Lives and works in Fayetteville, 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
2021 - Black Alchemy: Backwards/Forwards, Light Work - Kathleen O. Ellis Gallery | Syracuse, NY
2019 - startUP Art Fair Houston - Hotel ICON - Houston Texas Oct. 11-13
2017 - "Arkansas Delta" - October 4 - November 1 at Mercer County Community College James Kerney Campus Gallery | Trenton, NJ
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
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)
- Overwhelming (Im)Possibilities Houston Community College West Loop Art Gallery (March 5-April 6, 2020) South Central SPE Caucus Exhibition - Juror: Haley Berkman Karren
2019
-A-I-R: New Acquisitions 2019 - Hallway Gallery | Light Work Syracuse, NY (Nov.4th - Dec.12)
- In this body of mine, Strange Fire Collective - Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design
-SPE North East Exhibition juried by D’Angelo Lovell WIlliams - Rhode Island School of Design’s Red Eye Gallery
-Photography in Memphis - Memphis Brooks Museum of Art - Memphis, TN
-Slow Exposures Photo Festival Main Show/Exhibition:
Concord, Soiree at Split Oak Farm, Zebulon, GA
Cochran Gallery, 4 E. Lafayette Sq., La Grange, GA
-Center Annual: Profound Movement - Houston Center for Photography - Houston, TX
- SUBJECT ≠ OBJECT, En Foco Photography Fellowship Exhibition - Longwood Art Gallery @Hostos - Bronx, NY
-Quiet as Kept: Passing Subjects, Contested Identities - Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY
2018
-4 Person Show – “Of Self” Czurles-Nelson Gallery at SUNY Buffalo State curated by Yola Monakhov Stockton
-Working Assumptions Traveling Exhibition: Showing (work x family)
-University Art Gallery, California State University, Stanislaus in Turlock
-Art Gallery at the Fulginiti Pavilion, at the Center for Bioethics and Humanities, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora
-3 Person Show Arbitrary History: Carer of Souls, Emile Askey, Jahi Sabater, Aaron Turner, Mom's Gallery - Greenwich Village, NYC
-SPE Northeast Juried Exhibition, Tipping Points juried by Paul Mpagi Sepuya, October 6th at Vassar College’s Palmer Gallery
-(RE 21) curated by Efrem Zelony-Midell, | Pfzer building, Bedstuy Brooklyn, NY,
2017
-JACK Brooklyn Performance Space, Film Screening of "alone, sometimes" w/ HOT HANDS Collective performance of " The Glass Eye"
-PHOTOT-EMPHASIS - HATCH, MEDICI Gallery at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (juried exhibition Zora Murff)
-Songs of My People: 25 Years' | Dillard University – Photo NOLA
-Showing (work x family) project of Working Assumptions, curators Trudy Wilner Stack & Georey Biddle
-Backyard Biennial | Ridgewood (Queens),NYC w/ Patrice Helmer
-Click! Photography Festival - Where We Find Home: Recent Southern Photography Cameron Gallery of the Scrap Exchange | Durham, NC
-Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) - Southern Routes Curated by Heather Hakimzadeh
-Of Memory, Bone & Myth - Colonel Eugene Myers Gallery of Art University of North Dakota | (Juror: Aline Smithson)
-Songs of My People: 25 Years Later - organized by Imani Cheers, PhD January - Gallery 102, George Washington University
2016
-Ohio University Black Alumni Reunion Exhibition - The Multicultural Center Art Gallery |Ohio University
-Slow Exposures 2016: Southern Icons, A to Z - The Whiskey Bonding Barn | Molena, GA
-2017 LaGrange College, GA
-2018 Benson Campus Galleries, Greenville Technical College, SC
-2018 University of South Carolina, Beaufort [in conjunction with the Pat Conroy Literary Festival]
-"If they Arrive at Sunrise" Rutgers MFA Thesis Show Mason Gross Galleries New Brunswick, NJ
-“Hungry Heart” - Rutgers in New York | The Invisible Dog Art Center New York City, NY Digital
-Pop Up Show | Switzerland Jura platz Gallery
2015
-Stories and Secrets, Photo Place Gallery | Vermont (Jurors: Kirsten Hoving and Emma Powell)
-New Hampshire Institute of Art’s Biennial , New Hampshire Institute of Art | Manchester, NH
-Waging Life: National Juried Exhibition, Lycoming College Downtown Art Gallery| Williamsport, PA
-Think Tank Gallery | Los Angeles, CA
-City Hall | New Brunswick, NJ
2014
-Salt of the Earth, Multicultural Center Art Gallery | Ohio University Athens, Ohio Press 2014
-Antenna Gallery |New Orleans, LA
-Small Format Exhibition - Alfa Art Gallery | New Brunswick, NJ
AWARDS
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
2017 Light Work Artist-in-Residence Program - August 2018 - 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
VISITING ARTIST LECTURES
2020 - Skype Call Oral Presentation/Session Photo II Class - Siena College - Siena, NY
2019 - startUp Art Fair Houston, panel w/curator Haley Berkman - Houston, TX
2019 - Rochester Institute of Technology, School of Photographic Arts
2019 - Volkerding Study Center, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona
2019 – North Carolina State University – Department of Art + Design
2018 – Virginia Tech Nov. 2018, School of Visual Arts (SOVA)
2018 - SUNY Buffalo State Department of Art and Design| Nov. 2018
2018 - Geek Fest Photo Conference, A Photo A Day (APAD), New Orleans, LA - September
