The Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) is pleased to announce the opening of an important solo exhibition by renowned Rhinebeck photographer Adrianna Ault. The exhibition, titled “Levee: Photographs by Adrianna Ault,” debuts a new body of work, as well as a new publication by the artist, and will be on view at CPW, 474 Broadway, Kingston, from January 13 through March 17, 2024.
The images in this series record multiple visits, starting in 2017, that Ault made with her adolescent daughters to New Orleans to visit her mother, who was then dying of lung cancer. Amidst the arduous task of tending to her mother’s needs, Ault photographed the familiar scenery of her own upbringing. The Southern landscape’s atmosphere of transience and fragility echo the emotions Ault and her family experienced as they contended with her mother’s imminent passing. Ault’s subtle evocation of memory and place in the family homestead resonates through photographs that reflect her multiple roles of artist, dutiful daughter, and nurturing mother.
“A levee is an embankment built to stem the surging tides of a river’s overflow,” notes CPW Curator Adam Giles Ryan, who organized the exhibition. “Yet, as a metaphor, a levee connotes a resilient struggle against the implacable forces of nature, an often futile attempt to thwart the inevitable. Adrianna Ault’s photographs perfectly capture this notion as she tends to the imminent passing of her mother while providing for her own children. Through her elegant compositions, her subtle color palette, and her improvisational embrace of imperfection, Ault bends the stylistic traits of photography toward a sophisticated vision of landscape, memory, and self.”
An opening for the exhibition will take place at CPW's gallery located at 474 Broadway, in Kingston, on January 13, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Accompanying the exhibition is Adrianna Ault’s first monograph, Levee, published in November 2023, with VOID (Athens, Greece). Copies will be available for sale at the opening.
Adrianna Ault
Adrianna Ault (b.1972) is an American photographer raised in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Adrianna studied photography from a very early age. She lived and worked in New York City for seventeen years and has spent her life working in the realm of photography, whether commercial or artistically driven.
In 2017, she collaborated with Tim Carpenter, Raymond Meeks, and Brad Zellar on Township, a photobook centered around the auction of her family farm in central Ohio. In 2018, Township was nominated for the distinguished Kassel Fotobook Award.
Adrianna Ault holds an MFA from Hartford International Limited-Residency Photography School. She works in her studio in the Hudson Valley of New York. In addition to making work for publication, she has taught at colleges and workshops.
Adrianna currently working on a book to be published with VOID, coming out in early 2023.
About the Center for Photography at Woodstock
Founded in 1977, the Center for Photography at Woodstock is a not-for-profit arts organization with a two-fold mission: to support artists working in photography and related media; and to engage audiences through creation, discovery, and learning. At the heart of CPW’s mission is programming that is community-based, artist-centered, and collaborative. To foster public conversation around critical issues in photography, CPW provides exhibitions, workshops, artists’ residencies, and access to a digital media lab. In 2022, CPW relocated from Woodstock to 474 Broadway in Kingston.
