Summer 2022
Guest Juror | Vivian Galban
Selected Members: Lauren Orchowski, Matthew López-Jensen, Victoria Manning
Matthew, Lauren, and Victoria investigate similar issues in their work, such as concern for their surrounding reality and the use of their work to point out current political thought. The use of the resources and processes chosen in each case are the means to accentuate the concept behind their works.
Matthew's thermographic camera allows him to photograph the temperature of his shots and thus imagine the impact of climate change on the natural ecosystem. Victoria, with the help of her opalotypes (wet collodions on white glass), creates a ghostly atmosphere, revealing in those empty spaces the absence of limbs lost in war. Laurie synthesizes and re-constructs realities through her models and photochemical paintings, in order to manifest the impact of universal problems in relation to mining exploitation from an autobiographical point of view.
It’s interesting to see when the choice of photographic processes and resources are conceptually used as a tool in favor of ideas.
Congratulations to this year's selected artists and thanks to all the participants for allowing me to review their projects.
-Vivian Galban, August 2022
About the Juror:
Vivian Galban (b. Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1969) is a photographer and researcher. Her practice centers on the investigation of photography as a means of questioning the supports, processes and contemporary technology applied to artistic creation.
Galban studied architecture at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Buenos Aires (1993) and completed the Postgraduate for the Conservation and Rehabilitation of Architectural Heritage in the same Institution (1996). She founded the first Interactive Multimedia Development Agency: MediaLab Argentina, Buenos Aires and Mexico City (1996/2012) and the first 3D Staging and Modeling Center in Buenos Aires (1994/1996). In 2005, she participated in the Artist Draft Program residency at Kyoto Art Center, Japan. Her works were selected in the Buenos Aires Photo Award (2015); at the ArtexArte Biennial (2015); and the Metrovías Contemporary Photography contest (2011). Her series ”Between heaven and earth” was presented at the XVII Biennial of Visual Arts in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia (2010), and she has been featured in national and international fairs, including arteBA, Argentina (2016), Lima Photo, Peru (2012/2017), ArtBo, Colombia (2013) and Zona Maco, Mexico (2013/2014). She has held workshops and seminars in Argentina and Uruguay and currently directs the academic class of “Aesthetics, Art and Contemporary Culture” at the Institute of Photographic Art and Audiovisual Techniques of the National University of Avellaneda, Buenos Aires. Her solo exhibitions include “Valley of the Yosemite, from the Rocky Ford, 1872” at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Buenos Aires (MACBA) curated by Teresa Riccardi (2016); Lima Photo with Rolf Art (2016); “We do not know what a body can”, Rolf Art curated by Valería Gonzalez (2014); and “Chroma – exterior night/interior day” Zicarelllo, Galbán curated by Graciela Taquini at the Recoleta Cultural Center, Buenos Aires (2015).
viviangalban.com | @viviangalban
About Penumbra Members Gallery:
Starting in 2020, Penumbra has invited their members semiannually to submit their work for review by an acclaimed photographer, critic, or curator.
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