EXHIBITION DETAILS

Center Forward 2022

June 1 - June 28 2022

Reception and artist talks: June 3, 2022 6 - 9 PM

Immersion Weekend* | June 3 – 5, 2022

Center Forward is an open-themed international juried exhibition.

Location: Art Lab239 Linden St, Fort Collins, CO 80524

*All exhibiting artists are invited to in-person portfolio reviews by one juror, Alyssa Ortega Coppleman, and our executive director, Hamidah Glasgow, opening reception, no-host dinner after the reception, and a Saturday late afternoon lake outing and BBQ. There will be a workshop with the jurors (for a fee) that will be presented online at a later date.

Jurors Statement

Selecting work for an exhibition is usually a solitary process. Having the opportunity to co-jury this exhibition gave us the chance to collaborate as well as the opportunity to see work through each other’s eyes. Working with another photo editor in this capacity inevitably led to shared insight.

Separately, we each reviewed submissions and made preliminary selections; we did not know what each other’s process was. And yet, independent of one another, our top selects were remarkably similar. This speaks to the quality of the work itself, and indicates our shared interests. More interestingly, it indicates that we are currently drawn to work that reflects our present state of affairs. While the artists are from disparate backgrounds, much of the work addresses similar themes: longing for connection; the challenges of parenthood; moments of vulnerability and intimacy; humanity’s impact on the planet; the isolation felt from having to assert one’s identity and belonging in the world. And yet, these very topics are the heart of our universal connection. Alyssa Coppelman and Christy Havranek

Jurors

Alyssa Ortega Coppelman is an independent photo editor and photobook consultant based in Austin, Texas. She works steadily with Harper’s Magazine and the Oxford American magazine as Art Researcher, the latter which won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2016 and has since been nominated twice in the category. Working directly with photographers, Alyssa provides oversight in editing, sequencing, design, and editorial aspects of portfolios and photobook projects. Working regularly on the Emmy-nominated, PBS NewsHour series, Brief But Spectacular, she is an Archival Researcher, finding visual accompaniment for short interviews.

Christy Havranek is the Photo Director at HuffPost, where she manages a team of photo editors and photographers, oversees production of commissioned and in-house photography, and collaborates across the newsroom to elevate visual storytelling. With 20 years of experience in photography, she has worked across multiple industries including book publishing, television, fashion and editorial. In 2017, Christy launched commissioned photography at HuffPost, a first for the online news outlet. Recently, she has juried photo exhibits with the Center for Fine Art Photography, Lenscratch, and Photo Place Gallery, among others, and in 2019 she was an editorial mentor with Women Photograph's mentorship program. She was a pre-screener and juror for Photolucida Critical Mass 2021.

ARTIST HONORS AND AWARDS: All selected artists’ work is included in the in-gallery and online exhibition complete with artist website links. The Center also provides event press releases and social media promotions with an audience of 180,000+ followers internationally.

AWARDS

Jurors Award: Chen Xiangyun and Maggie Shannon

Honorable Mentions: Debra Achen, Jorge Ariel Escobar, William Mark Sommer, and Suzanne Theodora White

ARTISTS

Debra Achen, Joel Anderson, Debe Arlook, Lynne Breitfeller, Semaj Campbell, Jo Ann Chaus, Xiangyun Chen, Troy Colby, Madelyn Conlin-Day, Austin Cullen, Virgil DiBiase, Paloma Dooley, Jorge Escobar, Khim Hipol, Wenying Liu, Mikaela Martin, Ania Moussawel, Amir Saadiq, Charlotte Schmid- Maybach, Maggie Shannon, Megan Sinclair, Eileen Skahill, William Mark Sommer, Streetmax 21, Wayne Swanson, Jim Turner, Romi Voorhies, Suzanne Theodora White, and Michael Young.