Wild Stainless | Winona Barton-Ballentine, Justine Kurland | An Artist Dialogue Series Event

FREE - The Corner Room doors open at 2:00 p.m. 

American photographers and mothers Justine Kurland and Winona Barton-Ballentine make work about the search for self-defined space, from inside of the home to out on the road. In celebration of Winona Barton-Ballentine's site-specific Photo Walls n Picture Collection exhibition Wild  Stainless,  Kurland and Barton-Ballentine converse about how culture, gender, social class, and motherhood, among other things, affect the desire for self-reinvention through the shaping of one’s surroundings; and how this is explored in photography and literature.

Kurland criss crossed the United States making photographs for 15 years before and after the birth of her son, while Barton-Ballentine lived in 21 homes before the age of 18. Kurland’s recent book The Black Thread of Meng Chiao (in collaboration with John Yau; TIS books, 2015) features black and white photographs made in the artist’s home which contrast with her larger body of work made while living on the road. In her Wild Stainless exhibition Barton-Ballentine contrasts the texture and rhythm of the interior and exterior spaces around the home before and after the birth of her daughter. The dialog also look at texts including Walden by Henry David Throeau, A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf, Freedom Club by Julie Alt, and The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson.

Winona Barton-Ballentine (born in Binghamton, NY, 1980) explores the landscapes, objects, and environments associated with the “home” though photographs, writing, books, and food. She received an MFA in photography from The International Center of Photography/Bard College in 2013, and a BA in photography from Bard College in 2002. Her work has been exhibited and performed in New York at The International Center of Photography, The Aperture Gallery, and Fitzroy Gallery, and internationally at Spazio Morris Gallery in Milan. Winona also performs as a singer in a band with her parents. She lives with her husband and daughter in Woodstock, New York.

Justine Kurland (born in Warsaw, New York, 1969) received her BFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York, in 1996, and her MFA from Yale University in 1998. Her work has been exhibited extensively at museums and galleries in the U.S. and internationally. In 2013, she was awarded a New York Foundation of the Arts’ Artists’ Fellowship for Photography. Recent and upcoming museum exhibitions include The Kids Are All Right: An Exhibition About Family and Photography
at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin; and America in View: Landscape Photography 1865 to Now at the RISD Museum in Providence, RI. She is represented by Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York.

Initiated and organized by Arezoo Moseni in 2004, Artist Dialogues Series provide an open forum for understanding and appreciation of contemporary art. Artists are paired with critics, curators, gallerists, writers or other artists to converse about art and the potential of exploring new ideas.

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