Eirik Johnson and Charlotta María Hauksdóttir
Thursday, November 8th, 2018 7:30 PM
PST San Francisco Art Institute Lecture Hall
800 Chestnut St, San Francisco, CA 94133
This event is presented in partnership with the San Francisco Art Institute
About Eirik Johnson:
Seattle-based photographer and mixed-media artist Eirik Johnson has exhibited his work at spaces including the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, and the Aperture Foundation in New York. He has received numerous awards including the 2012 Neddy at Cornish Award in Open Medium, a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant in 2009, the Santa Fe Prize in 2005, and a William J. Fulbright Grant to Peru in 2000. His work is in the permanent collections of institutions including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Seattle Art Museum, and the George Eastman House, Rochester, NY. Johnson’s editorial work has appeared in publications including the New York Times Magazine, California Sunday Magazine, Travel+Leisure, Metropolis, Dwell, Audubon, Pacific Standard, GQ, and the Wall Street Journal.
Johnson serves as Programs Chair at the Photographic Center Northwest and affiliate faculty at the University of Washington. He is also a member of the Piece of Cake Collective, a photographers' cooperative based both in North America and Europe.
Eirik’s first book Borderlands was published by Twin Palms Press in 2005, a second monograph Sawdust Mountain was published by Aperture in 2009. His soon to be released book PINE, forthcoming from Minor Matters Press will be accompanied by a limited edition 12 inch vinyl record.
About Charlotta María Hauksdóttir:
Charlotta María Hauksdóttir is an Icelandic artist based in California, working primarily in photography. Residing in the USA for over 15 years, she still draws inspiration from her home country Iceland. Her work centers around the unique connection one has to places and moments in time, and how memories embody and elevate those connections. She received an MFA in Photography, from SFAI in 2004, and a BA in Photography from the Istituto Europeo di Design in Rome, Italy, in 1997.
Her work has been exhibited worldwide, with solo exhibitions in the USA, Russia, and Iceland, most recently at the Reykjavik Museum of Photography. Her work is in numerous public and private collections, including corporate collections, the latest acquisition being by Stanford Health Care.
The physical space of landscapes can be closely tied to a person’s identity, sense of being, and infused with personal history. The composite, textured landscapes in the series “Imprints” are a re-creation of places and scenes from an estranged homeland. The series includes human scale composite images, images that utilize fingerprint patterns that evoke the uniqueness of our connection with nature, and abstract landscapes where several sheets of photographic paper with variable cutouts are layered together imitating landforms that have formed over time. The visible and obscured parts of the landscape suggest the interplay of effects between man and nature, as well as the imperfections of memory, with juxtaposed textures emphasizing the mind’s inability to retain and fully comprehend its environment. The discontinuity between the images also induces the viewer to draw on their own experiences to complete the work. Finally, by utilizing the textures of human fingerprints, the images speak to our individual responsibility for our impressions upon nature.
Infused with personal history, my work is uniquely tied to my identity and sense of being. Photographing both landscapes and domestic spaces my images are an emotional interpretation of familiar places and scenes. A sense of home and belonging is prevalent in my work and relates to more than just a location, it is about feelings, intimacy, connecting with others and the attachment one has with a place. Memories have the ability to ignite those sensations leaving us grounded and at home away from home.