All rights reserved, Aaron Turner ©2018

Aaron R. Turner (b.1990 | West Memphis, Arkansas )

based in Northwest Arkansas


EDUCATION

2016 - Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, M.F.A

2014 - Ohio University, M.A. - Visual Communications 

2012 - The University of Memphis, B.A.


SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023 - Black Alchemy: Resolve (attempt #1) 

Penumbra Foundation {forthcoming} - June - Sept 2023

2023 - Fantastic: (Black Alchemy: Backwards/Forwards Revisited)

Tennessee Triennial, organized by Tri-Star Arts

TONE Gallery, Memphis, TN (January 21st -  March 18th)

2022 - Black Alchemy: Remembering Fazendeville 

Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA (December  9th- )

2022 - Black Alchemy: If this one thing is true [Redux}, 

Staniar Gallery - W&L University

2022 - Nothing Even Matters (select images from Black Alchemy Vol. 1, 2, & 3)

"Perspectives Gallery" at Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (forthcoming February)

2022 - [as luck would have it], Virginia Tech, College of Architecture & Urban Studies (January 14th - 21st)

2022 - Yesterday Once More,

Walton Arts Center, Joy Pratt Markham Gallery |Fayetteville, AR ( January 15th - April 3rd)

2021 - Black Alchemy: If this one thing is true, curated by Drew Sawyer

Houston Center for Photography | November 19 –January 9, 2021, Houston, TX

2021 - Black Alchemy: Backwards/Forwards, 

Light Work - Kathleen O. Ellis Gallery | January 19 - March 4, Syracuse, NY 

2019 - Black Alchemy, startUP Art Fair Houston 

Hotel ICON - Houston Texas Oct. 11-13

2017 - Arkansas Delta - October 4 - November 1 

Mercer County Community College James Kerney Campus Gallery | Trenton, NJ


SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023

- What Now? (Or Not Yet)

The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College (Jan 21 - Sep 21)

- Dismantling Monoliths

SF Cameraworks | San Francisco, CA (January 22 - March 25th)

- Brick x Brick 

Tennessee Triennial, organized by Tri-Star Arts

TONE HQ | Memphis, TN (January 27, 2023 to May 7, 2023)

2022

- Spectrum

TONE (Mitchell Gallery), Memphis, TN (April 2nd -  May 14th)

- TIS03, Washington University | Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts (St. Louis, MO)

curated by Meghan Kirkwood (January 25th - February 25th)

-  Subject - Object

Richard F. Brush Art Gallery, St. Lawrence University | Canton, NY (January 19 - February 26)
- On the Grid: Ways of Seeing in Print

Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College | Poughkeepsie, NY (August 20 -  December 22)

- Called to the Camera: Black American Studio Photographers

New Orleans Museum of Art (September 16th - January 8th)

- Refracting Histories 

Museum of Contemporary Photography , Columbia College Chicago (Nov 10 — Apr 2, 2023)

- National Invitational exhibition hosted by The University of Iowa

Visual Arts Building, Drewelowe + Ana Mendieta Galleries (October 3 –October 29)

2021

- What I know to be true, and other encounters, curated by Annette An-Jen Liu

Photo Access Australia (December 16th - January 29th, 2022)|

- Shaping Identity: A Non-Linear Journey

The Baldwin Photographic Gallery, Middle Tennessee State University -  Murfreesboro, TN (November 4th - January 27th 2022)

- Safe Travels

Study Hall Gallery at PrattMWP - Utica, NY (Sept. 20th - Dec. 30th)

-  f22 Fine Art Prints Pop Up,

West Town Pop Up Project (Sept 23rd -26th) Chicago, IL

- Collaborating with the Archive, Filter Photo

Chicago, IL September 24 -October 30, 2021

- Source Material,

Colorado Photographic Arts Center (Aug 13th - Sept 25th)

- UnBound10!, Candela Gallery

  Richmond Virginia (July 2nd - Aug 7th)

- This Is The Day: Reckoning and Rejoice, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art 

Bentonville, AR (March 17, 2021 - September 26, 2021)

- The Ongoing Moment: Recent Acquisitions of Photography at the Loeb, 

Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College | Poughkeepsie, NY (March 13th - June 27th)

- Home Alone Together - Dadian Gallery in the Henry Luce III 

Center for the Arts & Religion at Wesley Theological Seminary - Washington, D.C. 

