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Nate Larson

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Nate Larson (born March 16, 1978) is a Baltimore-based artist and photographer known for investigating contemporary American culture and history.

Education

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Larson received a B.A. degree in Photography and Visual Communication Design in 2000 from Purdue University. He then attended The Ohio State University, receiving an M.F.A. degree in Photography in 2002. He later took additional graduate coursework at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Art History, Theory, & Criticism. He also took workshops in bookmaking at the Center for Book and Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago.

Career

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Larson's early work dealt with evangelical American religious traditions and explored the belief systems behind religious miracles and the manner in which they were shared on the internet. His 2006 exhibition, "Charlatans and Tricksters" at Real Art Ways, consisted of a series of narrative-based quasi-documentary black-and-white photographs of the "supernormal." More accurately, they were forgeries of so-called paranormal events. Much of photography's credibility as a popular art form relies on its promise of visual truth, embodied in the axiom that the camera never lies. Seeing, you might say, is believing. But the camera does lie, and frequently, and it is from this starting point that Larson begins to craft his elaborate photographic fictions. His images, radically, work a tension between a desire to believe and the skeptical rational mind.[1]

He has worked collaboratively with Marni Shindelman since 2007 as the collective Larson Shindelman. Their most well-known collaborative project is Geolocation, which tracks and photographs embedded coordinates in Twitter posts. The two artists see themselves as archivists and their project as a homage to the Twitter users whose posts they use. The statements are pithy — as they must be on Twitter — but often evocative, moving, even wise. Paired alongside the images, each one becomes poetic.[2] The project includes both gallery and public art components, including a set of billboards for the 2012 Atlanta Celebrates Photography Public Art Commission.[3] A site-specific chapter of the project was exhibited in the solo exhibition #LarsonShindelman #Mobilize at the George Eastman Museum in 2019 in Rochester, New York.[4] Geolocation[5] was included in the 2014 State of the Art exhibition at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, an exhibition survey that drew from every region of the US, offering an unusually diverse look at American art.[6]

In 2015, Larson made portraits of Baltimore residents during the uprising in the aftermath of the death of Freddie Gray.[7] One of his photographs from this project was used in the video #APeoplesJourney - A Nation's Story[8] at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2017. He has continued to work in long-term community partnerships at Jubilee Arts[9] in West Baltimore and Commodore John Rogers in East Baltimore.

Since 2014,[10] he has worked on Centroid Towns, an anthology of stories connecting the cities that have been the mean center of the United States population. Since the first US census in 1790, the United States Census Bureau has recorded the mean center of population as it moves steadily west and south.[11] The first recorded was near Chestertown, Maryland, and the projected centroid of the 2020 census is Hartville, Missouri. Larson has done preliminary research in all 25 towns and completed five chapters of the project with communities in Ellicott City, Maryland;[12] Bloomington, Indiana; Mascoutah, Illinois; and De Soto, Missouri.[13] For a 2019 solo exhibition at GRACE, Larson dove deeper into the community of Waterford, Virginia, Centroid Town of 1810.[14] With these recent photographs, Larson has dedicated himself to a social documentary framework in which to explore a fascinating swath of America and demonstrate how exploring archives and locations allow photography to become a witness and participant in the discursive understanding of our world.[15]

He has taught at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) since 2009.[16] He was a board member of the Society for Photographic Education from 2010 to 2014[17] and chaired the 2014 National Conference.[18]

Collections

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High Museum of Art[19][20][21]

Portland Art Museum[22][23]

Museum of Contemporary Photography[24]

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art[25][26]

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston[27]

Orlando Museum of Art

George Eastman Museum

Center for Photography at Woodstock[28]

Albin O. Kuhn Library, University of Maryland Baltimore County [29]

David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University[30]

Contemporary Art Purchasing Program, University of Maryland, College Park[31]

Light Work[32]

References

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  1. ^ Genocchio, Benjamin (2006-01-01). "ART REVIEW; When Pictures Lie, And We Gladly Believe". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  2. ^ MacDonald, Kerri (2012-01-06). "Anonymous Tributes to Anonymous People". Lens Blog. Retrieved 2020-03-25.
  3. ^ "Atlanta Celebrates Photography - Public Art". acpinfo.org. Retrieved 2020-03-25.
  4. ^ "#LarsonShindelman #Mobilize | George Eastman Museum". www.eastman.org. Retrieved 2020-03-25.
  5. ^ "Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman | State of The Art". Retrieved 2020-05-20.
  6. ^ "State of The Art". Retrieved 2020-05-20.
  7. ^ Levs, Josh. "'Holding that line': Portraits from Baltimore". CNN. Retrieved 2020-03-25.
  8. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: #APeoplesJourney - A Nation's Story. YouTube.
  9. ^ "School 33 Art Center". school33.org. Retrieved 2020-03-25.
  10. ^ "Sondheim Shrinkage". BmoreArt. 2018-07-09. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  11. ^ Bureau, US Census. "Centers of Population". The United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2020-03-25. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  12. ^ "Contact Sheet: After the Flood". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 2020-03-25.
  13. ^ Moffitt, Kelly (26 June 2017). "Photographer documents towns at mean center of US population, including those in Missouri, Illinois". www.kbia.org. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  14. ^ "Centroid Towns: Like a Passing Shadow". Greater Reston Arts Center. Retrieved 2020-03-25.
  15. ^ "Nate Larson: The States Project: Maryland". LENSCRATCH. 2017-04-01. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  16. ^ "Nate Larson". MICA. Retrieved 2020-03-25.
  17. ^ "Leadership History". www.spenational.org. Retrieved 2020-03-25.
  18. ^ "Overview". www.spenational.org. Retrieved 2020-03-25.
  19. ^ "Geolocation: Worth the Wait". High Museum of Art. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  20. ^ "Geolocation: Tell Me Not Twitter". High Museum of Art. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  21. ^ "Geolocation: Gun Shot". High Museum of Art. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  22. ^ "Geolocation: Lost Followers Today". www.portlandartmuseum.us. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  23. ^ "Geolocation: So Used to Ecommerce". www.portlandartmuseum.us. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  24. ^ "Museum of Contemporary Photography". www.mocp.org. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  25. ^ "Have My Location – Works – Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art". Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  26. ^ "More Profound – Works – Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art". Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  27. ^ "Nate Larson Geolocation (Days Like Today)". Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  28. ^ "Search Collection". www.cpw.org. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  29. ^ "#5WordMoneyProblems: Reverse Mortgage, 2015". UMBC. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  30. ^ "Guide to the Nate Larson Photographs, 2015". David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  31. ^ "Geolocation (College Park) · Contemporary Art Purchasing Program - Stamp Gallery". contemporaryartumd.artinterp.org. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  32. ^ "Light Work Collection / Artwork / How to Keep a Relationship with Me: Make Sure I'm Happy [3745]". collection.lightwork.org. Retrieved 2020-03-26.

General sources

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