UNCA will be showing work by three Yale MFA graduates Mike Smith, Jeff Whetstone and Pamela Pecchio. All three are faculty at East Tennessee State University, UNC Chapel Hill and UNCA respectively. Pamela has been instrumental in getting this show together and we have not had a show of this caliber or magnitude for photography in quite a while, if ever. The Art Department at UNCA has info on their website. The show opens Fri, Feb 8th with a reception at 5:30 and on Thursday, Feb 7th at 7PM Jeff Whetstone will give an artist lecture. Do not miss this show!
From Mike’s Bio
Mike Smith photographs the rural American Southeast in large-format color photography, exposing the unique beauty of the region and the people who call it home. Born in Germany, Mike Smith received his B.F.A. from the Massachusetts College of Art and his M.F.A. from Yale University School of Art. He has been a Professor of Photography at East Tennessee State University since 1981. Mike Smith’s photography is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Art Institute of Chicago. He was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and was a 2000 finalist for the Alfred Eisenstadt/LIFE Magazine.
From Jeff’s bio
I began my career as a photographer in 1990. Through a grant from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and under the direction of writer Robert Coles, I photographed the Orozcos, a family of Mexican migrant farm workers, throughout their travels harvesting the crops of the southeastern United States. In 1991 I was awarded a Lyndhurst Foundation Young Career Prize for this work.
With support from the Tennessee Humanities Council grant in 1993, I continued my study of the human relationship to the landscape by producing a photography and oral history installation entitled “Before the Flood – Watauga Recollection” that explored the history of the Watauga River Valley in Tennessee and its subsequent inundation by the Tennessee Valley Authority. I directed this multimedia project while serving as an artist-in-residence in at Applshop, Inc., a media-arts cooperative in Whitesburg, Kentucky. The exhibit premiered at the National Folk Festival. In 1994 I was awarded an Al Smith Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council for Photographs describing Eastern Kentuckians’ connection to the land.
This work led to a brief career as a journalist. I was a reporter for the Mountain Eagle, a local paper that is a past winner of the Helen Thomas and Elijah Lovejoy Award for journalism. I covered the South Mountain Mine disaster for Morning Edition and All Things Considered on National Public Radio.
From 1998-2000, I served as an oral historian for “Indivisible: Stories of American Communities” directed by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and funded through a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts. The installation toured nationally at sites including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson.
Gradually I distanced myself from the documentary tradition and the journalistic practice. Even though my artistic subject matter – the relationship of people to the landscape – became my beat, my own imagination was stifled by the journalistic realm of the documentary practice.
I received my MFA from Yale in 2001 when I was awarded the Sakier Prize for excellence in Photography. In 2002 I was included in Seduire/Seduce a French publication, and New York exhibition by Coramandel Press with Nan Goldin, Andres Serrano, Catherine Opie, and others. A New York solo debut took place soon thereafter at One Front Gallery. In 2003, I installed and exhibition entitled “Zoolatry” at Wallspace Gallery in New York. My most recent exhibition of note was installed at Karyn Lovegrove gallery in Los Angeles in April of 2006 which received a positive review in the Los Angeles Times. In September of this year I was a awarded a North Carolina Arts Fellowship.
