Nate Larson and M. Laine Wyatt

&

Clinton Woodbeck in 1078 1/2

May 28–July 3, 2009
Closing night reception: Friday, July 3, 5–7 p.m.
(Wyatt talks at 6)

---

M. Laine Wyatt

Above photos by Doug Rathbun, gallery member and volunteer.

 

M. Laine Wyatt is currently an assistant professor with the University of Central Florida where she has taught photography since 2000. She took an undergraduate degree in studio art/photography from the University of Florida, did postgraduate work at San Francisco State University, and received her MFA in studio art/photography from Florida State University. Wyatt was awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs in 1997-8 and a Faculty Development Grant from the College of Wooster in 1999 where she was a Visiting Asst. Prof. She was also awarded an Artist Enhancement Grant from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs in 2006, 2007, and 2008. She has exhibited her work in approximately 100 shows across the country and in Europe and has won a number of awards for individual works. She taught previously at the College of Wooster in Wooster, OH, and at Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL.

She writes: The ‘obsession/compulsion’ series began when I started investigating my own and women’s relationship with clothing; our preparation as children and our guidance as adults to bond with, consume, and be consumed by our wardrobe. This work is about my experience and the shared experience of being female in our society. Our culture has ordained consumption and we, in turn, are consumed by consuming. Our energies, creativity and power are channeled into this pursuit…. Some of these pieces are documentations of collections of clothing from individual members of my family. They aren’t secrets but the visual recording of them produces results that are startling nevertheless. The most recent pieces in the series are constructions that reference the physical manifestations of our obsessions and extend the dialogue between the conscious and unconscious regarding our personal levels of insistence. They also comment on the reality of the security and/or comfort afforded by our compulsions.
Wyatt's website: www.lainewyatt.com

---

Nate Larson

Above photo by Doug Rathbun, gallery member and volunteer.

 

Nate Larson’s photographic work has been widely exhibited across the US and featured internationally in shows in Canada, Hungary, the Netherlands, Greece, Belgium, and Spain. His work has been written about and published in numerous publications, including Art Papers, The New York Times, Exposure, and Afterimage. His photoworks and artist books are included in the collections of the Center for Photography at Woodstock, the Midwest Photographers Project at the Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, and McHenry County College, among others. His artwork has received grant support from the Ultimate Eye Foundation, Visual Studies Workshop, the Banff Centre, the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Illinois Arts Council. Recent solo exhibitions include the Weston Art Gallery, Cincinnati; Packer Schopf Gallery, Chicago; Gallery 1401, Philadelphia; University of Notre Dame, Indiana; Real Art Ways, Connecticut; Duke University, North Carolina; Vanderbilt University, Nashville; and Amarillo College, Texas. Recent group exhibitions include the New York Photo Festival, Brooklyn; Noorderlicht, the Netherlands; Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, Colorado; Croxhapox, Belgium; La Casa de Las Conchas, Salamanca; Open Space, Canada; the Light Factory, Charlotte; Dam, Stuhltrager Gallery, Brooklyn; Rockford Art Museum, Illinois; Helen Pitt Galley, Vancouver; Houston Center for Photography, Texas; Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Greece; Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography, Toronto; Exit Art, New York City; Parker’s Box, Brooklyn; and the Center for Photography at Woodstock, New York. Larson will join the faculty of the Maryland Institute College of Art in fall 2009. He has served as a visiting professor at Rochester Institute of Technology and taught at Elgin Community College. He earned his MFA from the Ohio State University and a BA from Purdue University.

He writes: My photographic work uses visual and textual narrative to explore the way that we construct meaning in contemporary culture through the lenses of religion, consumer behavior, and secular mythologies. These stories weave tales of ordinary days gone peculiar, obsessive methods of analysis and insignificant objects that suddenly take on extraordinary significance. Miraculous pennies arrive in the mail, healing spells transfer through television programming and fortune cookie numbers win the lotto. Through this darkly humorous storytelling I dissect the line between belief and skepticism, while examining ideas of personal truth and common misperceptions surrounding photographic documents.

Larson’s website: www.natelarson.com

---

Clinton Woodbeck

Recent work shown in 1078 1/2

Above photos by Doug Rathbun, gallery member and volunteer.