CONSPICUOUS ABSENCE
October 24 - November 28, 2015
Carla Jay Harris
Carla Jay Harris, 2015, Mother
Opening: October 24 | 6pm—9pm
Sonce Alexander Gallery is proud to present Caral Jay Harris's first solo exhibition Conspicuous Absence.
Carla Jay Harris utilizes photography to quietly render emotional turbulence within her subject matter. Harris investigates the struggle of people and places during America’s cultural and economical fluxes. Quaint and inaudible, her photographs permeate the viewer with inequalities of race and gender.
“As a child of a military man, I spent my childhood in flux – moving every 2-3 years for the first half of my life. This pattern of transience continued into adulthood due to familial obligations, financial restrictions and indoctrinated habit. My work is made in direct response to my nomadic existence.” — Carla Jay Harris
Conspicuous Absence is a continuation of Harris’s exploration to test boundaries of photographic representation with a particular emphasis on the progressing dialogue of essential power that media wields in western culture.
“I am exploring how the constructs of family, race and gender have shaped and continue to constitute my sense of self as an American, a Black American, a Black American woman and a Black American female artist. Additionally, my new series of composite works, including Mother and Ebony, explore identity, perception, history & performance.”
— Carla Jay Harris
As a modern day voyager, Harris documents our ever-changing world through composed encounters. Conspicuous Absence silently shouts the disturbances of American life. Through the junction of photography and collage, Harris’s images simultaneously enforce her views and allow viewers to experience their own history. Harris believes that American culture has constructed its own set of archetypes that dictate the ways in which individuals are marked and identified. Questioning the structure of these archetypes, as well as who reigns over this dictation of identity, Harris is primarily interested in photography’s role of affirming and reaffirming political realities.
Harris received her MFA from University of California, Los Angeles, Bachelor of Science from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, and Continuing Education in Photography and Design at the School of Visual Arts, New York, NY. Select exhibitions include: Year 1 - 5790 Projects, Center for Contemporary Art, Eagle Rock, CA (upcoming), (2015), Inconspicuous Presence, New Wight Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2015), Hidden/Talent - Bonhams & Butterfields, San Francisco, CA (2015), Haunted Landscape, Artshare LA, Los Angeles, CA (2015), Respond, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY (2015), MFA Preview, New Wight Gallery, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA (2014), Fall12, The Center for Contemporary Art, Bedminster, NJ (2012). Harris is a recipient of the following awards: Finalist MFT Prize (2015), Hoyt Fellowship (2015), Resnick Fellowship (2014), Martha Matthias Denny Fellowship (2014), D’Arcy Hayman Scholarship (2013), UCLA Art Council Award (2013).