Kimberly Witham Recent Work - Photography
8/11-9/21, artists reception 8/11 & 12 7-9pm
About the exhibition:
The photographs in "Vignettes" are a celebration of light, beauty, excess, and decay.
Central to the exhibition is a salon wall of smaller works in ornate frames. These photographs were created spontaneously in the studio, often while working on larger pieces. They celebrate small moments of ephemeral beauty: light falling on petals, feathers, metal and glass. Like much of my work, these photographs are inspired by Dutch Golden Age painting. Each image has been hand-varnished and paired with a vintage wood frame to create a one-of-a-kind piece.
“Vignettes” also includes several large works which preview my new and ongoing series “Let Them Eat Cake.” In making these images, I digitally combine elements from Rococo landscape paintings and print them to create backdrops. In the foreground, I stage elaborate still life arrangements. The resulting photographs refer to both the excesses of the Rococo era and those of our current time.
About Kimberly
Kimberly Witham is an artist and educator who currently resides in Glen Gardner, NJ. Kimberly was born and raised in Wakefield, Rhode Island. She earned a BA in Art History from Duke University and an MFA in photography from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. Her photographs are strongly influenced by her studies in art history and her interest in the natural world. Since moving to New Jersey in 2006, her work has focused on the relationship between humans and wildlife. Her still life images include road kill animals, yard sale items, and flowers and fruit (often grown in the artist’s own garden).
Her work has been featured in Color Magazine, PHOTO+, BLOW photo, The Photo Review, BLINK, Foto, Orion, The New Republic, and Wired (online) and has been used as cover illustration for books in the US and France. In 2016, National Geographic created a short film about Kimberly’s studio practice entitled “Making Roadkill Into Art.” She has won awards and grants including the Feature Shoot Emerging Photography Award, a fellowship at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists, the Clarence John Laughlin Award and the Lindback Distinguished teaching award. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in the United States and abroad and is held in numerous private collections. Kimberly is an Associate Professor of Photography at Bucks County Community College. Kimberly also teaches specialized workshops in still life photography and lighting including an upcoming class at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops in Summer 2019.
Artists Statement:
All of my work is strongly influenced by natural history dioramas, cabinets of curiosity, still life painting and other manifestations of humankind’s attempt to categorize, comprehend and ultimately control the natural world. My photographs are informed by my studies in art history and my love of nature. I am an avid gardener, wanderer, and collector of bones, shells, seed pods and other ephemera.
"Guild and Guilt” 2023, photograph 48 x 32” edition of 1, 36 x 24” edition of 3, 21 x 14” edition of 5