Jo Whaley

b. 1953, US
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Jo Whaley Bio

Chronology
1953	Born, Sacramento

1975	Studied Painting and Art History at UC Berkeley, which has given me a painterly approach to photography.

1980	From 1980 to 1983 I was a Scenic Artist painting sets and backdrops. I was head scenic artist for Zellerbach Playhouse and on staff at the San Francisco Opera and Ballet Companies. This greatly influenced my photography, which has a theatrical stlye.

1989	I received the first of five Polaroid Grants to work on the 20x24 camera. This encouraged me to continue to work in color and on a large scale.

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Awards
1994	NEA, National Artist Fellowship, Washington DC

1991	Polaroid Corporation Studio Grant, New York, NY

1990	Phelan Award in Photography, San Francisco

1989	Polaroid Corporation Studio Grant, New York, NY

1988	Gyorgy Kepes Grant in Photogrpahy, Creators Equity Foundation, Berkeley, CA

1981	California Ars Council Grant, California

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Solo Exhibitions
2012	Theater of Insects, Henry Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock Abbey, UK

2011	Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ

2011	DeSaisset Museum, Santa Clara, CA

2010	Howard Hughes Biomedical Research Center, VA

2009	Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa, CA

2009	Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA

2008	Holden Luntz Gallery, Palm Beach, FL

2008	photo-eye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2008	The National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC

2007	Lobby Gallery, Market at First, San Francisco, CA

2005	Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ

2004	photo-eye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2003	Joseph Bellows Gallery, La Jolla, CA

2003	Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA

2003	Houston Center for Photography, Houston, Texas

2002	Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ

2002	Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV

2001	San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA

2001	Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2001	Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ

1996	Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1994	University Art Museum, Albequerque, Albuquerque, NM

1993	Bank of America World Headquarters, San Francisco, CA

1992	Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco

1991	Etherton Gallery, Tucson, AZ

1983	De Saisset Museum, Santa Clara, CA

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Group Exhibitions
2017	LOCAL EIGHT, photo-eye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2016	Alcoves 16/17 #6, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM

2012	Captured, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA

2011	Thomas Paul Gallery, ArtMRKT, San Franicsco, CA

2011	Thomas Paul Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2009	Looking Forward Looking Back, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV

2009	Reflections on Darwin, Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries, Dayton, OH

2009	Seperating Species, 516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM

2008	Photography: New Mexico, University of New Mexico Art Museum, NM

2008	Paper Trail, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM

2008	Picturing Eden, Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL

2008	Picturing Eden, Herbert Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

2007	Mergers and Acquisitions, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM

2007	Contemporary Art on Paper, Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

2007	20/20, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA

2007	Picturing Eden, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA

2006	Driven to Distraction, The Governor's Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2006	Art & Science, University Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM

2006	Picturing Eden, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY

2005	Distillations, Institut Franco-Americain, Rennes, France

2005	Inside Out, San Jose Museum, San Jose, CA

2004	Capturing Light, Museo d'Arte, Lima, Peru

2003	Capturing Light, Museo de Arte Contemporano, Caracas, Venezuela

2002	Invented Realities, Photo-Eye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2002	Idea Photographic, Museum of Fine Arts,, Santa Fe, NM

2001	American Perspecives, Museum{EKI}KYOTO, Kyoto, Japan

2001	Capturing Light, The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA

1999	Into the 21st Century, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA

1999	50 years of Polaroid Photography, Friends of Photography, San Francisco, CA

1998	Telling Stories, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY

1998	California Current, Armand Hammer Museum of Art, Los Angeles,CA

1997	The Painted Photograph, The Boise Art Museum, Boise, Idaho

1996	Feast for the Eyes, Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX

1995	Return to the Pleasure Principle, CEPA Gallery, Buffalo

1994	4x4, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM

1993	Summer Selections, Julie Saul Gallery, New York, NY

1992	Photokina '92, Cologne, Germany

1991	The Garden Within, The Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV

1990	Phelan Award Exhibit, San Francisco Camerawork, San Francisco

1989	California Color, Torino Fotographia Biennale, Torino, Italy

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Collections

George Eastman House, Rochester, NY

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA

Museum of Fine Art, Houston, Houston, Texas

Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, CA

High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia

San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA

WestLicht. Schauplatz für Fotografie, Vienna, Austria

The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA

University Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM

Swatch International, Zurich, Switzerland

Honolulu Academy of Art, Hawaii

Dow Jones Collection, New York

Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV

BankAmerica Corp. Art Collection, San Francisco, CA

Philadephia Museum of Art, Philadephia, PA

University Art Museum, Berkeley, CA

Portland Art Museum, OR

The Museum of Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia , PA

De Saisset Museum, Santa Clara, CA

Di Rosa Preserve, Napa, CA

Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, MO

San Francisco Art Commission, San Francisco, CA

Monterey Penninsula Museum of Art, Monterey, CA

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Bibliography

The Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple: Freemasonry, Architecture, and Theatre. Photographs: Jo Whaley, Text: Hendricks, Villela, Waszut-Barrett. Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe, 2018 (photo-eye Cat# NM239)

foto#04 magazine. Jo Whaley. foto, Poland, 2012

Digital Photo #106 Magazine. Jo Whaley. Digital Photo, Moscow, Russia, 2012

Grasslands/Separating Species. Jo Whaley. Radius Books, 2009 (photo-eye Cat# DQ399)

