almost indescribable magic that has made me the photographer and person I am today.
As Benjamin Botkin states in A Treasury of Southern Folklore: “If at times…the immortals of Southern history seem to lack folklore appeal, that is because the folk stories have died with the people that told them or because the biographers have been more interested in erecting a marble monument than in portraying a flesh-and-blood creature.”
In my ongoing photographic series, To Cultivate A Magnolia, I present my life in Richmond as that flesh-and-blood creature, along with the chosen family I’ve found, and the generations of Virginians before me — whose legacies live on as the silent witnesses. Referencing the hardiness of its leaves in tandem with the delicacy of its flowers, To Cultivate A Magnolia examines the folklore and history of Richmond and greater Virginia, the complexities of queer identity, the endurance of the American Civil War, and the moments of reflection that come as we age.
Riley Goodman (b. 1996) was raised in the Patapsco River Valley of Maryland, and received his BFA from VCUarts in 2018. Goodman’s practice inquires folklore, American history, and humankind's relation to the environments they inhabit in an effort to understand what endures, and how this manifests through the passage of time. Informed by the compositional styles of cinema and painting, Goodman weaves a vast visual narrative inspired by everything from historical accounts and folk-based storytelling to dreams and familial legends. Goodman's work becomes an ever-occurring presentation of history via the use of artifact and ephemera. By establishing this crafted world, Goodman invites the viewer to question tenets of authenticity, leaving the idea of 'historical truth' in an undisclosed middle ground. Goodman’s work has appeared in The Washington Post and Time, among other outlets, and most notably resides in the permanent collections of the MoMA Artist Book Collection and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
ADRIENE HUGHES | SAN DIEGO, CA
Mystic Mountain, 2024
6 x 9 inch Postcard w/Cotton Embroidery Thread
8 x 11 inches, Framed.
Unique.
Nebula, 2024
6 x 9 inch Postcard w/Cotton Embroidery Thread
8 x 11 inches, Framed.
Unique.
Quantum Particles, 2024
6 x 9 inch Postcard w/Cotton Embroidery Thread
8 x 11 inches, Framed.
Unique.
Celestial Bodies is inspired by Hubble Space imagery and my love of Victorian flowers embroidered onto oversized Ektachrome 1950s vintage photographic postcards. The advent of Ektachrome color reversal film in the 1940s changed the production of travel postcards away from linen to a more favorable and cost effective picture postcard. Celestial Bodies is a science fiction narrative of futuristic, larger than life flowers, which loom like galaxies and exploding nebulae in the sky of 1950s landscape scenes. Each postcard was cross-stitched with cotton embroidery floss onto oversized 6x9" postcards, and are unique works with no additional editions.
Adriene Hughes is a San Diego based fine art photographer with an MFA from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Tufts University. She is a multimedia artist whose current body of work is based within the genre of grand landscape and the effects of global warming on the environment through the use of infrared technology, photography, and video installation. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, and is represented by Black Box Gallery in London, UK.