Strange Fire Collective: Jess T. Dugan, Zora J. Murff, and Rafael Soldi
October 18–December 7, 2019
Perspectives Gallery at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design
Reception: Friday, October 25, 4:30-5:30pm
Keynote Lecture by Strange Fire Collective: Friday, October 25, 6pm
The Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD) is pleased to announce an exhibition by the founding members of the Strange Fire Collective, organized as part of their residency at MIAD from October 23-25, 2019. The exhibition, Strange Fire Collective: Jess T. Dugan, Zora J. Murff, and Rafael Soldi, includes work by the collective’s three artist members and was curated by the collective’s fourth member, Hamidah Glasgow, Executive Director and Curator at the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Jess T. Dugan is an artist whose work explores issues of identity, gender, sexuality, and community through photographic portraiture. She will be exhibiting work from her long-term series Every Breath We Drew, which explores the power of identity, desire, and connection through portraits of herself and others.
Rafael Soldi is a Peruvian-born, Seattle-based artist and curator. He will be exhibiting work from “Imagined Futures,” a project comprised of 50 seemingly identical self-portraits created in analog photo booths to capture the loss of imagined futures, bidding each farewell in a private ritual. Imagined Futures addresses a concern that is universal to most immigrants. How do we grieve the life we left behind in order to live this one? What do we do with these haunting visions and questions about the lives we left behind?
Zora J. Murff is an artist whose work addresses questions related to social aspects of making and consuming imagery. He will be exhibiting work from “At No Point In Between,” a project that prompts inquiry into the antinomy that exists in recorded violence: how documentation of anti-black violence was used to shame black individuals and how we have used those same images inversely to interrupt the collective belief of a racial hierarchy.
Since its inception in 2015, the Strange Fire Collective has centered on providing accessible and socially relevant content that engages with current social and political forces. Through weekly interviews, publications, book reviews, exhibitions, and public programs, Strange Fire champions women, people of color, and queer and trans artists, writers, and curators. Each week, Strange Fire releases an original in-depth interview, which collectively form a growing archive of over 200 conversations that critically question the dominant social hierarchy and tell the story of our time.
