![Mercer County Community College hosts "Eleven Years" Photography Exhibit](https://www.newjerseystage.com/events2018/ElevenYears.jpg "Mercer County Community College hosts "Eleven Years" Photography Exhibit")
(TRENTON, NJ) -- Mercer County Community College’s (MCCC's) James Kerney Campus Gallery (JKCG) in downtown Trenton announces the opening of “Eleven Years,” an exhibit by internationally recognized photographer Jen Davis that explores body image, identity and relationships. This highly personal, yet universally-themed, show runs from Thursday, January 25 through Thursday, February 22.
The show features 28 photographs from Davis’ “Eleven Years” monograph, published by Kehrer Verlag in 2014. The book includes a series of self-portraits dealing with concepts of beauty, identity, and body image. The work, captured over more than a decade, reveals Davis’ journey of self-reflection and self-discovery that speaks to broader issues surrounding image and beauty. The portraits have been praised for their mastery of light and color and are credited with adding to the national conversation about body image. The series has been featured in Camera Austria, Aperture, Photography Quarterly, New York Times Lens Blog, Huffington Post, The Telegraph, Oprah.com and PDN.
Davis says of her photographs: “I aim to raise questions regarding beauty, desire, body image, and identity through a focused observation of my personal story. I have built a relationship between the camera and myself where I transform the act of taking a photograph into a performance for the camera. Many of my pictures take place in my home, revealing aspects of myself that are private and personal. My work is partially based on personal experiences that I have re-constructed into a photograph, and the other part consists of made up fantasies of what I imagine a physical relationship to be regarding intimacy, love and desire.”
Based in New York, Davis received an MFA from Yale University School of Art in 2008, and BFA from Columbia College Chicago. She has exhibited widely in both solo and group shows, including at the Indianapolis Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Center for Photography at Woodstock; Light Work Gallery, Syracuse; and Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne. Her works are included in many public and private collection including the Art Institute of Chicago, The Sir Elton John Photography Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and The Library of Congress.
Davis is the recipient of a long list of grants and awards including the Arnold Newman Foundation Award Nominee (2014), the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (2013), Jury’s Choice 2012 Prix Virginia; and first prize in “Forward Facing” at Forward Thinking Museum, New York, NY. She is represented by Lee Marks Fine Art and ClampArt.
On Wednesday, January 31, JKCG invites the community to an Opening Reception and Artist’s Talk with Jen Davis from 5:00pm to 8:00pm, with the talk to begin at 5:30pm. JKCG is located in MCCC's Trenton Hall, 137 North Broad Street, across the street from the Kerney Building. Additional hours for this exhibit will be posted on the JKCG website: www.mccc.edu/JKCgallery. JKCG's director and curator is Michael Chovan-Dalton, coordinator of the MCCC Photography and Digital Imaging program.
PHOTO: The cover image for Jen Davis’ book, "Eleven Years," published by Kehrer Verlag in 2014
