CO-FOUNDER: Strange Fire Collective
Soldi curated the exhibitions Momentous Gesture, Signal Boost, and Stacks: In this body of mine, and contributed various texts, including reflections about books by Sunil Gupta, Nona Faustine, and Alessandra Sanguinetti, among others.
EXHIBITIONS
EXHIBITION: Momentous Gesture
Curated by Rafael Soldi
Presented by Strange Fire
Presented by Strange Fire
January 6–29, 2022
SOIL Gallery, Seattle
SOIL Gallery, Seattle
EXHIBITING ARTISTS
Meghann Riepenhoff, Mary Ann Peters, Sebastián Calfuqueo, Dani Tirrell, and Serrah Russell
Meghann Riepenhoff, Mary Ann Peters, Sebastián Calfuqueo, Dani Tirrell, and Serrah Russell
Meghann Riepenhoff addresses climate change by making work in collaboration with endangered bodies of water. Mary Ann Peters’ paintings respond to contemporary events in the Arab world as they relate to her identity as an Arab-American living in the U.S, often touching on topics like shelter and global migration. Serrah Russell’s gestural collages become a visceral dictionary for decoding the isolation caused by repeating smoke events caused by forest fires. dani tirrell is a queer, black, trans spectrum movement artist. The Bluest Feelings is an installation using movement, photography and words to address dani's views on how the femme centered body is gestured to be oppressed, harmed and controlled. Hailing from Chile, indigenous Mapuche non-binary artist Sebastián Calfuqueo’s work appeals to their cultural inheritance in order to propose a critical reflection on the social, cultural and political status of the Mapuche subject in the contemporary Chilean society and Latin America.
This exhibition is made possible by a smART Ventures grant from the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture.
EXHIBITION: In This Body of Mine
Strange Fire Collective at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design
October 18–December 7, 2019
Reception and Keynote Lecture by Strange Fire Collective: October 25, 2019
Reception and Keynote Lecture by Strange Fire Collective: October 25, 2019
Frederick Layton Gallery at
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design
273 E. Erie Street | Milwaukee, WI 53202
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design
273 E. Erie Street | Milwaukee, WI 53202
EXHIBITING ARTISTS
Nydia Blas, Andre Bradley, Ria Brodell, Widline Cadet, Kei Ito, Rachel Jessen, Tarrah Krajnak, Natalie Krick, Birthe Piontek, Kalen Na’il Roach, Gabriel García Roman, Leonard Suryajaya, Paula Wilson, and American snapshots from the collection of Robert E. Jackson.
Nydia Blas, Andre Bradley, Ria Brodell, Widline Cadet, Kei Ito, Rachel Jessen, Tarrah Krajnak, Natalie Krick, Birthe Piontek, Kalen Na’il Roach, Gabriel García Roman, Leonard Suryajaya, Paula Wilson, and American snapshots from the collection of Robert E. Jackson.
In this body of mine, an exhibition at the Frederick Layton Gallery at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), featured 14 artists from the Strange Fire archive. The exhibition was organized in conjunction with the Society for Photographic Education’s Midwest Chapter Conference. As part of MIAD’s Creativity Series, the founding members of Strange Fire gave a keynote lecture on Friday, October 25, 2019, focusing on the core issues addressed through the work of the collective. They also engaged directly with students through class and studio visits as part of a short residency on the MIAD campus.
CO-CURATOR: The High Wall
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
D.K. Pan, C. Davida Ingram, Tracy Rector, Satpreet Kahlon, Klara Glasova, Che Sehyun, Dan Hawkins, Rodrigo Valenzuela, Tatiana Garmendia, Amir Sheikh, Julie Lee, Kei Ito, Brandon Tho Harris, Natasha Marin, Nadia Ahmed, Alice Gosti, and Gazelle Samizay & Labkhand Olfatmanesh, and Nathaniel White-Steele.
D.K. Pan, C. Davida Ingram, Tracy Rector, Satpreet Kahlon, Klara Glasova, Che Sehyun, Dan Hawkins, Rodrigo Valenzuela, Tatiana Garmendia, Amir Sheikh, Julie Lee, Kei Ito, Brandon Tho Harris, Natasha Marin, Nadia Ahmed, Alice Gosti, and Gazelle Samizay & Labkhand Olfatmanesh, and Nathaniel White-Steele.