- Kind of Bluets: Color (Aid) Commentary curated by Breanne Trammell

 (Public Storage) - “Quarantine in the Cube” panel at CAA in (February 2021)

-Dos Mundos 20/21

  • SUNY Fredonia (Jan 19-Feb 28, 2021)
  • SUNY Binghamton (March-May 2021)
  • SUNY Stony Brook (July-Oct 2021)

2020

- Dos Mundos 20/21 

Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz (Aug 26 - Dec 13, 2020)

- INTERSECTIONS: Art/Power - SCUL Gallery/University of Arkansas,

(March 10th-15th), organized by Stefani  Byrd

- Overwhelming (Im)Possibilities, Houston Community College West Loop Art Gallery

 (March 5-April 6, 2020) South Central SPE Caucus Exhibition 

- Home Alone Together | Image Journal - 

Co-Curators: Dr. Aaron Rosen & S. Billie Mandle

- Full House, local host Gallery - 

organized by Drew Nikonowicz (May-July) - online

- Photography Now 2020 

Center for Photography at Woodstock, (November 14 – December 23, 2020)

2019

- A-I-R: New Acquisitions 2019 

Hallway Gallery | Light Work Syracuse, NY (Nov.4th - Dec.12)


AWARDS & RESIDENCIES

2022 Nueva Luz Study Center Fellowship

2022 The Creative Exchange Fund (CXF): 214 Artist Residency Award | CACHE

2022 Darryl Chappell Artist in Residence at Ogden Museum of Southern Art 

2021 Creator Labs Photo Fund | Google & Aperture Foundation

2021 Juror’s Choice Award (Collaborating with the Archive) | Filter Photo 

2021 The Silver List | Silver Eye Center for Photography, The Black List, and Carnegie Mellon University

2021 HCP Fellowship | Houston Center for Photography 

2020 Artist 360 Grant | Mid-America Arts Alliance

2020 Critical Mass Top 50 | Photolucida 

2020 BASEMENT Art Space Residency (Digital) (Chapel Hill, NC) - September

2020 Emergency Relief Grant | American Academy of Arts and Letters

2020 University of Arkansas | Studio Art Endowment Funding, for The Center for Photographers of Color (Fall-Spring 2020-2021) 

2020 Visual Studies Workshop, Project Space Residency - Rochester, NY (July) (postponed 2021)

2019 Studio Art Research Grant - University of Arkansas School of Art - (Fall) 

2019 startUP Art Fair Houston, Featured Artist Merit Award (nomination)

2019 University of Arkansas | Studio Art Endowment Funding, for The Center for Photographers of Color (Fall-Spring 2019-2020) 

2019 Faculty Research Grant University of Arkansas School of Art (Spring) 

2019 Adolf Fassbender Travel Award – Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona 

2019 En Foco Photography Fellowship

2018 University of Arkansas | Studio Art Endowment Funding, for The Center for Photographers of Color (Fall-Spring 2018-19) 

2018 Flash Forward 2018 TOP 100 - Magenta Foundation

2018 New York Portfolio Review | hosted by New York Times Lens Blog 

2018 Light Work Artist-in-Residence Program - (August ) Syracuse University

2016 Brovero Photography Prize | Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers 

2016 Professional Development Grant | Graduate School Rutgers University 

2014-16 Graduate Teaching Assistantship | Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers

2014 New York Portfolio Review | hosted by New York Times Lens Blog 

2012 Saul Brown Press-Scimitar Award For Excellence in Photography | University of Memphis


BOOKS

2023

  • Monograph: Moves from the Archive (forthcoming)

Publisher: Sleeper Studio

2022

  • There may still be time left (photographs from the Black Alchemy series), essay by Daoone Huff, Q&A interview w/ BASEMENT Art Space NC  

Publisher: Visual Studies Workshop

2021

 Publisher: Study Hall Gallery - Pratt MWP 

Publisher: Candela Books

Publisher: TIS Books

2020


COLLECTIONS

Museum of Contemporary Photography 

New Orleans Museum of Art

Center for Creative Photography (CCP), University of Arizona 

The Candela Collection

Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center - Vassar College 

The MC Hotel - Montclair, NJ 

Telfair Museum of Art/Jepson Center in Savannah, GA

Light Work – Syracuse, NY

Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library 

Looking At Appalachia

Indie Photobook Library


SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

2022

2021

2020



Using Format