FORECAST 2021: SF Camerawork's Annual Survey Exhibition

SF Camerawork is pleased to announce that the jurors have selected 6 artists for FORECAST2021: SF Camerawork’s Annual Survey Exhibition. Each year SF Camerawork invites an esteemed jury of artists, curators and critics to curate its annual survey exhibition. This year, jurors Marcel Pardo Ariza, Adrian Burrell, and PJ Gubatina Policarpio selected the work of Katina Alexopulos, Trent Bozeman, Nykelle DeVivo (Juror’s Choice Award), Christian K. Lee, Jamie Robertson, and Ashley Ross from 270 entries from all over the world. The annual group exhibition and award program showcases the works of emerging artists with an eye toward current trends and concerns in contemporary photography. 

This year, a selection of one work by each artist will be presented in a “popup” exhibit at Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota St, San Francisco, CA 94107, Gallery 211. An expanded version of the exhibition will be viewable on SF Camerawork’s website. 

SF Camerawork is also proud to present the FORECAST2021 Juror’s Choice Award of $1,000 to Portland, Oregon-based artist Nykelle DeVivo. DeVivo creates ethereal images and self portraits filled with light and reflection that are both sensual and meditative. DeVivo studied critical theory at the San Francisco Art Institute before going on to be published in articles such as Aint-Bad & I-D, participating in group shows across the country, and assisting journalists for projects in the New York Times, LensCulture and more. Juror Marcel Pardo Ariza said of DeVivo’s exhibition entries, “This work makes me think of shaping a new future while exploring the possibilities of becoming. Nykelle DeVivo's work has a lot of energy and textural depth, I hope they use this momentum to keep developing a very strong practice.”

This year’s selection is uniquely characterized by its themes of self discovery, familial history and identity, memory, and representation. Award winner, Nykelle DeVivo finds their voice in haunting and ethereal photographs that incorporate afro-spiritualism and expressions of Black queer joy. Katina Alexopulos processes grief through a series of diptychs that address memory, family connections, and family history. Trent Bozeman presents a sensitive and thoughtful document of members of the Elaine Arkansas community, which from September 30 - October, 1, 1919 was the setting for a little known, but terrible massacre of black inhabitants by white supremacists. Christian K. Lee presents a counter argument to stereotypes of black gun ownership by depicting his subjects, who legally own guns for sport, hobby and protection, with dignity and sensitivity. Jamie Robertson, like Trent Bozeman, investigates place as a receptacle for memory in her project, Charting the Afriscape of Leon County, Texas, an autobiographical examination of her family history that brings together her documentary photographs sometimes with images from her family archive. Ashley Ross’s work too deals with familial legacy and identity. She mines her family archive, presenting photographed documents layered with family snapshots alongside poetic staged black and white photographs.

Juror PJ Gubatina Policarpio says of the selection of artists, “The six artists represented in Forecast 2021 offer expansive visions of kinship, communities, and the complexity of our time through intimate and incisive images that simultaneously challenge and highlight the possibilities of the medium. Thanks to my esteemed fellow jurors Adrian Burrell and Marcel Pardo Ariza for your brilliance and SF Camerawork for bringing us together.” Olivia Lahs-Gonzales, the new Executive Director of San Francisco Camerawork expressed her excitement at the choices made, saying “The jurors put together a beautiful group of thought-provoking works all of which were made by artists of color, that together make a powerful statement about how photography can assist in the discovery of the self and one’s place in the world, while also creating an environment that promotes reflection and change.”  

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