INSTALLATION VIEWS
EXHIBITION: Signal Boost
Curated by Jordan Rockford & Rafael Soldi
Dates: March 2-25, 2018
Opening: Friday, March 2, 6-10pm | Curators walkthrough 8pm
Dates: March 2-25, 2018
Opening: Friday, March 2, 6-10pm | Curators walkthrough 8pm
EXHIBITING ARTISTS
Lorenzo Triburgo, Zora J Murff, and Juan C. Giraldo
Lorenzo Triburgo, Zora J Murff, and Juan C. Giraldo
With support from NAPOLEON, The University of the Arts, and The Society for Photographic Education
EXHIBITION: Just Visiting
Curated by Rafael Soldi & Serrah Russell
Dates: November 3 – 26, 2016
Dates: November 3 – 26, 2016
EXHIBITING ARTISTS
Clayton Cotterell, Holly Andres, Evan Baden, Julia Bradshaw, Natalie Krick, Zack Bent, Eirik Johnson, Megumi Shauna Arai, Max Cleary, Josh Poehlein, Ashley Armitage, Birthe Piontek, Patryk Stasieczek, Elizabeth Zvonar
Clayton Cotterell, Holly Andres, Evan Baden, Julia Bradshaw, Natalie Krick, Zack Bent, Eirik Johnson, Megumi Shauna Arai, Max Cleary, Josh Poehlein, Ashley Armitage, Birthe Piontek, Patryk Stasieczek, Elizabeth Zvonar
EXHIBITION: Here & Now
New Geographies in Queer Photography
Curated by Rafael Soldi
Dates: May 15–July 19, 2014
Dates: May 15–July 19, 2014
EXHIBITING ARTISTS
Molly Landreth, Zackary Drucker, Elle Perez, Michael Max McLeod, Richard Renaldi, We Are The Youth, and # 1 must have
Molly Landreth, Zackary Drucker, Elle Perez, Michael Max McLeod, Richard Renaldi, We Are The Youth, and # 1 must have
Presented through a video projection, Zachary Drucker’s Lost Lake posits beauty and fear as inextricable from the psyche of the American landscape. Contemplative moments and stunning vistas are jarringly punctuated with the vocabularies of witch-hunts, hate crimes, and psychological violence.
Artists Molly Landreth and Michael Max McLeod both take the road to document queer spaces and communities that delineate the margins of American cities. Landreth’s Embodiment project is an archive and a journey through a rapidly changing community and the lives of people who offer brave new visions of what it means to be queer in America today. McLeod, on the other hand, points his lens at the architecture of voyeurism. McLeod’s images reveal circumstantial worlds that exist entirely in the dark, proving why adult video arcades still exist in the Internet era. His photographs of adult video theaters serves as a meditation on the physical structures that facilitate, limit, and/or control the queer spectatorship.
Elle Perez and Richard Renaldi too cover ground, revealing intimacy as integral to the fabric of the American landscape. The first significant presentation of Renaldi’s Hotel Room Portraits, these photographs offer a glimpse into the artist’s life on the road. The self-portraits, which often feature his partner, Seth, elevate mundane moments to emotional documents of queer intimacy in transit. Elle Perez takes on a countrywide journey to document queer diasporas punctuated by intimate moments of connection and interior landscapes that begin to form a language for the often-unspoken and undocumented space between genders.
Lastly, artist-teams We Are the Youth (Laurel Golio & Diana Scholl) and #1 Must Have (Adrien Leavitt & A. Slaven) each bring visbility to specific communities within the larger queer diaspora. We Are the Youth is an ongoing photographic journalism project chronicling the individual stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer youth in the United States. Through photographic portraits and “as told to” interviews in the participants’ own voices, We Are the Youth addresses the lack of visibility of LGBTQ young people across the United States.
#1 Must Have reframes the queer experience outside of the victim paradigm often seen in popular culture and presents their subject through contemporary vernacular such as zines, Tumblr sites, community exhibitions, and queer dance parties.
CURATORIAL TEAM: Photographic Center Northwest
Projects highlighted here: Social Order: Women Photographers from Iran, India and Afghanistan, Author and Subject: Contemporary Queer Photography, Photolust: Annual Benefit Auction (2011& 2012), Benefit Limited Edition Prints Program.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
EXHIBITION: Select Gender
Curated by Rafael Soldi, Elle Perez, and Paolo Morales
EXHIBITING ARTISTS
Daniel Aguirre, Carl Bower, Caleb Cole, Nicolas Djandji, Jason Hanasik, Jamil Hellu, Monique Bergen Henegouwen, Kate Hutchinson, Katie Koti, Diane Russo, J. Aiden Simon, Sarah Sudhoff, Molly Landreth, Amelia Tovey
Daniel Aguirre, Carl Bower, Caleb Cole, Nicolas Djandji, Jason Hanasik, Jamil Hellu, Monique Bergen Henegouwen, Kate Hutchinson, Katie Koti, Diane Russo, J. Aiden Simon, Sarah Sudhoff, Molly Landreth, Amelia Tovey
Select Gender seeks to give these artists a chance to question, address or embrace contemporary ideals of gender, sexuality and self-image.
CURATORIAL TEAM: Laure Drogoul Retrospective
Dates: January 30-March 15, 2009
This exhibition invited visitors to immerse themselves in a paradoxical, absurdist world of darkness, wonder, and beauty. Drogoul’s sculptural follies, roving performances, and interactive works draw upon B-movie imagery, science fiction, psychoanalytic theory, and pop culture—particularly roadside Americana. Along the way she explores and exploits the symbiotic relationships and tensions between humanity and nature, creating works that have a uniquely accessible Baltimore aesthetic.