Creative Conversations: Elizabeth Chiles, Rebecca Finley, Rashed Haq, Richard Sharum, and Raymond Thompson Jr. in Conversation with Brandon Zech
Creative Conversations: Elizabeth Chiles, Rebecca Finley, Rashed Haq, Richard Sharum, and Raymond Thompson Jr. in Conversation with Brandon Zech
Friday, March 15 | 6 PM
The Hangar at Silver Street Studios, 2000 Edwards Street
Free and open to the public.
For the first time in FotoFest’s history, half of the artists featured in the Ten by Ten exhibition are based in Texas. Over 400 artists from around the globe participated in the Meeting Place Portfolio Reviews between 2022 and 2023, and from that pool of incredible talent, five artists— Elizabeth Chiles, Rebecca Finley, Rashed Haq, Richard Sharum, and Raymond Thompson Jr.—were selected by five internationally renowned art and photography leaders to present their work in the FotoFest Biennial 2024. Learn about these artists and the contemporary landscape of art and photography in Texas in this special Creative Conversations program moderated by Texas art expert and Glasstire publisher Brandon Zech.
FotoFest’s International Meeting Place Portfolio Review is the longest-running event of its kind in the United States. Held in conjunction with FotoFest Biennial exhibitions, the Meeting Place brings 150 curators, editors, and photography experts to Houston to meet with, and review the portfolios of, over 450 artists and photographers from around the globe. The Ten by Ten exhibition is a celebration of this important site of discourse and cultural exchange. Each of the ten participating artists were nominated by ten expert Meeting Place reviewers on the criteria that their lens-based works represent the diverse landscape of contemporary photographic practice.
About the Speakers
Elizabeth Chiles is an American artist based in Austin, Texas pushing the boundaries of photography and its possibilities, making intangible concepts—including time, perception and consciousness—visible to viewers. Responding to the profound human need for peace and connection to the land, she shapes landscapes and reveals how they shape her in return. Chiles has presented projects at Foley Gallery (NYC), The Harry Ransom Center, The Contemporary Austin, Foto Relevance Gallery, Southwest School of the Arts and Austin Central Library among other venues.
Rebecca Finley is an artist who is originally from Knoxville, Tennessee and has lived in Texas since 2005. She received her MFA in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2000 and her BA in Studio Art from The University of Tennessee in 1997. Rebecca currently holds the position of Professor of Art, Photography at Sam Houston State University where she is also the Photography Area Program and MFA Art & Social Practice Graduate Coordinator. Rebecca has spent many years focused on portraiture, exploring ideas of identity and connection. Her current photographic work deals with time, memory loss, and miscommunication. Rebecca’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States and Internationally.
Rashed Haq is a Bangladeshi-American artist, scientist, and technologist. He learned photography in the darkroom in Rochester, NY, and then was trained as a mathematical physicist, going on to do research on black holes and astrophysics. Rashed’s art explores the co-evolution of humans and technology, and the impact these have on our society, culture, environment and psychology. Rashed uses a combination of photography and software algorithms in his artistic practice, many of the techniques having been used in software engineering. He has recently had over 40 solo and group exhibitions across North America, and his work is in various private and corporate collections. He was awarded the Art+Science award from Lenscratch and the COMPAS Photography award from Oxford University.
Richard Sharum is a documentary and project-centered photographer based in the Dallas, Texas area. Mainly focusing on socioeconomic and social justice dilemmas concerning the human condition, his work has been regarded as in-depth, up-close, and personal. His work is held in private and public collections across the world and he has shown work in exhibitions in Kyoto, Japan, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Reggio Emilia, Italy, New York, and Dallas. His commissions include photography projects for The Meadows Foundation, Centers for Community Cooperation, Harvard Law School, Student Conservation Association, Children’s Medical Center (Oncology), Children’s Cancer Fund. His work has been featured in multiple publications, including the British Journal of Photography, LensCulture, The Atlantic, Texas Monthly, Huck Magazine, B+W Photo, Publico (Portugal), El Pais (Spain), The New York Times Lens Blog, DeepRed Press, International Business Times Weekly, Glasstire, and PATRON.
Raymond Thompson Jr. is an artist, educator, and visual journalist based in Austin, TX. He works as an Assistant Professor of Photojournalism at the University of Texas at Austin. He has received an MFA in Photography from West Virginia University and an MA in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin. He graduated from the University of Mary Washington with a BA in American Studies. He was the 2023 winner of the 1619 Aftermath Grant. He has been a freelance photographer for The New York Times, The Intercept, NBC News, NPR, Politico, ProPublica, The Nature Conservancy, ACLU, WBEZ, Google, Merrell, and the Associated Press.
Brandon Zech joined Glasstire, the largest art-focused publication in Texas, in 2015 as the publication’s assistant editor. In 2018, he began overseeing the publication’s news content as Glasstire’s first dedicated news editor, and he replaced the site’s founding publisher, Rainey Knudson, in 2019. In addition to speaking at venues across Texas, Brandon also contributes podcasts and articles to the site. He is a graduate of the University of Houston.
Learn more about the FotoFest Biennial 2024, its exhibitions, and programming at fotofest.org/fotofest-biennial-2024.
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Principal sponsorship of Ten by Ten: Ten Portfolios from the Meeting Place 2022–23 is provided by MPB.com.
Interested in volunteering? Visit Biennial 2024 Volunteering.
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