Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive Present Solo Exhibition by Erica Deeman, 3/8-6/11
By: Christina Mancuso Mar. 01, 2017
The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) will present the first solo museum exhibition of works by Erica Deeman, a San Francisco-based photographer whose images explore the subtleties of black female identity. Erica Deeman: Silhouettes is the first comprehensive presentation to date of Deeman's Silhouettes series, composed of thirty large-scale portraits of women from the African diaspora. Organized by BAMPFA Director and Chief Curator Lawrence Rinder, the exhibition will be on view from March 8 through June 11, 2017.
Depicted in profile against a stark white background, Deeman's subjects initially appear as monochromatic silhouettes. These images are actually color photographs, however, and their subtle gradations of color and form emerge upon closer viewing. The compositions recall the pseudoscientific practice of physiognomy-which was once widely believed to yield insights into subjects' character traits based on their facial features-to engage viewers in a dialogue about the relationship between identity and visual representation. At the same time, the works' conscious reference to nineteenth-century silhouette portraiture-which rarely depicted women of color-invites contemplation about issues of race, gender, and historical memory.
An artist of Jamaican-British ancestry who grew up in Nottingham, England, Deeman relocated to the Bay Area four years ago to pursue a career in fine art photography. She created the Silhouettes series over the course of nine months in 2013 as a student at San Francisco's Academy of Art University, approaching strangers on the street and online to pose for the project. The works were included in the acclaimed 2016 group exhibition Collected at Pier 24 Photography. An exhibition of Deeman's companion series Brown-which features portraits of men from the African diaspora-will be on view at Anthony Meier Fine Arts from March 24 through April 28.
"Erica Deeman is one of the Bay Area's most exciting fine art photographers, whose work displays a deep sense of history and an attentiveness to contemporary questions of representation and identity," said Rinder. "By mounting the first comprehensive presentation of Erica's Silhouettes series, we look forward to advancing the growing recognition of this exceptional local artist among national and international audiences."
In conjunction with the opening, BAMPFA will host an artist's talk with Erica Deeman on Wednesday, March 8 at 6 p.m. The artist will address the history of Western portraiture and physiognomy and its influence on her work. The talk is free with museum admission. For further information, visit BAMPFA's website.
Support
Erica Deeman: Silhouettes is organized by BAMPFA Director and Chief Curator Lawrence Rinder. The exhibition is made possible with support from Anthony and Celeste Meier, Jamie Lunder, Pier 24 Photography, and Roselyne Chroman Swig.
Above
Erica Deeman: Untitled 08, from the series Silhouettes, 2014; digital chromogenic print; 45 × 45 in.; BAMPFA, gift of Jamie Lunder.
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Internationally recognized for its art and film programming, the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) is a platform for cultural experiences that transform individuals, engage communities, and advance the local, national, and global discourse on art and film. BAMPFA is UC Berkeley's primary visual arts venue with screenings of some 450 films and presentations of up to twenty exhibitions annually. BAMPFA's mission is to inspire the imagination and ignite critical dialogue through art and film.
The institution's collection of more than 19,000 works of art dates from 3,000 BCE to the present day and includes important holdings of Neolithic Chinese ceramics, Ming and Qing Dynasty Chinese painting, Old Master works on paper, Italian Baroque painting, early American painting, Abstract Expressionist painting, contemporary photography, and Conceptual art. BAMPFA's collection also includes more than 17,500 films and videos, including the largest collection of Japanese cinema outside of Japan, impressive holdings of Soviet cinema, West Coast avant-garde film, seminal video art, as well as hundreds of thousands of articles, reviews, posters, and other ephemera related to the history of film.
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