Description
Surface Thing exhibition comprises three photographic projects made between 2018 and 2021, Mouthing, Self-Portraits While Buried, and Birth Rehearsal, all of which portray various types of self-portraits. The show presents works about the body and the earth in ways that are spiritual, feminist, and ecological through a humorous and existential perspective. Calivas’ black and white images can unexpectedly taunt us, at once generous and withholding, still and active. Her pictures are part of photography’s long conversation about the tension between chance (the decisive moment) and control (the staged).
This catalog includes an essay by Light Work’s associate director Whitney Hubbs.
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Jenny Calivas was born in Maine and lives in Los Angeles, CA. In 2018, she earned her MFA in Photography from The Yale School of Art, where she was awarded the Ward Chaney Memorial Prize in performance. In 2016 she was a participant at The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Her work has been exhibited at David Zwirner in New York City, LTD Los Angeles, Huxley Parlour in London, Buoy Gallery in Kittery, Maine, and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland, Maine. Recent publications featuring her work include Speciwomen, Paper Journal, and HyperAllergic. She is a Lecturer in Visual Arts at Princeton University and has also taught at Wesleyan University, Parsons School of Art and Design, and the Borough of Manhattan Community College.