THE THEATER OF INSECTS. Jo Whaley. Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2008 (photo-eye Cat# CI214H)

Picturing Eden. Debra Klochko. Steidl/George Eastman House, Germany, 2006

Article: Jo Whaley. Steve Anchell. PhotoVision Magazine, Crestone, CO, 2003

Language of Photography. Educational Television Program. KCSM, San Mateo, CA, 2002

Jo Whaley Portfolio. Susan Rosner. Camera Arts Magazine, Corrales, NM, 2001

Emerging Bodies. Barbara Hitchcock. Edition Stemmle, Zurich/New York, 2000

American Perspectives. Michiko Kasahara. Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of P, Tokyo, 2000 (photo-eye Cat# ID596S)

Innovation Imagination. Debra Klochko/Barbara Hitchcock. Harry Abrams, 1999 (photo-eye Cat# AB188H)

Exploring Color Photography. Robert Hirsch. Brown & Benchmark, 1997 (photo-eye Cat# ZB103S)

Jo Whaley: Natura Morta. View Camera Magazine March/April, Corrales, NM, 1994

Jo Whaley, Paradise Revisited. Photo Asia Magazine Vol 3 39, Singapore, 1993

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Education
1975	University of California, Berkeley, BA Art

1980	University of California, Berkeley, MA Visual Design/Photography

1979	University of California, Berkeley, MFA in Art

Jo Whaley Statement

Artist Statement
THE THEATER OF INSECTS

Insects depicted larger than life, approach a human scale. One can confront them face to face and wonder at their structure and designs. In these images, the insects inhabit peculiar dioramas of an altered environment, which is vaguely familiar to the human mind, but at odds with the natural world. These creatures have seemingly adapted, as they blend amongst the glass, metal and concrete. Atmospheric skies are questionable in their chemical composition. Nature has in turn, deteriorated the man-made, through rust, cracks and decay; indicating that man, too, is as fragile and minuscule as a moth. These images are metaphors of an environmental disquietude. However there is a parallel in reality. Some insects are adopting protective coloring to camouflage with our industrialized environment. The classic example is the white birch moth of Manchester, England; which quite suddenly changed to black, in order to blend with the soot laden trees. Biologists have given this phenomenon the name "Industrial Melanism". Insects continue to evolve despite the fumbling of man. Although they appear so small and fragile, their species will most likely exist after we cease to.

Click here to read Jo Whaley's essay in its entirety.

NATURA MORTA PORTFOLIO

The photographs from the Natura Morta series draw their concepts from the rich tradition of European still life painting. Just as the 17th century painters used the "vanitas " still lifes as metaphors for the transitory nature of human life, these photographs also provide cautionary tales. Historically, a perfect display of the earth's bounty was celebrated through paint. These photographic still lifes echo those compositions, but may feature fruit that is half-eaten and abandoned to mold or roses dusted with soot. Quirky elements and unsettling juxtapositions of the natural with the artificial, reflect the ironic tensions that exist between urban culture and the natural environment. Natura Morta means still life in Italian, but significantly the literal translation is dead nature.

GLOBAL FOLLY

This early work represents my first venture in fusing my scenic experience in theater with the medium of color photography. Having received a grant from the Polaroid Corporation to work with the 20x24 Camera in 1989, I created images that translated photography into “ a crude form of theater”, to quote Roland Barthes. I painted backdrops, created stage sets and used theatrical gels to “paint” the figure with colored light; employing an expressive use of color, rather than a descriptive one. While this suite of prints entitled “Global Folly” is small, it forms the visionary and stylistic basis of all my subsequent bodies of work. In these narrative fictions, the figures are shown under acid rain skies, amongst the debris of urban culture or pouring tea, while some explosion blasts through the distance. While these images depict, a cautionary tale, they are intentionally sensual, having a baroque sensibility of opulent decay. It poses the question:if our natural world is really a paradise, are we causing our own expulsion?

Process Statement
Photography has been my medium for the past twenty years. However, early in my career, I studied painting and worked as a scenic artist for the theater. The skills and sensibilities that I learned from these early experiences really define my style as a photographer. My images are theatrical tableaus, which I photograph with a view camera. My studio is similar to a scene shop, with a prop room and a collection of backdrops. As in the theater, my sets are carefully lit, often using colored gels, so as to integrate the objects into the painted backdrops, as well as to evoke specific moods. The resultant image is poised between the imaginary and the real.

Jo Whaley Books
Available from photo-eye

Featured in:

The Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple: Freemasonry, Architecture, and Theatre. Photographs: Jo Whaley, Text: Hendricks, Villela, Waszut-Barrett. Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe, 2018 (photo-eye Cat# NM239)

Grasslands/Separating Species. Jo Whaley. Radius Books, 2009 (photo-eye Cat# DQ399)

THE THEATER OF INSECTS. Jo Whaley. Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2008 (photo-eye Cat# CI214)

American Perspectives. Michiko Kasahara. Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of P, Tokyo, 2000 (photo-eye Cat# ID596)

Innovation Imagination. Debra Klochko/Barbara Hitchcock. Harry Abrams, 1999 (photo-eye Cat# AB188)

Exploring Color Photography. Robert Hirsch. Brown & Benchmark, 1997 (photo-eye Cat# ZB103)