Nicole Akstein

Nicole Akstein was born and raised in Atlanta, GA in 1985 to Brazilian parents. She received her BFA in Photography in 2007 from the School of Visual Arts in New York. She has freelanced for publications such as The Village Voice, Atlanta Magazine and Blender Magazine. Akstein's work has been exhibited in Georgia and New York. Her work explores ideas surrounding identity, gender, culture, and societal and social structures. Most images are shot with traditional black & white or color film, in 35mm and 120mm formats. In addition to photography, she has integrated video, light projection and mixed media installations into her work.

Akstein is currently based in Athens, GA, where she received her Masters of Art Education and Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the University of Georgia in 2014. She has taught art to students in pre-K through high school at various schools & community centers in Georgia, Brazil and India. She is the Arts Outreach Coordinator at the Steffen Thomas Museum of Art and art instructor at the Lyndon House Arts Center, while also working on projects and freelance opportunities.

Artist Statement: Mother, Mãe

Mother, Mãe, in its title alone, exposes its subject matter -- my mother. Our deep-seeded Brazilian roots pair the English term with the Portuguese translation, respectively. The work bears the weight of the overwhelming list of roles that women willingly and, often inadvertently, inhabit. The first role in which I abruptly came to know her, was none other than "mother," the center of my universe. As my link to the world, it is no surprise that I have been photographing her since I first picked up a camera. She is my most natural point of origin, stemming from the visceral. However, the works represent a woman, a state of mind, a spirit, and the passing of time. They are less biographical and more indicative towards notions of age, beauty, relationships, and the human condition.

Initially driven to convey the ambiguous nature of such roles, I became intrigued by the cultural forces that influence and shape the complex relationship women have with their mothers. In my experience, facing one's mother can be like facing a mirror, and these images can also be interpreted as self-portraits. I am confronting my beliefs, strength and femininity with hers. I am measuring these attributes to a lineage of women before and after her as well. I portray a woman who is trying to accept the body she inherited; one she passed on to me along with her image of herself. 

As our relationship evolved, the focus shifted towards exploring the relationship women have with themselves. Photographing her is an attempt to inhabit memories and re-create experiences, to transform them in order to somehow better understand their importance. The outcome consists of improvised, yet highly staged images, eluding any suggestion of a true reality and deliberately objectifying my mother. Images depicting the familiar landscape of a lake, swimming pool or bathtub are juxtaposed with scenes alluding to the bewilderment of death and rebirth.

The images weave a nonlinear narrative that invites and questions her reality. Among the dynamics taking place, beauty and fantasy are often undercut by loneliness, aging, and dissatisfaction. As an observer, I interpret her experiences in order to somehow justify my own. My mother wasn't always willing to play the role of a collaborative agent, and I don't blame her. The camera was an unwanted presence not only exposing herself to me, but exposing her to herself. The viewer is introduced to a woman through the eyes of her daughter, prompting one's own self-reflection.

Mother, Mãe is the result of a culmination of experiences, collaboration, conversations, arguments, and admiration for someone who informed my understanding of the world through her own. After years of sustained projections of her hopes and dreams placed upon me, one might infer that this body of work represents my response to living under a mother's thumb. However, it is my intention that this work empathize with her as a woman embracing her many roles, while confronting the notion that all may not be resolved in the end.

  

Joli Livaudais

Anima (detail), eighteen 16" x 16" panels, total size of 96" x 48"

Aluminum, resin, and inkjet photographic print on Kozo paper

Joli Livaudais received her BA and MS in Experimental Psychology from the University of Texas at Arlington before establishing herself as a freelance commercial photographer in Dallas, Texas. Livaudais received her MFA from Louisiana Tech University in 2013, and is currently an Assistant Professor at The University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Her fine art incorporates her interest in psychology and explores the relationships between people and the constructs we use to interpret the world around us, and has been exhibited nationwide.

Animus (detail), eighteen 16" x 16" panels, total size of 96" x 48"

Aluminum, resin, and inkjet photographic print on Kozo paper

Artist Statement: Dreams and Replies

My artwork is an expression of my search for insight. The photographic compositions are inspired by my unconscious mind, through journaled dreams and free writing. They are my meditations on a universe and existence that is exquisitely beautiful, perfectly synchronized, and uncompromisingly merciless. I find that my carefully weighed conclusions about the human condition challenge me more than they provide any meaningful sense of safety, comfort, or promise of a happy ending. To exist is to struggle. In my artwork, this translates as an attention to process and labor-intensive practice. The accumulation of layers, fragmentation, deterioration, and replication are natural processes that are integral to the work and the meditation of creating it. Although the nature of the work lends it a timeless quality, I choose to use contemporary and experimentally combined materials including resin, photographic ink jet prints, aluminum foil and electrical circuits. The concepts I am exploring are primal, but my interpretation and understanding of them is anchored in today.