2017 Mercer County Community College - James Kerney Campus Gallery | Trenton, NJ
2016 Southern Studies Conference | Auburn University at Montgomery College of Arts and Sciences
2015 “Exploring e Delta Voice: from the outside-In and the Inside-out ”Greenville Arts Council | Greenville, Mississippi
2014 The ADP Workshop – hosted by Josh Birnbaum Ross Mantle | Ohio University Athens, OH
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2020
- Primal Sight, edited by Efrem Zelony-Mindell (forthcoming), Publisher: Gnomic Books
- Monograph: Black Alchemy Vol. 1 & 2 (forthcoming), Publisher: Sleeper Studios
2019
- Today’s Agenda: Images on Teaching and Learning - Light Leaked September 2019 Issue
- Light Work / Re:Collection: Aaron Turner on Gerald Cyrus (September)
- Shade Podcast Interview w/Lou Mensah Ep. 9 | Guest Photographer & Curator of Photographers of Colour
- Nueva Luz Photographic Journal, En Foco
- Contact Sheet 202 Light Work Annual, Syracuse, NY essay by Jennie C. Jones
- Closing Ceremony Issue No. 2, “American Spirit”, Shanghai, China
- The Photo Show Podcast Interview w/ Michael Chovan-Dalton- Half Frame Ep. 89
2018
– Essay by Claudio Nolasco, ‘Of Self” Exhibition Catalogue, SUNY Buffalo, Buffalo, NY
- Photo-Emphasis - PROJECT SPOTLIGHT: BLACK ALCHEMY February 2018
2017
- Interview w/ Zora J Murff | Musings Blog - Strange Fire Collective - August
- The Photo Show Podcast Interview w/ Michael Chovan-Dalton & Kai McBride - August 2017 2017 - Oxford American Fall Issue | photograph from Lake Cormorant, Mississippi - Sept 2017
- Nieman Foundation / Nieman Reports: Images that Offer Fresh Takes on Minority Communities - A selection of work by photographers seeking to move beyond stereotypical depictions of communities of color - May 2017
2016
- Guest Editor: LENSCRATCH - Photographers of Color - Interview feat. work from the Arkansas Delta, A week of curating post feat. The work of other photographers of color w/ Aline Smithson
- QIANA MESTRICH: HARD TO PLACE
- JAHI L. SABATER: A SUN SHINES DARKLY
- SASHA PHYARS-BURGESS: THERE (YANKEE)
- EMILE ASKEY: MONUMENTS ARE FOREVER
- Strange Fire Collective: Photographers of Color - Essay: “In These Times” work featured from the series Black Alchemy
- Zine of the Endowed Chair - Kara Walker, Tepper Chair in Visual Arts, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University.
2015
- Ron Cowie, African American Photographers To Know: Black image-makers haven’t been hiding from me; I haven’t been looking. Medium
- Zine Concept "Slow Photography" by Claire Harbage
- Jeanett D. Moses, “Gish Collective Launches A Portrait Show Comprised Entirely of Outtakes: A new photographic collaboration in the Mississippi ,” American Photo
- Maria Konnikova, “Bringing the Rural Poor Into the Digital Economy:
Dumas, a small town in the heart of the Arkansas Delta—where public computers and open Internet access are hard to come by—is home to an ambitious new program to teach digital literacy skill,” Pacific Standard Magazine
2014
- Jordan P. Hickney, Interview, “It’s Where I Became a Person”: When photographer Aaron Turner returned home to West Memphis he sought to capture not so much a narrative, but the feelings that he’d felt,” Arkansas Life Magazine
- Shaun H. Kelly, Interview, [ VOL 004; ISS 001 ] “IN CONVERSATION WITH AARON TURNER ABOUT HIS PROJECT ISOLATED TRUTHS” Strant Magazine
- Jeff Rich, “DISPATCH FROM PHOTONOLA,” The Oxford American
- Tammy Mercure, The Blue Library: selected Chapbook titled “Home”
- Christina A. Samuels, “Born Amid Tumult, Head Start Deeply Rooted in Mississippi,”
Education Week
- Jeff Rich, Blog Feature, EYES ON THE SOUTH: Aaron Turner, The Oxford American “An Introduction to Arkansas,” The American Guide
COLLECTIONS
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 and Manuscript Library
Looking At Appalachia
Room 220
Indie Photobook Library
The Blue Library
TEACHING & RELATED EXPERIENCE
2019 - 2022 School of Art | University of Arkansas
- Research Associate - Research Fellowship in Photography
- Coordinator/Founder of The Center for Photographers of Color
- Instructor in Photography
2016 - 2019 Film & Electronic Arts Department, Bard College
- Technical Director (fulltime)
2016 - 2018 Division of the Arts - Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington, MA
- Adjunct Professor/ Part Time Photo Facilities Technician
2014 - 2016 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
- Part-Time Lecturer/Teaching Assistantship/Instructor of Record
Diversity and Inclusion Future Faculty Preparedness Teaching Programs
- 2019 Future Faculty Career Exploration Program - Rochester Institute of Technology | Office of Faculty Diversity and Recruitment - Division of Diversity and Inclusion |School of Photographic Arts and Sciences in the College of Art and Design
- 2019 Building Future Faculty Program – North Carolina State University (NCState) | Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity | The Department of Art + Design
- 2018 Virginia Tech Future Faculty Development Program | Office for Diversity and Inclusion School of Visual Arts