Young Artists of Marfa and Fort Davis Present Seeing Light, Pinhole Photography Exhibition at Chinati
Seeing Light, a group exhibition of pinhole photographs by sixty-six Marfa and Ft. Davis junior high and high school art students, opens to the public Sunday, April 27 in the Arena as part of Chinati and Judd Foundation’s Community Day celebration. A conversation with the young artists and Chinati education staff takes place in the Arena at 1:30 pm. The show remains on view through Sunday, May 11, 2014.
Seeing Light includes work by sixty-six area students. The black and white pinhole photographs were created during studio classes led by Chinati’s education staff as part of the Marfa and Ft. Davis schools’ fine arts curriculum. Teachers Mary Boyd of Marfa and Cory Cason of Ft. Davis helped to organize the program.
Participating students visited Chinati’s special exhibition, Zoe Leonard’s 100 North Nevill Street, which utilizes a camera obscura, as a departure point in the exploration and chronicling of light and image. They made their own pinhole cameras, using them to shoot images on the Chinati grounds as well as on their high school campus, then developed and printed their photos in Chinati’s ArtLab darkroom.
The young artists gained an understanding of light through exposure manipulation and learned darkroom techniques including contact prints, light recording prints, and negative reversals, using an enlarger to produce their photographs. Students discussed concepts of permanence, presence, and documentation and participated in group critiques focused on technique, content, and intent in regards to their own work.
Students participating in the exhibition from Ft Davis include: Armida Nunez, Makayla Chambers, Mariah Sanchez, Cameron Naegele, Cali Porter, Marissa Lopez, Calob Urquidi, and Paige Mathes.
Student participants from Marfa include: Diego Chacon, Juan Fabela, Jasalyn Gilly, Jeremy Guevara, Vicente Guevara, Jonathan Llanez, Antonio Lopes, Amber Olvera, Alberto Ramos, Samantha Salazar, Aalyiah Sanchez, Jacob Acosta, Georgina Brugette, Eliana Catano, Kaci Flores, Jesse Garcia, Brielle Gonzales, Richard Guevara, Jacy Holguin, Lee Dawson, Coy Livingston Dominguez, Celena Llanez, Kathryn Manzano, Alexia Marquez, Ian Martinez, Jacob Martinez, Mercedes Melendez, Nevin Nunez, Alyssa Olvera, Esmeralda Ornelas, Christian Rosas Villa, Citlalli Sanchez Brito, Avery Sanchez, Kendra Serrano, David Acosta, Erika Diaz, Rebecca Dominguez, Raven Hollins, Jacqueline Lozano, Anissa Lujan, Juanita Nunez, Janessa Orozco, Kiarra Petterson, Elijah Prieto, Ryan Rivera, Jomichael Salazar, Orlando Sanchez, Carlos Vallez, Ricardo Velazquez, Julio Baeza, Crystal Catano, Joanibeth Catano, Anthony Landin, Rebecca Ontiveros, Adriana Pineda, Maira Quezada, Suzzette Sanchez, and Molly Shaughnessy.
Chinati’s education coordinator, Michael Roch, taught the studio classes and organized the exhibition with education interns Patricio Schmiegelow and Gaby Carballo. The program was supported with generous grants from the Elke and Wilhelm Hoppe Endowment, Texas Commission on the Arts, the Charles Engelhard Foundation, the George & Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation, the Carl B. & Florence E. King Foundation, and the Trull Foundation.
Three student participants, Crystal Catano, Adriana Pineda, and Anthony Landin, along with Chinati education coordinator Michael Roch will appear on KRTS Marfa Public Radio’s Talk at Ten program at 10:00 am CDT on Thursday, April 24. Tune in at 93.5 FM or stream on-line at marfapublicradio.org.
For more information or to learn about upcoming education and outreach programs, contact Chinati at 432 729 4362 or information@chinati.org.