Observing Jonathan (1), 24" x 24" x 7"
Plexiglass, resin, photographic prints on film, and electrical wiring with lighting

Tarot XXI, 36"x36"
Gum Bichromate photographic print on brass plate

The Womb, 30" x 30" x 3"
Epoxy resin and inkjet photographs on kozo paper

The Womb (detail)

Core Sample, 14" long, 3" diameter
Resin, gold leaf, charcoal, bird skill, dye, photographic prints on kobo paper

All That I Love is comprised of over 1600 origami beetles (Installation below)
Aluminum, resin, and photographic prints on kozo paper

The Mother, Exhumed, 42"x16"x12"
Epoxy resin and inject photographs on kobo paper

The Mother, Exhumed (detail)

Installation view of Dreams and Replies, Martine Chaisson Gallery, New Orleans, LA

Installation view (2) of Dreams and Replies, Martine Chaisson Gallery, New Orleans, LA

Installation view (3) of Dreams and Replies, Martine Chaisson Gallery, New Orleans, LA

Brett Henrikson

"My name is Brett Henrikson, and I’m an Artist-Photographer… artist being the most important part. Photographic processes are my hammer and chisel, as I approach the world and use visual language to understand and reinterpret being. My bodies of work vary from work about intersection of life and death, classical portraiture and nudes using the wet plate collodion process, and using the physicality of the photographic object in a new and unconventional way. I am based strongly in the craft and alchemy of the process. I believe that the hands on aspects of working in the darkroom and using film or large format gives the artist a real sense of creation over their work. That being said, I live in Pawtucket and work at my studio in Central Falls in an old mill above a loading dock, where I can blast vinyl symphonies while making prints in the red warm confines of my womb like darkroom."

Artist Statement: Chaotic Forms 

I go deep into the imagination. Skin becomes metallic, and the slow nature of working in the darkroom takes on a meditative quality. I aim for the images to take on the same meditative state that the process offers me in the darkroom, a quiet intimacy, a dark beauty. Collodion is pure; it’s like having a bon fire and taking the ashes of burned branches and drawing on the sides of a cave. Some might draw running horses or portraits of man. I let the light from the fire guide my sense of mysticism into somewhere new that only exists in the ether, on the shimmering light from my darkroom trays and from behind my eyes. Now when more work is done behind the computer, working with my hands in the dark, I am without rules or limitations, and the medium is free.

Danielle Rene' Khoury

Danielle Rene' Khoury is an image based artist whose work focuses on identity, domesticity, and existence. Danielle was born in Texas and currently resides in Fort Worth, Texas with her husband Marcus and two children. Danielle received her BFA in Photography in 2006 and her MFA in Photography in 2012 from Texas Woman's University where she is currently an Adjunct Professor. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including Vermont, California, Minnesota, China, and India.

Existing Among Statement 

Existing Among portrays the idea of existence, non existence and the space between. These images recognize life, death and the questions that come with mortality. This work stems from my grandfather’s recent death and the birth of my first child, which was a year earlier. The experience of seeing new life and an old life ending created a conflict within myself and put my own existence into question. These images speak of mystery, fear of the unknown, and hope for an existence beyond this world.

These images were captured with a lensbaby bellowed lens and digital camera. The images are captured by way of the television screen. This further push from reality creates the idea of existence with no physical presence. The television has always been a nonexistent presence in my household; always being on and noise in the background for comfort or an added sense of false companionship in a lonely environment. The resulting images are distorted by the television light shining at the camera sensor and the added distortion of the photographer’s creative decisions to control the bend of light and focal point.

Irby Pace

Irby Pace creates his art by reverse engineering everyday common objects and devices. This is driven from his childhood where he would take things apart, then he would figure out how they worked and put them back together or found other possibilities for the devices. He sees the artistic possibilities in all of the things around him and he uses this to his advantage. Irby Pace was born in Odessa, Texas. In 2005 he moved to Lubbock, Texas to attended Texas Tech University where he received his BFA in Photography in 2008. He received his MFA from The University of North Texas in 2012.

His work has been featured in Wired Magazine, The Huffington Post, Ripley’s Believe it or Not, and The Dallas Observer among many other websites, blogs and online magazines. Pace’s work was featured on the cover of the November 2013 issue of The Dallas Observer. From 2012 – 2013 he was a member of 500x, Texas’ oldest, largest artist run cooperative gallery. Pace is an Adjunct Professor at Tarrant County College in Fort Worth, El Centro Community College in Downtown Dallas and The Art Institute of Ft. Worth.

Irby Pace is represented by Galleri Urbane in Dallas, Texas.
To acquire Irby Pace photography contact Galleri Urbane

Artist Statement: Idle Voids—Pop!

In artistic compositions, negative space usually takes on a secondary role to the primary subject matter. Some believe that this void represents everything that is lacking in human experience. Writer Mark Levy, PhD., states that this is an experience of Western culture, and that the void can be “directly experienced in the gap between thoughts.” I am finding these empty spaces and making them tangible through photography.

The floating phenomenons in my photographs fill the void of the urban and natural landscapes. I alter the real physical space with real floating colorful clouds of smoke and allow nature to dictate the shape and duration. This allows me to capture the momentary glimpse of the vacant space. By using crude and readily available resources, I am experimenting with the tension of upward or outward movement against the downward force of gravity, creating the illusion of gravity defiance.