New Pictures 4: Angela Strassheim, Evidence
Opens on March 18
Solo Exhibition Presents Photographer’s Eerie Images of Past Lives
Minneapolis, MN— The work of trained forensic photographer Angela Strassheim will be the subject of the fourth exhibition in the MIA’s phototgraphy series New Pictures, which features work from emerging artists. On display from March 18 through October 9, 2011, the exhibition will present ten works from Evidence, Strassheim’s photographic series on domestic murder scenes. The show includes five dramatic large-scale, black-and-white photographs that move beyond documentary photography and reveal odd and haunting vestiges of past lives in homes that are now inhabited by new families. The other five works included, are color photographs of seemingly “normal” suburban homes where violent murders have occurred. To put her work in context, crime-scene photographs from local historical collections will supplement the exhibition.
“Angela’s works are truly innovative and contemporary in their vision of crime, and yet they draw on two historical lineages of memory and crime in this series,” said David E. Little, MIA curator of Photography and New Media. “The work evokes 19th century memorial photography, in which families took pictures of deceased children and loved ones, as well as, the macabre elements of crime photography employed by journalists and lawyers for news stories and trials.”
In this series, Strassheim employs techniques she learned as the forensic photographer for the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Division of Forensic Science Crime Lab in Richmond. Paired with her long-standing investigation of the dark undercurrents of suburban American life, and intimate portrait of lives lived and crimes committed emerges.
A graduate of Minnapolis College of Art and Design and the M.F.A. program at Yale University, Strassheim earned a living as a forensic photographer during a six-year period between her undergraduate and graduate studies. She photographed autopsies and crime scenes in New York City post 9/11. In 2006, she participated in the Whitney Biennale. Her work has been displayed at Marvelli Gallery, New York; Musée de L’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland; the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, Massachusetts; Falcouner Gallery at Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa; the Des Moines Art Center; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
Strassheim will discuss her works in a conversation moderated by David E. Little, MIA curator of Photography and New Media, on Thursday on March 17 from 6:30–7:30 P.M. at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, 2501 Stevens Avenue, Minneapolis.
About the New Pictures series
Inaugurated in the fall of 2010, the New Pictures series features work by leading media artists from around the world every fall and spring. The series highlights the vital experiments in photography and new media undertaken by artists who grapple with making images that address contemporary culture. These exhibitions are distinguished by their dual focus on presenting cutting-edge artists from around the world, and helping audiences understand and explore the art-making process. Past New Pictures artists include Noriko Furunishi, Marco Breuer, and James Welling. Generous support for the New Pictures series is provided by H.B. Fuller.
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Press Contacts:
Anne-Marie Wagener, Director of Public Relations
(612) 870-3280; awagener@artsmia.org
Tammy Pleshek, Public Relations Specialist
(612) 870-3171; tpleshek@artsmia.org