Artist Conversation: Photographer Kelli Connell on Reframing Narratives
November 20, 2024 | 7–8 p.m.
Location: High Museum of Art, Hill Auditorium
Registration Required
Kelli Connell (American, born 1974), April, 2008, pigmented inkjet print, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, purchase with funds from the Friends of Photography, 2022.242. © Kelli Connell.
How does photography help us question the past? Can a queer lens offer more nuanced understandings?
Join us for a conversation with artist Kelli Connell as the High presents a groundbreaking exhibition featuring her powerful work, which reconsiders Edward Weston’s iconic photographs of the American West through a contemporary queer and feminist perspective. In this conversation, Connell will offer fresh perspectives on the complicated relationships between images, people, desire, and beauty.
Kelli Connell
Kelli Connell (born 1974, Oklahoma City) is a photographer who lives and works in Chicago. Connell investigates sexuality, gender, identity, and photographer/sitter relationships. Her work has been exhibited at and is held in prominent collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, and Philadelphia Museum of Art, among others. She holds a BFA in photography and visual arts studies from the University of North Texas and an MFA in photography and a minor in art history from Texas Woman’s University.
Gregory Harris
Gregory Harris is the Donald and Marilyn Keough Family Curator of Photography at the High Museum of Art. He is a specialist in contemporary photography with a particular interest in documentary practice. Since joining the High in 2016, Harris has curated over a dozen exhibitions including A Long Arc: Photography and the American South since 1845, Evelyn Hofer: Eyes on the City, and Look Again: 40 Years of Collecting Photographs, as well as solo shows with Thomas Struth, Paul Graham, and Amy Elkins. He has also contributed essays to monographs by Matthew Brandt, Paul D’Amato, Amy Elkins, Jill Frank, and the Metabolic Studio. He holds a BFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago and an MA in art history from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Generous support provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program.
Related Events
In conjunction with the exhibition Tyler Mitchell: Idyllic Space, photographer Tyler Mitchell and interdisciplinary scholar Imani Perry will discuss how the exhibition explores witness and imagination alongside incisive questions about relationships between Black people and spaces. Assistant Curator of Photography Maria Kelly will moderate the conversation.
Engage with Atlanta through art! Led by Joshua Robinson, a writer and educator based in Atlanta, this walking tour will explore hip-hop’s relationship with modern and contemporary art. Through guided exploration, participants will learn about the intersections of music and art and their significance to what’s on view at the museum.
Engage with Atlanta through art! Led by Joshua Robinson, a writer and educator based in Atlanta, this walking tour will explore hip-hop’s relationship with modern and contemporary art. Through guided exploration, participants will learn about the intersections of music and art and their significance to what’s on view at the museum.
Join us for a day of free admission and drop-in programming for adults of all ages! Whether you like to explore on your own, join a conversation, or create art, there is something for you. Come as you are and stay as long as you like.
Join us for a day of free admission and drop-in programming for adults of all ages! Whether you like to explore on your own, join a conversation, or create art, there is something for you. Come as you are and stay as long as you like.
Join us for a day of free admission and drop-in programming for adults of all ages! Whether you like to explore on your own, join a conversation, or create art, there is something for you. Come as you are and stay as long as you like.