Exhibition Dates: January 23 - February 27
Reception for the Artist: Saturday, January 23, 2-5pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, January 23, 1pm, RSVP as seating is limited
The gallery is pleased to present "On The Nest", our first solo exhibition by American photographer Dona Schwartz.
This exhibition examines families facing one of two significant changes in their lives: becoming parents for the first time and dealing with an empty nest after children have left home. In this extended series, Schwartz's photographs were all taken in either the rooms the expecting parents have created for their new child or taken in whatever state the grown child's former room is in.
The exhibition coincides with the publication of her new monograph On The Nest (Kehrer Verlag, November 2015). The photographs were made with a large format camera which renders clear the myriad details about lives unseen that surround the parents. The various trappings of North American life laid bare, expecting parents offer glimpses of preparedness, whereas the empty nesters present themselves preparing for the next stages in their life. The photographs' titles inform the viewer of the amount of time left before the expected date of delivery, or the time that has lapsed since the child has moved away.
Dona Schwartz is an American photographer whose work explores everyday life and culture. She earned her PhD at the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in visual communication and ethnographic research. In addition to working as a photographic artist, she is a scholar and an educator. Among her academic publications are two photographic ethnographies, Waucoma Twilight: Generations of the Farm (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992) and Contesting the Super Bowl (Routledge, 1997). Her photographic monograph In the Kitchen was published in 2009 by Kehrer Verlag, and her most recent book, On The Nest, was published in 2015 by Kehrer Verlag. Her award-winning photographs have been internationally exhibited and published, and her work is included in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Musée de l'Elysée, Switzerland; George Eastman House, New York; the Harry Ransom Center, Texas; the Portland Art Museum, Oregon; and the Kinsey Institute, Indiana. Born in Philadelphia, Dona lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Calgary.
