Light Work 316 Waverly Avenue, Syracuse NY 13244 / 315 443 1300 / lightwork.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 6, 2020 MEDIA CONTACT: Cjala Surratt Communications Coordinator p: (315) 443-9933 e: [email protected] DIONNE LEE: TRAP AND LEAN-TO Light Work Spring 2020 exhibiting artist explores nature as site of refuge and trauma Dionne Lee, North, 2019 January 13 – March 7, 2020 Gallery Talk: Thursday, January 30, 6pm Reception: Thursday, January 30, 5-7pm EXHIBITING ARTIST INTERVIEW (Video) (Syracuse - NY) — With great pleasure, Light Work presents Trap and Lean-to, a solo exhibition of photographs by Oakland-based artist Dionne Lee. A multimedia artist, Lee employs video, collage, photography, and sculpture to explore American landscape and her place within its complex history. As an African American woman, she sees the natural world as a place of refuge and tranquility as well as one of racial violence, danger, and vulnerability. More broadly, her work acknowledges the terror of climate change, mass migration, and humanity’s ongoing drama of survival. Duality is a frequent feature of Lee’s work as she notes that “two things can be true at once.” Light Work 316 Waverly Avenue, Syracuse NY 13244 / 315 443 1300 / lightwork.org The exhibition will run Monday, January 13, throuGh Sunday, March 7, at LiGht Work. We will host a reception and Gallery talk with Lee on Thursday, January 30, at 6 p.m. in the Kathleen O. Ellis Gallery. Signed copies of the exhibition catalog, Contact Sheet 205, will be available to collectors after the talk. The reception is free and open to the public, and there will be refreshments. Gallery hours are Monday- Thursday, 10 a.m. – 9 p.m., Friday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. – 9 p.m. Light Work closes on all Syracuse University and federal holidays. Light Work is located in the Robert B. Menschel Media Center at 316 Waverly Avenue, Syracuse, New York, 13224. Dionne Lee’s process is both organic and intuitive. She often manipulates found imagery in the darkroom. The exhibition contains many fragments of photographs from her many wilderness survival manuals and vintage color magazines that contain majestic views of “the great outdoors.” The survival manuals offer detailed, step-by-step directions on building a lean-to or foraging for food and water. Lee has become adept at these skills herself, thus reclaiming her connection to the earth and salvaging nearly-lost ancestral skills and knowledge. As the earth continues to shift beneath our feet, Lee asks what determines survival: not just who has what, but who knows how. Lee’s darkroom practice conveys the same sense of intervention and disruption. With a forceful irreverence for the sacred silver gelatin printing process, she deconstructs photography itself. Lee draws with graphite directly on prints before and after she exposes them. She pulls negatives across the scanning bed to create painterly abstractions. She tears, crumples, solarizes, and double-exposes fragments of information, challenging photography’s purpose and authorship as well as any idealized and colonialist view of the earth. RELATED EVENTS Also with great pleasure, Light Work’s Urban Video Project presents a special short exhibition of Dionne Lee’s work to accompany her solo exhibition, Trap and Lean-to. Dionne Lee’s piece, A Use for Rope or String, grapples with ideas of power, agency, the fragility and resilience of land, and racial histories. In her work, she considers the complications and dual legacies that exist within representations of American landscape. See this work at UVP’s outdoor architectural projection site on the Everson Museum of Art’s north facade from January 29 – February 1, 2020. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY Dionne Lee, born in New York City and based in Oakland, received her MFA from California College of the Arts in 2017. In New York City, she has exhibited her work at Aperture Foundation and the school of the International Center of Photography. Her exhibitions throughout the Bay Area include Aggregate Space, Interface, LAND AND SEA, and the San Francisco Arts Commission. In 2016, the Anderson Ranch Arts Center awarded her its Graduate Fellowship and she received the Barclay Simpson Award. She was Art Forum Magazine’s Critics’ Pick in 2017 and 2019. In 2019 she was an Artist-in-Residence at Woodstock’s Center for Photography and a finalist for the SFMoMa SECA and San Francisco Artadia awards. She currently teaches photography at the San Francisco Art Institute and Stanford University. EXHIBITION CATALOGUE Light Work 316 Waverly Avenue, Syracuse NY 13244 / 315 443 1300 / lightwork.org Contact Sheet 205 includes an essay by Mary Lee Hodgens. Purchase the catalog online in the Light Work shop at www.lightwork.org/ ### PRESS IMAGES & INTERVIEW REQUESTS To request high-resolution images for press reproduction and interviews, contact Light Work’s communications coordinator, Cjala Surratt, directly at (315) 443-9933 or [email protected] Gallery Hours, Admission & General Information Find Light Work’s galleries in the Robert B. Menschel Media Center, 316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse, New York. Gallery hours are: Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Light Work closes on all major holidays. Contact Light Work to schedule a guided tour of the galleries or the Light Work Lab. Follow Light Work on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. For general information, please visit www.lightwork.org, call (315) 443-1300, or email [email protected]. ParkinG Visit suart.syr.edu for more information on parking and directions to the galleries. About LiGht Work Light Work is a non-profit, artist-run organization dedicated to the support of artists working in photography and electronic media, located in the Robert B. Menschel Media Center. Light Work invites groups and individuals to schedule tours of the exhibitions and facility and to attend gallery talks. Limited metered parking is available on Waverly Avenue and paid parking is available in Booth Parking Garage. Light Work thanks Syracuse University and Robert B. Menschel and Vital Projects, as well as the Andy Warhol Foundation, CNY Arts, the Central New York Community Foundation, JGS (Joy of Giving Something Inc.), the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the subscribers to Contact Sheet for their dedicated and ongoing support of our programs. Light Work is a member of CMAC, the Coalition of Museum and Art Centers at Syracuse University. .