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
- Exhibition Catalog: Called to the Camera Black American Studio Photographers Edited by Brian Piper | Yale University Press (March 14, 2023)
2022
- Exhibition Catalog: On the Grid Ways of Seeing in Print by Jessica D. Brier | Scale Arts Publishers Inc. (November 2022)
- Turner, A., Hirsch, R. (2022). Photograph Fredrick & Jules, 2019 from Black Alchemy Volume III. Light and Lens: Thinking about Photography in the Digital Age (Fourth ed.). Thames, Oxfordshire: Routledge | Taylor & Francis Group.
- 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
- Safe Travels Zine, edited by Sydney Ellison
Publisher: Study Hall Gallery - Pratt MWP
- A New Nothing publication series
- a new nothing, Vol. 1 - edited by John Pilson
- a new nothing, Vol. 2 - edited by S*an D. Henry-Smith
- a new nothing, Vol. 3 - edited by Dan Paz
- UnBound10!, Exhibition Catalog
Publisher: Candela Books
- Contact Sheet 210: Aaron Turner, Light Work
- Black Alchemy: if this one thing is true (TIS03)
Publisher: TIS Books
2020
- What Does Photography Mean to You?, edited by Grant Scott
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
- Pictures Worth 1,000 Words: Artist adds books, music to his exhibition | Arkansas Democrat Gazette
- ‘Black Alchemy’: A Q&A with photographer Aaron Turner | The Arkansas Times
2021
- Aperture and Google Have Announced the Winners of Their New Photography Fund, Vogue (Sept, 30, 2021)
- Aaron Turner: An Interview by Jessica D. Brier, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center (March 31st)
- Video - Delta Voices: Artists of the Mid-South -- Aaron R. Turner, Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts | Video Link
- Podcast - Delta Voices: Artists of the Mid-South, Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts | Episode Link
- ‘Simple, Dark, and Deep’: Photographic Theorizations of As-Yet Schools | Postdigital Science and Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-021-00233-9 (PDSE) organized by Sarah Pfohl Assistant Professor, University of Indianapolis Department of Art & Design (July)
- Interview with photographer Aaron Turner, F-Stop Magazine
- ‘The Photo Ethics Podcast, Season 2 Ep. 10 , Photography Ethics Centre
- Illustration and in print cover, The New York Times Opinion, Sunday Edition
- Human/Nature guest edited by Andy Horowitz, Southern Cultures, UNC Press -The Center for the Study of the American South, UNC-Chapel Hill (Spring 2021)
- The Careful Photograph, Episode #2, Podcast interview with Tarrah Krajnak, Director, Munroe Center for Social Inquiry (MSCI) |Pitzer College (Feb. 22)
- Poignant photos celebrating women of the African diaspora Complex identities, A new exhibition brings together the work of three artists navigating contemporary life in the US, raising pertinent questions about identity, place, migration and immigration Text by Miss Rosen | Huck Magazine (Tuesday 19th January, 2021)
- The Truth About Tulsa, Smithsonian Magazine Cover & Opening Illustrations | April 2021 Issue | Tulsa 1921:
- THE PROMISE OF OKLAHOMA, How the push for statehood led a beacon of racial progress to oppression and violence
- AMERICAN TERROR, A century ago in Tulsa, a murderous mob attacked the most prosperous black community in the nation
- Cover, April 2021 Issue
- We Mourn for All We Know, The Atlantic Magazine Cover, March 2021 Issue
- Cover: We Mourn for All We Know
- Stories of Slavery, From Those Who Survived It The Federal Writers’ Project narratives provide an all-too-rare link to our past. by Clint Smith
- Do We Ask Too Much of Black Heroes? By Imani Perry, The New York Times (Jan. 29, 2021)
2020
- What is Black Alchemy? A Conversation on Abstraction and Identity,
- Black Alchemy, Special Critical MassIssue - Issue 141 ,Fraction Magazine (December)
- Curatorial Statement by Aaron Turner for exhibition catalogue; Women of the African Diaspora: Identity, Place, Migration, Immigration, published by Blue Sky Gallery, edited by Chris Rauschenberg (December)
- THE MISSING BLACK NOTES By Harmony Holiday | The Oxford American ISSUE 111, WINTER 2020 (Image: “Studio Floor #2” (2018), series Black Alchemy Vol. 2)
- Illustration #1 | Illustration #2 - THE FIRSTS: The children who desegregated America, The Atlantic, (Sept. 29th)
- Home Alone Together, Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art, and Belief. Issue 16.5 , published by Routledge (Taylor & Francis). (December 2020)
- Dos Mundos (RE)CONSTRUCTING NARRATIVES A SUNY Traveling Photography Exhibition | NUEVA LUZ, Photographic Journal
- B&H Photography Podcast: Internal Thoughts About Past Histories: Aaron Turner and Laylah Amatullah Barrayn
- United Nations of Photo: A Photographic Life Podcast - 118: Plus Aaron Turner - What Does Photography Mean to You? by Grant Scott (UK)
- What is Black Alchemy? A Conversation on Abstraction and Identity | Interview with Jon Feinstein, Humble Arts Foundation
- PHOTOGRAPH OF THE WEEK #97 , Laurence Miller Gallery (July)
- Aaron Turner Speaks on Institutional Shortcomings & Reclaiming the Narrative of Black Photographers | Interview with Akea Brown, Shades Collective (July)
- See In Black - Vol. 001 Black In America | https://seeinblack.com/