Jane Calvin
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About me
Jane Calvin (JaneCalvin)
I make photographs, I don’t take them. I am a maker of meaning, not an observer of it. The images are constructed by montaging slide projections and found objects into room-sized assemblages in my studio, which I photograph. There are no darkroom or digital tricks. In the end, the process is straight photography. My method of composing is improvisational, like jazz.
My images, from 2005 to the present, project a mix of cultural identities and languages in imaginary, fragmented, urban “Spaces of Desire”—nocturnal, neon lurid, chaotic ‘spaces’, overlaid by ordered architectural or linguistic elements. The layering of colorful sensuous photographic images with pale, structural drawings creates a palimpsest, in which we wander among disjunctive or empty signifiers, reminding us of the increasingly overwhelming spectacle of our contemporary urban existence and highlighting the dialectic between order and chaos.
Cities remind us that society is more than the individuals that comprise it. There are no specific faces here; but a bombardment of diverse images and languages, creating a cacophony.
The pop and pulp references create a humorous commentary on cultural identity and gender roles projected onto a society whose desires are often manipulated by language and image. The subject matter appearing disconnected from its proper place and time, mysteriously overlaps our own collective awareness.
Through the content carried in found materials and appropriated texts, I address the social and political conditions that are just out of sight, but remain like some kind of background radiation exerting a subtle but undeniable influence on our society and times. I ask the viewer to see what has been there all along.
Education and activities
- Biography
Born in Chicago, Jane Calvin was graduated from Bryn Mawr College with a Bachelor of Arts degree, Cum laude (special honors). She received a Masters of Fine Arts Degree from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. She has been a Professor of Photography at The School of The Art Institute, Illinois Institute of Technology, and Beloit College. Currently she is Adjunct Professor of Photography at Columbia College, Chicago.
The focus of my career has been as a fine art photographer. My photographs are in the permanent collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Detroit Institute of Art, The Polaroid International Collection, Germany, The Readers Digest Collection, New York, The Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA., The Tweed Museum of Art, MN., The Ulrich Museum of Art, KS. My images are featured in Love and Desire, by William Ewing, Director, Musee de l’Elysee, Lausanne SWITZERLAND , in, Discontinuum , by Peter Spooner, Curator, The Tweed Museum of Art, and in The Tampa Review, Tampa, FL.- Exhibitions
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2007 BOB RAUSCHENBERG GALLERY, Edison College, Ft. Myers, FL
2006 CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER OF VIRGINIA, Virginia Beach, VA
PURDUE UNIVERSITY GALLERIES, West Lafayette, IN
2005 ARTSEA GALLERY, SHANGHAI, CHINA
798 PHOTO GALLERY, BEIJING, PEOPLES’ REPUBLIC OF CHINA
GALLERY 210, University of Missouri, St. Louis
UNIVERSTIY OF RHODE ISLAND GALLERY, Kingston, RI
2004 THE SELBY GALLERY, Ringling School of Art & Design, Sarasota, FL
THE SOUTHEAST MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY, Daytona Beach, FL
2003 THE HARTLEY/SCARFONE GALLERIES, University of Tampa, FL
DELAWARE CENTER FOR THE CONTEMPORARY ARTS, Wilmington,
2002 TWEED MUSEUM OF ART, Duluth, MN
2000 ULRICH MUSEUM OF ART, Wichita, KS
1994 ROBERT BURGE 20th CENTURY PHOTOGRAPHS, New York, NEW YORK
1990 THE ADDISON GALLERY OF AMERICAN ART, Andover, MA, Jane Calvin, Photographs and InstallationSELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2005 FLATFILE GALLERY, Chicago, IL
2004 CRESS GALLERY, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, TN
GARDINER ART GALLERY, OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY, Stillwater, OK “Covetous: Desire & the Lens”
2001 THE CHICAGO CULTURAL CENTER, Chicago, IL, “ConTextual: Chicago Artists Who Use Text”
2000 THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY, Chicago, IL, “20x24” Polaroids”
1998 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC CENTER, Skopelos, GREECE, curated by Wm Ewing, Dir, Musee de lElysee, SWITZ.
THE MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ARTS, Minneapolis, MN
1996 KIM FOSTER GALLERY, New York, NEW YORK
1993 ISETAN MUSEUM, Tokyo; FUKUOKA MUSEUM; HOKKAIDO COUNTY MUSEUM, JAPAN
- Publications
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2008 Homonumos Literary Magazine, Issue 3 “Language” Beijing, CHINA
2007 Homonumos Literary Mazine, Issue1, Issue 2 “Infinity” Beijing CHINA
2006 L’apprendistato di Duddy Kravitz, Mordecai Richler, Adelphi Editizione, Cover Image
Vision Magazine, The Space In Between, Shanghai,CHINA
2005 Shanghai Daily, Disturbing Pictures of The Space Between, Shanghai CHINA
2002 Discontinuum, The Photographs of Jane Calvin, Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, MN
1999 Love and Desire, William Ewing, Thames and Hudson, London, Chronicle Press, San Francisco, Color IL
1998 Body Icons, Photographic Center of Skopelos, Ministry of Culture, Skopelos, GREECE, Color Il.
1997 New Art Examiner, Chicago Tribune, and New City, Chicago, Exhibition Reviews w. illustrations
1990 Issues of Projection: Photographs and Installations, Cat. Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA
1984 Selections 2, The Poloraid International Corporation, Cologne, GERMANY, Illustration in Color
My favourites
- Artist
favorite photgrapher is Walker Evans. Too many artists to list.
- Movie
Blue Velvet
- Music
all kinds of jazz and Mozart
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