Pam’s CV
PAMELA PECCHIO
Born 1974, Norwood, MA
EDUCATION
2001 Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT
MFA Photography
1998 University of Georgia, Athens, GA
BFA PhotographySOLO, TWO PERSON AND THREE PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2007 Landscapes, Elon University, Elon, NC
2006 Forest Primeval, Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta
Photographs, Textillery Gallery, Bloomington, IN
Photographs, Gallery 229, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge
2005 Recent Photographs, Office of the Dean, South Building
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill2004 Safe, Durham Arts Council, Durham, NC
Phase Transition, John and June Allcott Gallery, UNC at Chapel Hill
Photographs, The Republik, Durham, NC2003 Cycle of Clemency, Wallspace Gallery, New York, NY
Home is in Your Head, Fugitive Art Center, Nashville, TN
2001 Yale University Thesis Exhibition, New Haven, CT
1997 Threshold, Atlanta Photography Group GallerySELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2006 Denver International Airport Photography Exhibit, Denver, CO
Positive-Negative, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, COCopilandia, Sevilla Entre Culturas Festival, Centro de Arte Sevilla, Spain
2005 Beijing International Art Camp, Beijing, China
Eponymous, Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, TN
Faculty Biennial, Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, NC
Daylight Magazine and Branch Gallery Anniversary Exhibit, Carrboro, NC2004 LOOM 3:Labeler, Pittsboro, NC
5th Anniversary Exhibit, The Fugitive Art Center, Nashville, TN
Holiday Shopping, Wallspace Gallery, New York, NY
Safe, 1200 Watts Avenue, Durham Historic Tour, NC
2003 NADA Art Fair, Miami Basel, Miami, FL
The Bill Clinton Show, Locus Media Gallery, NY, NY
Faculty Biennial, Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, NC
2003 Holiday Shopping, Wallspace Gallery, New York, NY
2002 Holiday Shopping, Wallspace Gallery, New York, NY
Home Work, Wallspace Gallery, New York, NY
2001 Mercury Art Works, Athens, GA
I See You 2, Fredericks Freiser Gallery, New York, NY
2000 A Decade of Flagpole Covers, GA Museum of Art
1999 Body as Commodity, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center
Seven, Clayton Street Gallery, Athens, GA
1998 Clayton Street Gallery Juried Exhibition, Athens, GA
1997 Athens Underground, Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, GA
PHOTOGRAPHIC PUBLICATIONS
2005 Beijing International Art Camp Exhibition Catalog, Beijing, China
2003 Details Magazine, October
2002 American Standard, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, NY, NY, Exhibition Catalog
Details Magazine, October
Eye, V Magazine, January/February
2001: Graduate Photography at Yale, New Haven, CT
2001 ArtNews, November
Details Magazine, November
1999 Pecchio, Pamela. eight, (artistÕs book), Nexus Press, Atlanta, GA
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2004 Millett, Ann. Art Papers, September
Cleary, Caitlin. Weaving Art into an Archival Setting,
The Durham News & Observer, May 23
2003 Aletti, Vince. Shortlist: Photo, The Village Voice, October 10
Wibking, Angela. Another View, The Nashville Scene, February 13
2001 DiCorcia, Phillip-Lorca. 2001: Graduate Photography at Yale
1999 Fox, Catherine. Body Quantity over Quality,
Atlanta Journal and Constitution, October 15
1998 Forrest, Jason A. Threshold, Atlanta Journal and Constitution, November 7
1997 Keyes, Donald. Curator, Georgia Museum of Art
Artists on the Threshold, Athens, GA
AWARDS
2001 Richard Dixon Welling Prize, Yale University
VISITING ARTIST LECTURES AND WORKSHOPS
2005 Ackland Museum of Art, Chapel Hill, NC
2004 The Durham Arts Council, Real vs. Unreal
2003 The University of the South, Sewanee, TN
Watkins College of Art and Design, Nashville, TN
2002 The Cooper Union, New York, NY
The Darrow School, New Lebanon, NY
2000 The University of Georgia, Athens, GA
1999 The University of Georgia, Athens, GA
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2006 Instructor, Duke University, Durham, NCCenter for Documentary Studies2005-2006 Instructor, Louisiana State University
Basic, Intermediate, Digital and Advanced Color Photography
Graduate Seminar, Senior Exit Project
2002-2005 Lecturer, UNC Chapel Hill
Basic, Intermediate, Advanced and Color Photography
Book Arts
Graduate Review Panel Member
2002-2003 Instructor, Duke University, Durham, NC
Center for Documentary Studies
Introduction to Documentary Photography
2000-2001 Teaching Assistant, Yale University
Advanced Color Photography, Graduate Interdisciplinary Seminar
2000 Instructor and Teaching Assistant
Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art
RELATED EXPERIENCE
2001-2002 Production Manager for Artist Gregory Crewdson
2000-2003 Freelance Photographer for Details Magazine
1998-1999 Intern, Nexus Press, Atlanta, GA
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
Davenport College, Yale University
Sloane Art Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
