Artist Statement
My photographs are experiential visions of our environments, whether they are interior or exterior, mundane or opulent. At first glance they may seem to be realistic images or even entrances into existing places. A print of a life-size staircase hangs on the wall as if the viewer could actually ascend beyond its luminous surface and up into the space. Upon further investigation, a surreal and magical narrative unfolds with unpredictable nuances, distortions, twists and turns, all without a human presence.
These visceral, large-scale images are composed through a process that requires numerous photographs of each place. Rooms seem to be turned inside out. An illusion of movement is created from the use of multiple vanishing points. Assumptions of reality are disrupted, creating a realm where inanimate objects seem alive. The result is both an architectural puzzle and a landscape of the mind.
EDUCATION
2010 MPS in Digital Photography • School of Visual Arts, NY
2002 MFA in Photography • Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College, NY
1999 BFA • Concentration in Photography + Ceramic Sculpture • Kansas City Art Institute
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2014 • Clearing Space • WAGNER + PARTNER, Berlin, Germany
2012 • Farbreiz – Licht und Farbe im Werk von Raïssa Venables • Kunstverein Speyer, Germany
2011 • Rendered Visible • Galerie Rothamel, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2010 • All That Glitters • Galerie Wagner + Partner, Berlin, Germany,
• Raïssa Venables • BAT CampusGalerie, Bayreuth, Germany,
• A New Perspective of Wahnfried • Richard Wagner Museum, Bayreuth, Germany,
• Raïssa Venables • Galería Matthias Hauser, La Coruna, Spain
2009 • Raïssa Venables Photography • Klaudia Marr Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico,
• Raïssa Venables Fotografie • Galerie Rothamel, Erfurt, Germany
• Raïssa Venables Fotografie • Galerie Rothamel, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2008 • Maybe Too Lofty? • Galerie Wagner + Partner, Berlin, Germany
2007 • Raïssa Venables • Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim, Neuenhaus, Germany,
• Raïssa Venables • Samuelis Baumgarte Galerie, Niederwall, Germany,
• In the Guest House • Roswell Museum and Art Center, New Mexico, USA,
• Raïssa Venables • Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, Germany,
• Raïssa Venables • Städtische Galerie Waldkraiburg, Germany
2006 • Raïssa Venables: Digitale Fotografien • Kunstverein Ulm, Germany,
• Raïssa Venables: New Works • Galerie Herrmann and Wagner, Berlin, Germany
2005 • Intimacies • Jersey City Museum, NJ
2004 • Claustrophobia • Galerie Sphn, Berlin, Germany
2003 • Opened Rooms and Other Vessels • Joseph Nease Gallery, Kansas City, MO
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019 • Space: Time and Place • Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth MN
2018 • COLOR AND PATTERN - Venables / Cain / Sall • Joseph Nease Gallery, Duluth, MN
2017 • Inaugural Exhibition • Joseph Nease Gallery, Duluth, MN
2014 • Phenomena ~ The Material Image • The Epsten Gallery, Overland Park, KS
2012 • I am not Interested in Reality • Ausstellung anläßlich des Europäischen Monats der Fotografie, WAGNER + PARTNER, Berlin
• Kunstverein Ulm - 1887 bis heute • Kunstverein Ulm, Germany
• GOD + Co. • Galerie Rothamel, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2011 • Breitseite - Im Fokus: Raum • villaMERKEL|BAHNWÄRTERhaus, Esslingen, Germany
• Things Are Queer: Highlights of the UniCredit Collection, MARTA Herford Museum, Germany
• Herein!, ART FOYER of the DZ-Bank (Art Collection), Frankfurt, Germany
2010 • The Adventure of Reality • Kunsthal Rotterdam, Netherlands
• Thinking Photography: Five Decades at the Kansas City Art Institute • The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
• Realism - The Adventure of Reality • Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich, Germany
• Realism - The Adventure of Reality • Kunsthalle Emden, Germany
• Blütezeit: Malerei, Fotografie und Skulptur • Galerie Rothamel, Erfurt, Germany
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Germany
Sammlung Knauthe, Berlin
Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden
DZ-Bank Sammlung, Frankfurt a.M.
Städel Museum, Frankfurt a.M
British American Tobacco Collection
HypoVereinsbank (UniCredit Bank), Munich
Kunsthalle in Emden
Switzerland
UBS
United States
Tweed Museum of Art / University of Minnesota, Duluth, Minnesota
Nelson-Atkins Museum / Hall Family Foundation, Kansas City, Missouri
Jersey City Museum, New Jersey
Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, New Mexico
Progressive Art Collection, Mayfield Village, Ohio
Weisman Foundation, Los Angeles
See Raissa Venables website for an expanded resume and images of many more available photographs
Raissa Venables photograph "Duomo di Orvieto, All That Glitters is Gold" 2008 / 2019 was recently acquired by the Tweed Museum of Art in Duluth. The photograph is currently on display at the Museum as part of the "Space: Time & Place" exhibition through February 2020.
