NJCU Galleries presents:

Character Recognition

by Myra Greene

January 22 – February 27, 2008

Gallery Hours: Mon. - Fri., 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. and by appointment

Artist reception: February 4, 4:30 – 7 p.m. Artist Talk at 5:30 p.m.

Character Recognition is the photographer Myra Greene's latest project and consists of 40 plates of small black-glass-plated Ambrotype, installed in a darkened room. The questions which inspired her to create these photographs include: "What do people see when they look at me?"; "Am I nothing but black?"; "Is that skin tone enough to describe my nature and expectation in life?"; "Does my character resonate louder than my skin tone?" Using a photographic process linked to the times of ethnographic classification, she has repeatedly explored her ethnic features. The lessons learned are haunting and frightening in these modern times.

Many of Greene's projects include photography, printmaking, sound, as well as digital production work. She melds these processes into exploring issues about the body, memory, the absorption of culture and the ever shifting identity of African Americans. Her work was recently included in of Double Exposure: African Americans Before and Behind the Camera, at the Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art in Hartford Connecticut. Greene is currently an Assistant Professor in the Photography Department at Columbia College Chicago.

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The Harold B. Lemmerman Gallery
New Jersey City University
2039 Kennedy Blvd.
Jersey City, NJ 07305
T: 201-200-3246
gallery@njcu.edu
http://www.njcu.edu/dept/art/galleries/