Photographer Andrea Modica will present a public lecture of her work on Thursday, April 18, 2024, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. at the Robert W. Plaster Free Enterprise Center, Jay Wasson Idea Loft, at 405 N. Jefferson Ave. in Springfield.

Photography professor Gwen Walstrand, of the Department of Art and Design, was instrumental in bringing Modica to Missouri State University.

Walstrand described Modica’s work as “poetic and evocative, both dark in content yet hopeful and tender.” She added that she has always been interested in Modica’s work and knew it would be beneficial for the students and community.

“Students will get to hear her articulate her ideas and explain how she thinks about the work she makes,” Walstrand said. “Modica models how to ask visual questions about her art and that of others. She employs much knowledge to offer students and will answer important questions of what it means to be an artist now and how to make a living as an artist.”

About the Artist

Modica has used a large format film camera her entire career, and she produces prints with the brilliant, hand-coated 19th-century platinum-palladium printing process.

In her lecture, she will address how choice of equipment and presentation can profoundly inform content.

Modica will also share an overview of 40 years of her photography, including works from her monographs “Treadwell,” “Minor League,” “January 1,” “As We Wait,” “Theatrum Equorum” and “Catholic Girl.”

She has published 17 books of her work.

A graduate of the Yale School of Art, Modica is a Guggenheim Fellow and a Fulbright Scholar. She lives in Philadelphia, where she works as a photographer and teaches at Drexel University.

Modica’s photographs are included in world renowned collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the George Eastman House and the Bibliothèque National de France Museum, among others.

Her solo exhibitions include the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art and the San Diego Museum of Photographic Arts.

Lecture attendees should enter Jay Wasson Idea Loft (inside Robert W. Plaster Free Enterprise Center) from the west side of the efactory (Boonville-facing with murals). Parking is available in MSU Lot 46. Contact the Department of Art and Design at 417-837-2330 for additional details.

News written by Mariah Hunter and edited by the Reynolds College Communications team. Photos provided by the artist.

Hunter is a graduate assistant for the Department of Art and Design. She is working towards her master’s degree in writing at Missouri State University.