Blue Sky Ahead: Futures
photography by Ebenezer Galluzzo, Emma Kisiel, Jamila Clarke, Nolan Streitberger, Sam Wrigglesworth, and Troi Anderson
November 7–December 1, 2019
Panel discussion with the artists and moderated by Julia Dolan, Ph.D, the Minor White Curator of Photography at the Portland Art Museum: Saturday, November 9, 3:00 PM
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To celebrate our 44th birthday, Blue Sky launched a two-part exhibition series, Blue Sky Ahead, which began with October's exhibition of current and past photographic work by founders Ann Hughes, Christopher Rauschenberg, Craig Hickman, Robert DiFranco, and Terry Toedtemeier.
This month, Blue Sky presents the second half of the exhibition series, Blue Sky Ahead: Futures. From a statewide call to photo-based artists, Blue Sky's founders chose six individuals to represent the next generation of Oregon photographers: Ebenezer Galluzzo, Emma Kisiel, Jamila Clarke, Nolan Streitberger, Sam Wrigglesworth, and Troi Anderson. Although these photographers work with the medium in very different ways to tell a range of stories, they are linked by their use of the camera to reframe or question our past and present cultural norms, as they expand our understanding of what has come before, what is, and what could be.
Ebenezer Galluzzo is a gender nonconforming trans man, mother, husband, and witch living in Portland, Oregon. He views the craft of photography as a way to claim and redefine the lens through which he sees the world. He has participated in numerous exhibitions in the United States, including solo shows in Astoria and Portland, Oregon, and his work has been published in Diffusion and in Black & White magazine.
Emma Kisiel holds a bachelor of fine arts with an emphasis in photography from the University of Colorado Denver. Her work has been featured online in Lenscratch, Esquire Russia, F-Stop Magazine, Feature Shoot, Juxtapoz, and the Huffington Post, and in print in BLINK Magazine and Shots Magazine. Kisiel is also the author of the blog and online artist index Muybridge’s Horse. She is based in Portland, Oregon.
Jamila Clarke is a fine art photographer whose focus is conceptual portraiture. They were born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in the Pacific Northwest. They studied studio art with a focus on fine art photography/digital video at Oberlin College. Their work has been featured in various galleries and publications around the United States.
Nolan Streitberger is an artist living in Albany, Oregon. He first studied photography while attending Oregon State University’s pre-college JumpstART program. Nolan holds degrees in graphic design and digital imaging and prepress technology. Streitberger's work has been featured online in Der Spiegel, Bento, ZEITjUNG, Flavorwire, and Edge of Humanity Magazine, and has been selected for recognition by the Smithsonian Photo Contest and the Palm Springs Photo Festival. His photographs have been exhibited in Blue Sky Gallery’s Pacific NW Drawers, PhotoPlace Gallery online, the Curated Fridge, and LoosenArt at the Millepiani Gallery in Rome, Italy.
Sam Wrigglesworth is a photographer/artist living and working in Eugene, Oregon. They recently completed their BFA in photography at the University of Oregon. Their work often deals with navigating and renegotiating their relationship to memory. They typically use large- and medium-format analog cameras, which requires them to employ a slow and intentional process in order to understand an image. In the same way, understanding oneself or one’s memories is often slow and cumulative.
Troi Anderson is a documentary photographer based in Portland, Oregon. He began his career working for Magnolia Pictures and later sailed throughout Asia and the South Pacific as a merchant marine. His work has been featured in GEO France, the Oregonian, and Black & White magazine, and on such websites as CNN Photos, TIME LightBox, and Verve Photo. Anderson's photography has been exhibited in Blue Sky's Pacific NW Drawers, and he has been named an emerging artist by Daniel Cooney Fine Art and Musée Magazine. His work has received awards and recognition from American Photography; Photolucida’s Critical Mass Top 50; PX3: Le Prix de la Photographie, Paris; Communication Arts; the Smithsonian Photo Contest; the Sony World Photography Awards; the Aperture Foundation; IPA – International Photography Awards; and the Palm Springs Photo Festival.
Blue Sky Ahead is made possible by a generous grant from The Ford Family Foundation.