BIOGRAPHY & EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHY
Carolyn Marks Blackwood is a photographer who has spent her life looking at paintings. Consequently, it is no surprise that her photographs are related to the Pictorialists, a group of the most intelligent and sensitive photographers who created a style of photography based on painting rather than on documentation, to demonstrate that photography was an independent, creative form of fine art.
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Blackwood’s work also connects photography directly to painting, especially that of the New York School, whose works were metaphoric, rather than literal; more emotionally expressive than objectively specific. Her images skate on the edge between Abstraction and Representation. Inspired by Color Field painters, and artists like Rothko and Newman, Blackwood focuses on images that have strong verticals or horizontals and which fill the whole optical field. Many of her compositions also recall the “all over” disposition of color that Pollack inherited from the Impressionists. One sees the totality, rather than focusing on one static point. The images are flowing, liquid and cover the whole surface edge to edge, just as the paintings of Rothko, Newman and Pollack and they create a luminous environment. It is telling that one of her favorite painters, Gerhard Richter, paints in two styles, one abstract and the other figurative. Her awareness of both possibilities simultaneously, is the key to her style.
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Excerpt from: Carolyn Marks Blackwood: On The Edge
by Barbara Rose
EXHIBITIONS
Carolyn Marks Blackwood Biography
Born in Anchorage, Alaska
Lives and works in New York, NY
Carolyn Marks Blackwood Education
BS, Livingston College, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Solo Exhibitions
2024 The Story Series, The Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT
2022 Water Water Everywhere, Von Lintel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2021 The Story Series, Cuenca, Spain
2020 The Story Series, Casa Zavala, Alecante, Spain
2019 The Story Series, Blanca Berlin Galeria, Madrid, Spain
2019 The Story Series, Colección Roberto Polo, Castilla-La Mancha, Toledo Spain
2018 The Story Series, Von Lintel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2017 Carolyn Marks Blackwood I The Story Series, Roberto Polo Gallery , Brussels Belgium
2015 On the Edge, Von Lintel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2015 Adrift, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
2014 The Elements of Place, Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY
2013 Solid, Liquid, Gas, Alan Klotz Gallery, New York, NY
2013 Strange Beauty, Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT
2011 The Wind Blows Through the Doors of My Heart, Alan Klotz Gallery, New York, NY
2009 Let it Be in Sight of Thee, Hudson Opera House, Hudson, NY
2007 On the River, Lascano Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
Group Exhibitions
2024 Force of Nature, Spanierman Modern, 5th Ave NYC, NY
2019 The Color of Light, Nailya Alexander Gallery, NYC, NY
2019 Does Not Reproduce, Von Lintel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Hudson Athens Light, Curated by Richard Roth, Hudson Hall, Hudson, NY
2017 The Photography Show presented by AIPAD, Von Lintel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2017 Water, Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York, NY
2017 Non-Objectif Sud, Inc., curated by Julie Ryan,Tulette, France
2016 That Old School Dystopia, Curated Wendy Cooper, Theodore Art, Brooklyn, NY
2016 Primary Forces, Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York, NY
2016 Elemental Perspectives: Land, Sea and Sky, Adamson Gallery, Washington D.C.
2016 Here and Now: 80 Years of Photography at the Mint, Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
2013 The AIPAD photography show, Alan Klotz Gallery
2013 “On Time and Place” Traveling show celebrating 50 years of Scenic Hudson
2013 The Hudson Opera House, Hudson, NY
2013 The Fred J. Johnston Museum, Kingston NY
2013 The River Center, Beacon, NY July
2013 The Nyack Library, Nyack, NY July
2013 The Hudson River Museum Yonkers, NY Sept
2013 Grand Central Station New York, NY
2013 Olana, Hudson, NY
2013 Urbanism The Carrie Haddad Gallery. April
2012 The AIPAD photography show, Alan Klotz Gallery
2011 Hudson River Contemporary, Boscobel, Cold Spring, NY
2011 APAID Photography Show at the Park Ave Armory, Alan Klotz Gallery.
2010 MADRIDFOTO, Alan Klotz Gallery, May
2010 AIPAD Photography Show, New York, Alan Klotz Gallery
2009 Winter Sale, Alan Klotz Gallery
2009 Art for Animals exhibition and Auction,Spencertown Academy Arts Center
2009 Seeing the Hudson, Alan Klotz Gallery
2009 Cosa Nostra, Alan Klotz Gallery
2009 AIPAD Photography Show, New York, Alan Klotz Gallery
2008 A Winter’s Bounty, The Alan Klotz Gallery
2008 Reflected Light, Art Auction for the Benefit of The RiverKeeper at IAC
2008 Photographic Exhibition to Benefit the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Cohan and Leslie
2007 The Magic Hour, Paul Rodgers 9W Gallery
2007 The Art Show, The Morton Memorial Library, Rhinecliff, N.Y.
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Carolyn Marks Blackwood Selected Public Collections
Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT
Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY
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