Nykelle DeVivo, mami wata, from the series On Becoming, 2018, archival inkjet print on metallic photo paper, 36 x 22 in., courtesy of the artist.
Juried by Marcel Pardo Ariza, Adrian Burrell, and PJ Gubatina Policarpio
Opens December 4, 2021
FORECAST 2021 ARTISTS:
Katina Alexopulos (San Francisco, CA)
Trent Bozeman (Bentonville, AK)
Nykelle DeVivo (Portland, OR - Juror’s Choice Award)
Christian K. Lee (Austin, TX)
Jamie Robertson (Houston, TX)
Ashley Ross (Oakland, CA)
Exhibition Dates (Gallery Exhibit):
December 4, 2021 – January 8, 2022
Register Here
Online Exhibit:
December 4, 2021 - May 1, 2022
Opening Receptions:
Online Opening Reception:
Saturday, December 4, 2021, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m
Register Here
In-Person Gallery Opening Reception:
Saturday, December 4, 2021, 3 to 7 p.m.
at Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota St,
San Francisco, CA 94107, Gallery 211.
Register Here
Participation in the opening reception is free, but reservations are required. Out of an abundance of caution, we ask visitors to wear a mask when inside the 1275 Minnesota Street Project Building, and respectfully urge anyone who has any symptoms of COVID or has recently been exposed to anyone with COVID to refrain from visiting.
More programs, including artist talks, a panel discussion and other events are being planned in conjunction with the exhibit and will be posted at SFCamerawork.org in the coming weeks.
SF Camerawork is pleased to announce that the jurors have selected 6 artists for FORECAST2021: SF Camerawork’s Annual Survey Exhibition. Each year SF Camerawork invites an esteemed jury of artists, curators and critics to curate its annual survey exhibition. This year, jurors Marcel Pardo Ariza, Adrian Burrell, and PJ Gubatina Policarpio selected the work of Katina Alexopulos, Trent Bozeman, Nykelle DeVivo (Juror’s Choice Award), Christian K. Lee, Jamie Robertson, and Ashley Ross from 270 entries from all over the world. The annual group exhibition and award program showcases the works of emerging artists with an eye toward current trends and concerns in contemporary photography.
This year, a selection of one work by each artist will be presented in a “popup” exhibit at Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota St, San Francisco, CA 94107, Gallery 211. An expanded version of the exhibition will be viewable on SF Camerawork’s website at SFCamerawork.org.
SF Camerawork is also proud to present the FORECAST2021 Juror’s Choice Award of $1,000 to Portland, Oregon-based artist Nykelle DeVivo. DeVivo creates ethereal images and self portraits filled with light and reflection that are both sensual and meditative. DeVivo studied critical theory at the San Francisco Art Institute before going on to be published in articles such as Aint-Bad & I-D, participating in group shows across the country, and assisting journalists for projects in the New York Times, LensCulture and more. Juror Marcel Pardo Ariza said of DeVivo’s exhibition entries, “This work makes me think of shaping a new future while exploring the possibilities of becoming. Nykelle DeVivo's work has a lot of energy and textural depth, I hope they use this momentum to keep developing a very strong practice.”
This year’s selection is uniquely characterized by its themes of self discovery, familial history and identity, memory, and representation. Award winner, Nykelle DeVivo finds their voice in haunting and ethereal photographs that incorporate afro-spiritualism and expressions of Black queer joy. Katina Alexopulos processes grief through a series of diptychs that address memory, family connections, and family history. Trent Bozeman presents a sensitive and thoughtful document of members of the Elaine Arkansas community, which from September 30 - October, 1, 1919 was the setting for a little known, but terrible massacre of black inhabitants by white supremacists. Christian K. Lee presents a counter argument to stereotypes of black gun ownership by depicting his subjects, who legally own guns for sport, hobby and protection, with dignity and sensitivity. Jamie Robertson, like Trent Bozeman, investigates place as a receptacle for memory in her project, Charting the Afriscape of Leon County, Texas, an autobiographical examination of her family history that brings together her documentary photographs sometimes with images from her family archive. Ashley Ross’s work too deals with familial legacy and identity. She mines her family archive, presenting photographed documents layered with family snapshots alongside poetic staged black and white photographs. Juror PJ Gubatina Policarpio says of the selection of artists, “The six artists represented in Forecast 2021 offer expansive visions of kinship, communities, and the complexity of our time through intimate and incisive images that simultaneously challenge and highlight the possibilities of the medium. Thanks to my esteemed fellow jurors Adrian Burrell and Marcel Pardo Ariza for your brilliance and SF Camerawork for bringing us together.” Olivia Lahs-Gonzales, the new Executive Director of San Francisco Camerawork expressed her excitement at the choices made, saying “The jurors put together a beautiful group of thought-provoking works all of which were made by artists of color, that together make a powerful statement about how photography can assist in the discovery of the self and one’s place in the world, while also creating an environment that promotes reflection and change.”
FORECAST 2021 Artist Biographies
Nykelle DeVivo (Portland, Oregon)
In using photography as language to understand their evolving sense of self, Portland based artist Nykelle DeVivo finds their voice referring to histories of afro-spiritualism and expressions of Black queer joy. Photographing ethereal bodies of light, sensual self portraits and quiet moments of prayer, their images act as a portal between timeless states of being and the physical world they inhabit. Nykelle studied critical theory at the San Francisco Art Institute before going on to be published in articles such as Aint-Bad & I-D, displaying in group shows across the country, and assisting journalists for projects in the New York Times, LensCulture and more.
Artist Website: Nykelledevivo.com
Image Credit: Nykelle DeVivo, mami wati from the series On Becoming, 2018, archival inkjet print on metallic photo paper, 36 x 32 inches, courtesy of the artist.
