Archival pigment print, graphite, aluminum
40×45”
Sharon Koelblinger’s work explores cyclical relationships between loss and desire, perfection and fallibility, repetition and rarity. In A Scar is a Question Mark, Koelblinger reflects upon her relationship with her father and the shape of the scar he bore until his death. The title suggests continuity between the permanence and malleability of memory. In the context of this exhibition, obsessive gestures underscore these relationships and represent a reverence for ritual through hand drawn lines and enigmatic imagery. Koelblinger’s photographs resist representation and her sculptures are trompe l’oeil, emphasizing the disconnection between seeing and comprehending while negotiating the boundary between illusion and authenticity. The oscillation between these subtle nuances point to the ephemerality of presence in objects, images, and ultimately ourselves.
Sharon Koelblinger holds an MFA in Photography from the Tyler School of Art and a BFA in Sculpture from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Koelblinger has participated in exhibitions in New York City, Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Chicago; and has most recently exhibited her work the Phillips Museum in Lancaster, PA and Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. She teaches photography at Tyler School of Art and Delaware College of Art and Design. She has attended residencies at The Bakery Photographic Collective in Portland, ME, The Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT and is currently an artist member at Vox Populi Gallery in Philadelphia, PA.
Review in Title Magazine, “for absent luck” by Zachary Rawe can be read online here.
Gallery talk with Judith Tannenbaum
