SFAI's Moshe Quinn

Courtesy of the artist

Moshe Quinn, "#1 (from Two Towers and the Space Between Them" (2005)

Courtesy of the artist

Moshe Quinn, "#2 (from Two Towers and the Space Between Them)" (2005)

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Moshe Quinn
MFA in Photography awarded May 2006
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco

Artist’s Contact:

mosheq@gmail.com

http://www.moshequinn.com/

Artist’s Statement:

Sometimes it's not clear what is missing from a photograph. We are trained to look for things, to recognize what's in front of us as concrete, then to hold onto that. But nothing can be present without an absence to prop it up. And vice versa.

The medium of photography is based on a selection and exclusion of details, forms, gestures, personae, locales, pasts, futures and so on. The fullest context of a thing—its possible meanings—also encompasses what is not represented. In my work, I try to point towards something of absence, absences, absenting, as these phenomena infiltrate human subjectivity.

What is this something? A distance. A possibility. A longing. A limit. An opening.

These images form part of a series called “Facing Towers.” Skyscrapers are inevitable icons: of the city; of modern history; of progress; of power. Despite the fullness, the solidity and noise of their being, silence and something else stands all around. How do these towers face blankness? How does blankness face them?

Artists’s Biography:

Moshe Quinn was raised in Salt Lake City and Missoula, Montana. He graduated summa cum laude from Kenyon College with degrees in English literature and religion. His work has been awarded prizes in Ohio and in San Francisco, including the Paul Sack Award.

In 2005, he attended the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado as a Brooks Fellow. His photographs have been exhibited in Ohio, Maine, New Jersey, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Mastumoto, Japan. In 2006, he received an MFA in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute, and he continues to live and work in that city. He uses photography to explore questions of space, unknowing and substance in urban settings.

About the San Francisco Art Institute:

At the San Francisco Art Institute, art is more than objects and processes; it is also a way of thinking, an approach to both knowledge and the world itself.

SFAI's degree programs further the relationship between the practices, histories and theories of contemporary art and culture. The School of Studio Practice consists of the institute's historical departments of Design+Technology, Film, New Genres, Painting, Photography, Printmaking and Sculpture. Offering BFA and MFA degrees and a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate, The School of Studio Practice is centered on the development of the artist's vision through studio-based experiments and the understanding that the work of the artist is an essential part of society.

The School of Interdisciplinary Studies, offers programs in History and Theory of Contemporary Art (BA, MA), Urban Studies (BA, MA) and Exhibition and Museum Studies (MA). Supporting the role of research and other forms of education, The School of Interdisciplinary Studies is based on the premise that critical reading, thinking, and writing—informed by an in-depth understanding of theory and practice—are essential for engaging and understanding contemporary art and global society. Also under this school's aegis are SFAI's four centers for interdisciplinary study: Art+Science; Public Practice; Word, Text, and Image; and Media Culture. Each center sponsors symposia, seminars, exhibitions, research fellowships, and residencies at SFAI during the academic year.

Together the two schools provide a more inclusive model to address issues relating to the evolution of contemporary art. SFAI's dean of academic afairs is world-renowned curator, critic,and writer Okwui Enwezor. Dean of graduate studies is the internationally prolific artist, filmmaker and writer Renée Green. The director of SFAI's Exhibitions and Museum Studies Program is independent critic and curator Hou Hanru.

SFAI has a rolling admissions policy and accepts applications year-round. For more information visit www.sfai.edu or call 1.800.345.7324 (outside US, call 415-771-7020).