Reviver: Yale MFA Photography

Drew Brown

Eli Durst

John Edmonds

Cole Don Kelley

Ye Weon Mary Kim

Robin Myers

Eva O’Leary

Adam Pape

Danziger Gallery is pleased to be hosting our fifth edition of the graduating Yale Photography MFA class.

James Danziger, himself a Yale graduate, has been hosting these shows intermittently over the last decade. The gallery has also had the privilege of exhibiting the work of such illustrious Yale MFA graduates as Chuck Close, Gregory Crewdson, Justine Kurland, Abe Morell, Farrah Karapetian, Laurel Nakadate, and David Benjamin Sherry.

This year’s show is curated by Charlotte Cotton, ICP’s curator-in-residence, and introduces 10 photographers whose work varies from the surrealist observations of Monique Atherton to the experimental appropriations of Sara Cwynar. Grouped together under the show title “Reviver,” Cotton sees the work as engaging with formal photographic practice while trying to find a place in a world of ever-proliferating images. Black and white photography is seen freshly in the enchantingly ambiguous narratives of Eli Durst and in the graphic compositions of Drew Brown, while issues of race and sexuality are addressed in the work of John Edmonds. Robin Myers reexamines the traditional notions of the bodily form while Cole Don Kelley, Adam Pape, and Eva O’Leary use color to create a personal view of commonplace subjects. Ye Weon Mary Kim complicates landscape photography by incorporating traditional forms of painting and and digital collage into her photographs.

Despite their close proximity to each other for the past two years, each artist in the class has emerged with their own voice but with the common goal of pushing the medium further while keeping in mind what came before. They have used their time in the program to tear down preconceptions of what their art might be and rebuild it into what they each feel is important to say.

It is in such shows that the visitor gets to see what is happening on the ground level of contemporary photography while looking out for the work that will foretell the most talented careers.

In addition to the main show, Matthew Leifheit, Class of 2017, has curated a special photobook salon in our project room titled "Old Love (Let's Try It Again)"

The title comes from the 1963 Mary Wells song and her voice is filled with hope and nostalgia. This collection of photobooks, newspapers and magazines is about the reinvestigation of older, more established photographers and bodies of work by new, young publishers. Most of the publishers represented here are under 30 years of age, yet they choose to publish the work of artists who could have spawned them or their parents. In this way, they share concerns with the artists represented in “Reviver".

Special Event

In conjunction with the exhibition and catalog there will be a panel discussion with:

Charlotte Cotton, Curator in Residence at the International Center of Photography; Lesley Martin, Creative Director of the Aperture Foundation and Publisher of The PhotoBook Review; Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa, photographer and writer; and John Pilson, photographer/video artist and critic at the Yale School of Art and Publisher of Picture Magazine.

Thursday, June 23. 4:30-6:00 PM