Katina Alexopulos (San Francisco, California)
Katina Alexopulos presents a series of diptych photographs that recount a visit she made with her mother back home to Taylor, Texas shortly after her bisabuela’s passing in September 2020. Each diptych presents images that reveal traces of her grandmother’s personal belongings, moments of reconnection among family members, the town she raised her family in, and is layered with her own and family memories. Alexopulos is a film photographer based out of San Francisco, California.
Artist Website: alexopulosphotography.com
Image Credit: Katina Alexopulos, Her favorite shade…, 2020, 11 x 14 inches, courtesy of the artist.
Trent Bozeman (Bentonville, Arkansas)
Trent Bozeman is a lens-based artist currently based in Northwest Arkansas. Coming from a journalism background, he is interested in how history is reshaped, documented, and preserved. Bozeman uses his practice as a tool to aid in the act of remembering his past and the past of others. His current work and the work on view in the exhibition is based in the Mississippi Delta in the small town of Elaine, Arkansas. His past work explores Gullah sea islands communities, specifically Wadmalaw Island, and the memories that continue to prolong their cultural significance.
Artist Website: trentbozeman.com
Image Credit: Trent Bozeman, Waiting for an Echo, 2020, archival inkjet print, 15 x 12 inches, courtesy of the artist.
Christian K. Lee (Austin, Texas)
Christian K. Lee is a documentary photographer originally from Chicago, Illinois. The work he has presented for the FORECAST2021 exhibit are portraits of African-American gun owners who use guns for sport, hobby and protection. Lee, whose father was an army veteran and a police officer, saw a double standard for African-American gun owners in America and with his images hoped to counter negative stereotypes and “promote a more balanced archive of images of African Americans with firearms by showing responsible gun owners.” His recent work has been published in the Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, National Geographic and Forbes Magazine, among other publications.
Artist Website: christianklee.com
Image Credit: Christian K. Lee, Aaron Banks Jr and Sr, Cedar Park, TX, from the series Armed Doesn’t Mean Dangerous, 2021, archival inkjet print from scanned 4x5 negative, courtesy of the artist.
Jamie Robertson (Houston Texas)
Robertson is a visual artist and educator. Her creative practice is an autobiographical examination of history and identity in the African Diaspora through the mediums of photography and video. Her work was featured in The Wheaton Biennial _final_final_FINAL, Where We Are at Art League Houston and Through the Lens: Identity, Representation & Self-Presentation at Florida A & M University Foster-Tanner Fine Arts Gallery. Her photobook Charting the Afriscape of Leon County, TX was published in December 2020 with Fifth Wheel Press. She currently works as Lecturer at Sam Houston State University.
Artist Website: jamievrobertson.com
Image Credit: Jamie Robertson, Big Mama's House in Egypt Community, Centerville, TX, 2017 (printed 2020), inkjet print, 24 x 36 inches, courtesy of the artist.
Ashley Ross (Oakland, CA)
Ashley Ross’s personal work explores familial legacy and cultural aspects of black existence. Through the use of family archives and allegorical portraiture, her work seeks to investigate and make connections between understanding how traumas and experiences contribute to and inform our identity. Informed by Ross’s experiences as a child being raised in the Apostolic Christian church, the work is a visual interpretation of an inner dialogue about her religious childhood experiences and how they conflict with an understanding of self.
Artist Website: ashrossphoto.com
Image Credit: Ashley Ross, Polaroid of my mom over Passages 1, 2021, archival pigment print, 24 x 36 inches, image courtesy of the artist.
The Jurors
Marcel Pardo Ariza is a trans non-binary visual artist, curator and cultural worker born in Bogotá, Colombia. Their work explores the relationship of representation, intergenerational kinship and queerness through constructed photographs and site-specific installations.Ariza is the recipient of the San Francisco Artadia Award (2020), Alternative Exposure, Tosa Studio Award and Murphy & Cadogan Contemporary Art Award (2015). They have worked with and exhibited at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Palm Springs Art Museum, Berkeley Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and SFMOMA, among many others.
Adrian L. Burrell is a third-generation Oakland filmmaker who uses photography, film, and site-specific installation to examine issues of race, class, gender, and intergenerational dynamics. His work focuses on notions of kinship, diasporic narratives, and the gaps between place and belonging .Burrell has lived and worked on four continents and has exhibited work in spaces as varied as the Pingyao International Photography Festival in China, Photoville in New York City, Pop-Up Magazine, and most recently, SFMOMA.
PJ Gubatina Policarpio is an educator, writer, curator, and community organizer originally from the Philippines. He is the manager of youth development at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and has organized exhibitions, publications, and public programs at Headlands Center for the Arts, Southern Exposure, Asian Art Museum, and NURTUREart.
About SF Camerawork
Founded in 1974, SF Camerawork provokes discovery, experimentation, and exchange through exhibitions and experiences for all who value new ideas in photography. For more than 45 years, SF Camerawork has provided a launching pad for many artists' careers, supplying invaluable financial support, exhibition space, curation, and patronage. In its early years, SF Camerawork was the first organization in the Bay Area to host exhibitions and lectures by controversial but ultimately highly influential artists such as Sally Mann, Robert Mapplethorpe, Susan Meiselas, and Joel-Peter Witkin. More recently, the organization has presented the first West Coast exhibitions for John Chiara, Binh Danh, Erica Deeman, Jennifer Karady, Jason Lazurus, Chris McCaw, Wang Ning De, and Meghann Riepenhoff—artists who have emerged as leaders of a new generation gaining international prominence. The organization also offers a rich array of programming beyond artist exhibitions. An annual calendar of critiques, workshops, lectures, panel discussions, and curator-led museum and gallery tours offer unique insight and access to San Francisco’s local photography network.
