Tracing Memory: Photographs by Angie Buckley, Pedro Isztin, Cyrus Karimipour, and Paula Luttringer
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 Exhibition Dates: November 3 - December 31, 2008
Artists: Angie Buckley, Pedro Isztin, Cyrus Karimipour, and Paula Luttringer
Guest Curator: Miriam Romais
Gallery Reception: Thursday, November 13, 5-7pm
Light Work is pleased to announce the opening of Tracing Memory: Photographs by Angie Buckley, Pedro Isztin, Cyrus Karimipour, and Paula Luttringer, guest curated by Miriam Romais of En Foco. Also on view at this time is the Light Work Grants exhibition. Light Work will host a reception to celebrate these exhibitions on Thursday, November 13, from 5-7pm.
Romais curated this exhibition to explore what makes a thought become a memory. She explains, "The most emotionally laden experiences persist, and those left untouched, most likely become memory traces...fragile and ephemeral." The artists included in this exhibition create photographs that look at the idea of remembrance - of letting go and making sense of past events, and using those memories to understand who they are today.
 Growing up with a mother from Thailand and a Caucasian American father, Buckley did not know her family history for many years. She relied on the conflicting memories and stories of relatives to piece together her heritage. Her images are created with a pinhole camera and cutouts of old family photographs, resulting in work that lies somewhere in between the real world and imagination. Buckley received her BFA in Photography from Ohio University and her MFA in Photography from Arizona State University. She has received various awards, and her work has been exhibited nationwide, including at the Southern Light Gallery in Texas, the McDuffy Arts Center in Virginia, and New York University.
Isztin's color portraits metaphorically integrate formative childhood memories, using them to heal the adult that the child has become. Part of a larger series that emulates a life journey, Destino III: Transformation revisits, in Isztin's words, "the pain, joy, and suffering that our psyches are stamped with, no matter how little or large those experiences as a child." Isztin was born to a Colombian mother and Hungarian father; his work explores his diverse heritage. He lives in Ottawa, Canada, and has exhibited internationally. He has received numerous awards and grants, including a Photography Project Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts and an Ontario Arts Council Award.
 Karimipour revels in the flexibility of memories and uses his images to visually recreate them and depict how he remembers an event or encounter. In his series Invented Memory, he creates scenarios by heavily manipulating his negatives and rearranging their fragments to then be re-photographed. His imagery becomes ambiguous, as if looking in on someone else's dream. Karimipour received his BA from Oakland University in Michigan and his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. His work has been exhibited nationwide, including at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of New Art in Michigan, and the Cleveland Institute of Art in Ohio. His art has also appeared in Harper's Magazine and The Detroit News, among other publications.
 Luttringer faces her own traumatic past, infusing her imagery with what other women remember about being abducted and held captive during Argentina's Dirty War. Lamento de Los Muros (The Wailing of the Walls) consists of large black-and-white images that depict the interior of the detention centers where thousands of people were held, tortured, and "disappeared." The images capture both history and memory. Luttringer was awarded a fellowship by the Guggenheim Foundation in 2001. Her work appears in the collections of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires; the Museum of Fine Arts in Texas; and George Eastman House in New York. She currently lives and works in Buenos Aires and Paris.
Romais is executive director of En Foco Inc., a non-profit organization that supports contemporary photographers of diverse cultures, primarily U.S. residents of Latino, African, and Asian heritage, and Native Peoples of the Americas and the Pacific (www.enfoco.org). Her art has been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States and abroad. Her work is part of the book, video, and HBO project titled Americanos: Latino Life in the United States (Little Brown & Co, 1999). She participated in Light Work's Artist-in-Residence program in 1996.
Also on view at this time is the Light Work Grants exhibition, featuring the work of photographers Kathy Morris and Paul Pearce, as well as art writer Nancy Keefe Rhodes' research project on Syracuse photographer Marjory Wilkins. Each year, Light Work awards three grants to photographers, critics, or photo-historians who reside in Central New York. The Light Work Grants in Photography program, founded in 1973, is one of the longest-running photography fellowships in the United States.
[Images, top to bottom: Pedro Isztin, Angie Buckley, Cyrus Karimipour, and Paula Luttringer]
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Reflections in Black: Lecture by Deborah Willis
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 Event Title: Reflections in Black
Artist/Lecturer: Deborah Willis
Date/Time: Thursday, November 6, at 6:00pm
Location: Watson Theater, Light Work, 316 Waverly Ave. Syracuse NY 13244
Please join Light Work and Syracuse University's Southside Initiative for a lecture by internationally renowned curator, artist, photographer, and MacArthur Fellow Deborah Willis. The lecture, to be held in Watson Theater on Thursday, November 6, 2008, at 6:00pm, will focus on empowering the Syracuse community to preserve African American history in Central New York. In conjunction with the lecture, Light Work is featuring an exhibition of Light Work Grant winners, including long-time local documentary photographer Marjory Wilkins, who has been photographing the African American community in Syracuse for over sixty years, including the now-vanished neighborhood of the 15th Ward, a casualty of 1960s Urban Renewal policies.
This event is hosted in collaboration with Light Work and Syracuse University's Southside Initiative, as well as U.encounter, Onondaga Historical Association, and the Syracuse Community Committee.
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