January 28-March 5, 2011
IDEA Space
Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center

Note: Closing reception and artist talk March 3, 4:30pm at IDEA Space.

In this new series of photographs, JoAnn Verburg investigates how the intersections of memory and perspective contribute to a sense of place. Focusing on specific human and architectural subjects, Interruptions creates a visual and psychological “portrait” of Spoleto, Italy, an ancient Umbrian city where Verburg and her husband, poet Jim Moore, live part-time. Verburg has exhibited her work extensively in the United States and abroad and was the subject of a mid-career retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art in 2007.

Over the course of many years, Verburg has explored and photographed her adopted home of Spoleto, carefully selecting and frames specific views of the city, such as its steeply angled buildings, hidden courtyards, and narrow passageways. By subtly manipulating elements of focus and perspective, Verburg emphasizes the subjective nature of perception. In an essay on her recent work, Walter Liedtke, Curator of European Paintings at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York has observed, “Verburg has learned that all observation, including the seemingly most objective, is always subjective, selective, slanted, focused, blurred, disconnected, or somehow interrupted.”

JoAnn Verburg received a BA in sociology from Ohio Wesleyan University and an MFA in Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology. She has held teaching positions at Yale University and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and is the recipient of numerous honors including: a Guggenheim Fellowship (1986); multiple artist fellowships from the Bush Foundation (1983, 1993) and the McKnight Foundation (1994, 2004); and a Rockefeller Foundation Residency at the Bellagio Conference and Study Center, Bellagio, Italy (1998). She has exhibited her work extensively in the United States and internationally. In 2007, The Museum of Modern Art mounted “Present Tense,” a mid-career retrospective that traveled to the Walker Art Center. The series that comprises Interruptions has been exhibited at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina (2010) and at Pace/Magill Gallery, New York (2009).

Verburg’s work has also been featured in numerous group exhibitions and can be found in permanent collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Her photographs have been published in “Second View: The Rephotographic Survey Project” (1984), “Picturing Eden” (2006), and “Present Tense: Photographs by JoAnn Verburg” (2007).

On Thursday, March 3 beginning at 4:30pm, the public is invited to revisit the exhibition for an IDEA Cabaret event, A Conversation through Space & Time. To mark the closing of the exhibition, JoAnn Verburg and Colorado College professors Peggy Berg (Dance) and Jonathan Lee (Philosophy) will engage in a lively discussion of the themes raised by the exhibition Interruptions.