Glass Eyes Stare Back
Emma Ressel
May 14 - May 24, 2024
Reception: May 17, 5-7pm
Strata Gallery presents its first solo exhibition by New Mexico-based artist Emma Ressel. Ressel lives and works in Albuquerque, and she is a 2023-2024 Emerging Artist Member at Strata Gallery. The exhibition, titled Glass Eyes Stare Back, will open Tuesday, May 14th, with a special reception on Friday, May 17, 5-7pm.
Glass Eyes Stare Back is the first exhibition of Ressel’s work exploring natural history collections, animal preservation, and environmental catastrophe. The show is primarily comprised of still life images she makes with a large format view camera, constructing tableaus with animals, objects, and printed backdrops to assemble fictional scenes of animals in nature. In this work, Ressel is interested in how natural history collections speak to the human desire to draw animals closer and form experiences with the species we are destroying. Her works convey not only her fears about the future of biodiversity, but also a sense of sublime awe about the mystery of what’s to come of our ecosystems.
“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to exhibit this work at Strata Gallery,” says Ressel. “Developing this work over the last several years has helped me learn so much about the ecosystems and biodiversity both where I grew up in Maine and where I now live in central New Mexico. Showing this work in Santa Fe, not far from where many of these animals live, feels particularly resonant for the project.”
Emma Ressel received her BA in Photography from Bard College and is currently an MFA candidate at the University of New Mexico. Her work has been exhibited across the Northeast and is held in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Her first photobook, Olives in the street, was published in Italy in 2017. She was the 2022 recipient of the Film Photo Student Project Award and is currently a 2023-2024 fellow at the Center for Regional Studies at UNM. She lives in Albuquerque, where in addition to working toward her MFA, she teaches photography at UNM. This is her first solo show in New Mexico.
Strata Gallery is open from 11am - 5pm, Tuesday – Saturday. For more information about Strata, the current exhibit, and the future schedule of events, please visit the Strata Gallery website, Instagram, or Facebook.
Emma Ressel, Approximate Encounters, 30 x 24 inches, Archival pigment print, 2021
Emma Ressel, Second Death is Softer, 30 x 24 inches, Archival pigment print, 2021
Emma Ressel, Surrender the Decomposers, 13.75 x 11 inches, archival pigment print, 2022
Emerging Artist Program: This project is supported in part by New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts.