September 13 – November 8, 2009
Pelle Cass
Cypress Field, 2008
composite photograph, inkjet print
17″ x 25″
Courtesy of the Artist
The Danforth Museum of Art is once again pleased to present the very best contemporary photography in the upcoming New England Photography Biennial 2009, which will be on view at the Museum from September 13 through November 8, 2009. The exhibit will officially open with a special public opening reception honoring the artists on Saturday evening, September 12 from 6-8 p.m. A number of special lectures and talks will occur through the course of the exhibition. All programs are free to Museum members, or with regular admission.
About the Exhibition
Every two years, the Danforth Museum of Art celebrates photography as an art form through a highly selective exhibition of photographers who reside throughout New England. Juried by Phillip Prodger, Curator of Photography, at the Peabody Essex Museum, and Barbara O’Brien, former editor of Art New England and former Director, Trustman Art Gallery, Simmons College, Boston, the 2009 New England Photography Biennial showcases exciting and innovative photography by both established and emerging artists. Prodger and O’Brien chose 73 works from 1,030 pieces submitted by 213 artists.
›› Related Media
›› 2009 Purchase Prize Winners
›› Selected Photographers
›› Download Prospectus and Application Form
›› See 2007 New England Photography Biennial Information
This Year’s Jurors
About Barbara O’Brien
Barbara O’Brien is a curator, critic and educator whose favorite question regarding contemporary art is “What’s Next?”. O’Brien earned an MFA in Photography from Rhode Island School of Design. Most recently O’Brien was an Assistant Professor of Art at Simmons College and the Director of the college’s Trustman Art Gallery. From 2002 to 2006, she was the Editor-in-Chief of Art New England magazine.
About Phillip Prodger
Phillip Prodger is Curator of Photography at the Peabody Essex Museum. He joined the museum after positions at the National Gallery of Canada and the Saint Louis Art Museum. His book projects include Time Stands Still: Muybridge and the Instantaneous Photography Movement (2003), Impressionist Camera: Pictorial Photography in Europe (2005), Paul Outerbridge: New Color Photography in California and Mexico (2009), and the forthcoming Darwin’s Camera: Art and Photography in the Theory of Evolution. He has organized exhibitions of vintage, modern, and contemporary photography internationally, and his writings on art and photography have been published in eight languages.
2009 Purchase Prize Winners
For each New England Photography Biennial two selected photographers are chosen for purchase prize awards by the jurors. Their works will then become part of the Museum’s permanent collection. This year’s purchase prize winners are Meredith Miller and Mori Insinger.
 Meredith Miller Untitled (Melissa After Greek Idyllic Family), 2003 color print, 40 x 30 inches Courtesy of the Artist |
Meredith Miller graduated from the Yale University School of Art in 2003 with an MFA in photography. Her work has been exhibited in New England and beyond since 1996, including the A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn and Artspace in New Haven where she lives and works. Miller was a recipient of an Artist Fellowship Grant from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism as well as the Yale University Blair Dickinson Memorial Prize and the Richter Grant from the University of Chicago. The works selected for the New England Photography Biennial are part of a series, entitled After Paintings, inspired by Balthus, Mary Cassatt & Andrew Wyeth. By borrowing the iconic gesture or pose and infusing her own sense of space and color, Miller attempts to both re-create a specific sitting and re-examine the sitter’s psychology. |
| Mori Insinger is a Boston-based fine art photographer, whose work focuses on the exploration of society through landscape, portrait, and architectural images. As the son of a Japanese ceramist and an American architect, Mori’s interest in art began at a young age, including courses at the Cleveland Institute of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Hew went on to study fine arts in college, receiving his BFA and an AB Honors program degree in Sociology from the University of Michigan. After college Mori first spent time in Japan taking photographs and teaching English before returning to the US where he worked in social research. He completed graduate study with a Ph.D. in sociology with a focus on inner-city communities and cultural arts programming at the University of Pennsylvania. His work has recently been shown at the Tisch Gallery at Tufts University and as part of the Boston Drawing Project. He has served on the Board of Directors for the the United South End Artists and Boston’s City-Wide Dialogues on Racial and Ethnic diversity and on the Gallery Committee for the Boston Public Library’s South End Gallery. His social landscape images examine the implicit boundaries and inherent grooming which exist. |  Mori Insinger Chatham, Massachusetts, 2008 archival inkjet print, 20 x 24 inches Courtesy of the Artist |
Related Media
“A full spectrum”
By Mark Feeney, The Boston Globe, October 10, 2009
“Photography Exhibit at the Danforth Leaves an Introspective Impression”
By Chris Bergeron, MetroWest Daily News, September 20, 2009