In conjunction with the FOSTER PRIZE EXHIBITION, photographer Rania Matar will give an artist talk along side the other finalists for the Prize at the Institute for Contemporary Arts on Sunday, December 7th at 1:00 p.m. Free with museum admission. Tickets available first-come, first-served one hour before the program.
Matar’ award-winning photographs will be on view at ICA with the work of other Foster Prize nominees through March 1st, 2009
These artists, while presenting vastly different views of the world around us in a variety of media, all share a confident artistic approach—a sign of breakthroughs to come. The James and Audrey Foster Prize is a biennial award of $25,000 given to a Boston artist who demonstrates exceptional promise. Selected from several dozen nominated artists by a distinguished jury who will also decide the winner, the finalists present their work in a new ICA exhibition. The winner will be announced in January 2009.
About Rania Matar:
Rania Matar’s photographic work captures the everyday humanity that persists amidst catastrophic circumstances. She primarily focuses on the Middle East, especially its women and children. More recent projects examine refugee camps, the meaning of the veil and the aftermath of war.
For the ICA, Matar presents several black-and-white prints showing women and girls in states of repose, introspection, or in defiantly assertive stances, along with color work that reveals the haunting traces of domestic life found within chaos and rubble.
Born and raised in Lebanon, Rania Matar moved to the U.S. in 1984. She trained as an architect at Cornell University before studying photography at the New England School of Photography and the Maine Photographic Workshops. Matar’s work has been exhibited at such venues as the Center for Contemporary Arts in Texas and the Koppelman Gallery at Tufts University. Her images are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Portland Art Museum, the DeCordova Museum and the Danforth Museum of Art. She has won several awards in photography, including a fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Matar lives in Brookline.
Click here to view a audio slide show of the work of tjhe Foster Prize winners from the ICA’s website.
Marketing Photos with Mary Virginia Swanson 