Myra Greene
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Myra Greene is an American artist who has worked on a number of projects, mostly photographic. Among them are ''Hairy Projects'', ''The Beautiful Ones'', ''Character Recognition'', ''Self Portraits'', ''My White Friends'', and ''Sketches for Something''. Through her work, Greene prompts thought-provoking questions about how individuals are often judged based on skin color and other physical characteristics rather than on their character. Greene's introspective and race-conscious collections have been exhibited in galleries and exhibitions across the country and have gained national recognition in the media, including a ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' spotlight piece for her collection "My White Friends" in 2012.


Early life

Born in 1975 in New York City and growing up in
Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...
, Myra Green received her B.F.A. from the
Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts is a part of Washington University in St. Louis. The Sam Fox School was founded in 2006 by uniting the academic units of Architecture and Art with the university's Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. It is d ...
at
Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...
(1997) and her M.F.A. in photography from the
University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; ) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1889 by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature, it is the state's second oldest university, a flagship university in th ...
(2002).


Career

She is currently an associate professor of photography at
Columbia College Chicago Columbia College Chicago is a Private college, private art college in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1890, it has 6,493 students (as of fall 2021) pursuing degrees in more than 60 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. It i ...
, and her photography collections have been featured regularly in national exhibitions, galleries, and museums since 2009. Throughout her career, Greene has confronted matters of race and personal identity through her work. Growing up in the predominantly black neighborhood of Harlem, New York, yet attending mostly white schools on the
Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by 96th Street (Manhattan), 96th Street to the north, the East River to the e ...
of
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
, Greene has always been conscious of race and how it has influenced her personal narrative. In a ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' interview, Greene states, "I'm always thinking about race. I recognize it when I'm the only black person in a room. My white friends will notice I'm the only black person, too. But they don't notice a room full of white people." In her first collection to receive national attention, "Character Recognition", Greene's use of high contrast black glass ambrotypes prompts viewers to consider the unidimensional way black individuals are viewed in society. In a response to her feelings about how society first and foremost categorized her by her skin-color rather than judging her by who she is as a person, Greene's close-up and tightly framed images of portions of her own face prompt an uncomfortable answer to the questions the collection's title implies about whether she, and black people in general, are judged by their skin color rather than by their character. By using black glass ambrotype, Greene inclines viewers to associate and compare the images in her collection with historical images of African-American slaves taken in the 19th century that were intended to be used as species identifications in science textbooks. This linkage to historical African-American slave roots makes these images powerful reminders of the commodification and stereotyping Greene spotlights through the materials and medium she used to create this collection.


''My White Friends''

The premise for her most well-known collection of photographs "My White Friends" originated after a discussion she had with one of her white friends about her images in "Character Recognition". Greene commented in an ''Art Beat'' interview that her friend said "they're really beautiful, but I just don't feel comfortable thinking about blackness." In the conversation that followed, this friend admitted that he didn't think about his own whiteness when he looked at photos, which started Greene on a path to examine what it would look like to photograph her friends for their whiteness. Traveling around the country and asking her friends if she can "photograph them for their whiteness", Greene uses her friends' styles, gestures, and natural environments to create an image of them that captures their whiteness. While these images are constructed and are not meant to be portraits, her work prompts questions about what can and cannot be captured in a photo, what truths, if any, can be discovered through looking at photographs, and what assumptions viewers make every time they look at an image of a person. This collection gained national recognition and had a successful
Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...
campaign that resulted in a book of the photographs in the collection "My White Friends".


Recognition

* 1999: Curatorial Fellowship, Museum of Modern Art, New York City * 2001: Academic Scholarship, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass, Colorado * 2002: ** Journal of Contemporary Photography Award, The Print Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ** Academic Fellowship, The Photography Institute, New York City * 2003: Artist Residency, The Center of Photography, Woodstock, New York * 2004: Artist Residency, Light Work, Syracuse, New York * 2007: Honorable Mention, New Work #11, En Foco * 2009: Illinois Arts Council Photography Fellowship * 2012: Community Arts Assistance Program (CAAP) Grant, City of Chicago. * 2013: Prairie Center of Arts Residency, Peoria, Illinois * 2014: Artist Residency Bolt, Chicago Artist Coalition, Chicago, Illinois


Solo shows

* John Sommers Gallery * The American Gallery


Group exhibitions

Myra Greene's artwork has been shown in group exhibitions in the following museums and galleries: Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art; Synapse Gallery and Center for Photography; Rochester Contemporary;
Center for Photography at Woodstock The Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) is a not-for-profit arts organization in Kingston, New York that was founded in 1977 with a two-fold mission: to support artists working in photography and related media; and to engage audiences throug ...
; SRO Gallery,
Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public university, public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the flagship instit ...
; Northlight Gallery; Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester; Warren Robbins Gallery;
Anderson Gallery The Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts (also referred to as VCU School of the Arts or simply VCUarts) is a public non-profit art and design school in Richmond, Virginia. One of many degree-offering schools at VCU, the School of ...
; Grossman Gallery;
School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (Museum School, SMFA at Tufts, or SMFA; formerly the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) is a dedicated art school within Tufts University, a private research university in Massac ...
, Boston, Massachusetts; East and West Galleries,
Texas Woman's University Texas Woman's University (TWU) is a Public research university, public coeducational research university in Denton, Texas, with two health science center-focused campuses in Dallas and Houston. While TWU has been fully co-educational since 1994, ...
;
The Print Center The Print Center is a nonprofit gallery located in Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. Originally known as The Print Club, the gallery's mission is to "encourage the growth and understanding of photography and printmaking as vital contemporary arts ...
, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; The University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico; AC2 Gallery; The Red Eye Gallery; Joseph Gross Gallery; Community College Visual Arts Gallery, Harwood Art Center; and John Sommers Gallery.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Greene, Myra Photographers from New York City University of New Mexico alumni Columbia College Chicago faculty Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts alumni