Keris Salmon is a journalist and artist. After a career in documentary filmmaking, she recently turned to storytelling through the pairing of words and still imagery. As an African-American woman married to a white man – descendant of the family that owned the largest American tobacco plantation in the ante-bellum south – her most recent work explores family histories and their complex layers of relationships, unveiling the many significant links between black peoples’ past and present. Salmon examines her connection to her own past, her partnership with her husband and his ancestors’ ownership of slaves, and her relationship with her children as well as the legacy of slavery as it pertains to our current, deeply fractured times.”

For her recent portfolio, We Have Made These Lands What They Are: The Architecture of Slavery, Salmon spent two years photographing ante-bellum Southern plantations and collecting the language and history of the U.S. slave economy. Salmon writes, “A variety of voices – slave-owners and the enslaved – come together chronologically here to form a solemn chorus to the dirge of American slavery. What results is a complexity of feeling and nuanced understanding of an institution that still defines us.” 

In the accompanying video by the artist, a breathtaking avenue sheltered by live oaks and Spanish moss leads to the tabby ruins of Wormsloe Plantation, the colonial estate of Noble Jones (1702-1775). Jones was a humble carpenter who arrived in Georgia in 1773 with James Oglethorpe and the first group of settlers from England. Wormsloe’s tabby ruin is the oldest standing structure in Savannah. The video captures the feeling of an ongoing journey toward this place of history and memory.

Keris Salmon (b. in 1959 in New York City) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She graduated from Stanford University in 1981 and completed her graduate studies in Journalism at UC Berkeley in 1985. Salmon has had solo exhibitions with Josee Bienvenu Gallery (New York) 2015, Frank Elbaz Gallery (Paris) 2017, Arnika Dawkins Gallery (Atlanta) 2018, and a special presentation of this work took place at Grace Cathedral (San Francisco) in the spring of 2018. Recent group exhibitions include samsøn (Boston), Arsenal Gallery (New York), Space Gallery (Portland, ME), and Powerhouse Arena (Brooklyn, NY).

This exhibition was curated by Alice Ranahan.

For inquiries regarding this exhibition, please contact Alice Ranahan, Alice Ranahan Art Advisory Services, alice@ranahanart.com 510.520.0040