The Studio Museum in Harlem

Christeen Penon, Cognate Souls, 2008, Courtesy the artist

The young photographers in this year’s Expanding the Walls exhibition, Eye Notes, approach documentary art in a variety of ways as they present their work alongside a selection of James VanDerZee’s classic Harlem portraits. Expanding the Walls is an eight-month, photography-based program that uses the VanDerZee archive as a springboard for conversation and art-making. Continuing the influential artist’s exploration of community, identity, history and culture, each of this year’s participants examine their relationships to these enduring themes through subjects that range from retro kids, public housing and reenactments, to transracial relationships, memory and performing bodies.

Responding to the themes of reality and imagination, as well as publicity and privacy, implied by VanDerZee’s work, each Expanding the Walls participant shares a particular way of seeing. They reflect on the changes to photography’s social role since VanDerZee’s pre-digital time, and pause to think over their relationships to visual culture and image-making. In an age of camera-phone snapshots, ever-changing MySpace pages and homemade YouTube videos, these young creators carefully consider how images acquire meaning, move in virtual and physical space and can be reshaped by an active author. Using many techniques, including figuration, surrealism and abstraction, they offer personal truths and perspectives.

The participating artists in this years program are Alani Bass, Michelle Figueroa, Sofia Flores, Ivan Forde, Chanelle Joseph, Christina Pardes, Christeen Penon, Nicole Rodriguez, Keisha Streeks, Tempestt Watson and, or course, James VanDerZee.

Expanding the Walls is supported by New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; Colgate-Palmolive, JPMorgan Chase Foundation; The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation; and Time Warner Inc.

Our deepest gratitude goes to Donna Mussenden VanDerZee for her continued support of the Studio Museum and the Expanding the Walls program.