PENUMBRA WORKSPACE PROGRAM | NYC | 2022
Donavon Smallwood
“Donavon Smallwood uses a black and white photography to make powerfully understated images, disarming in the sincerity with which he explores being at home in oneself and the natural environment.”
– Adama Delphine Fawundu & Klea McKenna (2022 Jury).
Image © Donavon Smallwood. Courtesy of the artist.
“[…] For me photography, as with all art/creation, is a communion with the divine and I use the medium as a means of exploring Man, human imagination, essence, and nature.
Photography and especially photography books are a synthesis between three of my favorite things: Books, Art, Poetry. In general these three forms can in fact change your life, change your
phenomenological experience of becoming in time, and this is a miracle.
This is what i’m trying to scratch at with my work, miracles. […] ”
Donavon Smallwood received his BA from Hunter College in 2016. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including recent shows at Baxter St at CCNY, The Griffin Museum of Photography, and The Print Center. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2021 Aperture Portfolio Prize and the 2021 Daylight Photo Award. Periodical features and editorial clients include Harpers, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Guardian. Languor, his first monograph, was released by Trespasser in winter 2021.
SPONSORS
This program is supported by Henry Nias Foundation, The Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, Joy of Giving Something and Roz Leibowitz.
Thanks to the following artists for their support to Penumbra Foundation and in particular to the 2020 Penumbra Workspace Program:
Sophie Barbasch, Erica Baum, Marina Berio, Rachelle Bussières, Tim Carpenter, Dillon DeWaters, Larry Fink, Jenia Fridlyand, Theresa Ganz, Edward Grazda, Aspen Mays, Raymond Meeks, Andrew Moore, Adam Putnam, Meghann Riepenhoff, Almudena Romero, Liz Sales, Victoria Sambunaris, Victor Sira, Joni Sternbach, Eric Taubman, Pedro Weiner and Samira Yamin.