PENUMBRA WORKSPACE PROGRAM | New York City | 2023
Lauren orchowski
– (2023 Jury)
Image © Lauren Orchowski. Courtesy of the artist.
“Combining hand built photo objects and large format photography, I employ the physical properties and archaeological framework of light to convey darkness and its absence as a primal artifact. Utilizing the experience of personal environmental impact, mortality, and the palette of the universe, I focus on the critical issues encompassing science, consumption, the spaceswe identify as home, and the survival of our species on Earth. […] ”
Lauren Orchowski’s work spans multiple material disciplines where photography serves as an understory for her projects and as a research tool to examine the critical issues encompassing science, consumption, the spaces we identify as home, and the survival of our species on Earth. Utilizing the experience of personal environmental impact, she introduces an archaeological framework of light to be experienced concurrently as an object, a memory, and its absence as primal artifact. Working in an analog black and white darkroom since the age of 15, her documentary process of observing and recording the landscape and human condition began at the age of 7 with an Instamatic camera paired with the idea to make a visual record of industry while traveling along the Hudson River in upstate New York on a small boat.
Since then Orchowski’s work has been exhibited on the International Space Station, throughout the United States, and internationally. Most recently, she was featured in the Penumbra Foundation Summer 2022 Members Gallery and was selected by Michael Famighetti for the FOTOFILMIC JRNL SPRING 2021 ISSUE 8. In 2019, she received an Honorable Mention from the HARIBAN AWARD and appeared in the inaugural RUST BELT BIENNIAL. Her books and prints are in several collections including The Bienecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, The Rutgers Archives for Printmaking, The George Eastman Museum, The International Center of Photography Library, and have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Scientific American, Gizmodo- France, United States, and Australia, photoworks UK, LENSCRATCH, VICE- Culture, The Humble Arts Foundation, and Art.Critical.
She studied art at Hunter College, City University of New York and the Universität der Künste in Berlin, Germany earning her MFA in photography after completing her BFA in photography from Arizona State University. Born and raised in Poughkeepsie, New York, she lives and works in New York City.
SPONSORS
This program is supported by Henry Nias Foundation, Joy of Giving Something, Jacques & Natasha Gelman Foundation, The Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, The Ruth Foundation for the Arts, and Roz Leibowitz.
Thanks to the following artists for their support to Penumbra Foundation and in particular to the 2023 Penumbra Workspace Program:
Cynthia Johnston, Dawn Kim, Donavon Smallwood, Dylan Hausthor, Emiliano Zuñiga, J Carrier, Jenia Fridlyand, Kate Ovaska, Ruth Lauer-Manenti, and Tim Carpenter.