JULIE BLACKMON
New Work

March 8th through April 14th, 2012
Reception for the Artist: Thursday, March 8th

The Fahey/Klein Gallery is pleased to present a selection of new work from photographer Julie Blackmon’s ongoing series “Domestic Vacations”.  As the oldest of nine children and the mother of three, Julie Blackmon’s photographs depict imagined, as well as autobiographical, narratives inspired by the hectic and multifaceted domestic life of her own family. “As an artist and as a mother,” Blackmon states “I believe life’s most poignant moments come from the ability to fuse fantasy and reality: to see the mythic amidst the chaos.”

The painterly influences of Julie Blackmon’s work are further emphasized by the large scale of the works being exhibited including four Archival Pigment Print photographs each measuring over 4 ½ feet tall and six feet wide.  Blackmon states, "The paintings of Steen, along with those of other Dutch and Flemish genre painters, helped inspire this body of work. As Steen’s personal narratives of family life depicted nearly 400 years ago, the conflation of art and life is an area I have explored in photographing the everyday life of my family and the lives of my sisters and their families at home. These images are both fictional and auto-biographical, and reflect not only our lives today and as children growing up in a large family, but also move beyond the documentary to explore the fantastic elements of our everyday lives, both imagined and real.”

Anne Wilkes Tucker of The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, states that Blackmon has “taken a subject that is ripe for cliché—mother photographing children—and through the subtle, digital manipulations, the use of color and highly graphic images, she’s given it humor and edge and taken the subject somewhere fresh.”

Born in Springfield, Missouri, Julie Blackmon studied art education and photography at Missouri State University. She has received several national awards for her photographs, including commendation in the 2004 Santa Fe Center of Photography Project Competition, a merit award from the Society of Contemporary Photography, 2005 B& W Magazine Merit Award for Single Image Contest, 2006 1st Place for Domestic Vacations from the Santa Fe Center of Photograph Project Competition, 2006 Critical Mass Book Award Winner for Domestic Vacations, and recognized as American Photo’s Emerging Photographer of 2008. Her photographs are included in the permanent collections of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Toledo Museum of Art, Portland Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, among numerous others.

Press Images Available Upon Request.