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Justine Kurland
Justine Kurland
Born	1969; Warsaw, New York
Nationality	American
Education	Yale University
Known for	Photography
Notable work	Spirit West, Old Joy
Movement	Neo-romanticism
Website	www.justinekurland.com

Justine Kurland (born 1969) is an American fine art photographer, based in New York City.

Early life and education

Kurland was born in Warsaw, New York. She earned her B.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts in 1996. She went on to study with Gregory Crewdson at Yale University^[1] where she received an M.F.A. in 1998.

Life and career

Kurland first gained public notice with her work in the group show Another Girl, Another Planet (1999), at New York's Van Doren Waxter gallery.^[2]^[3] The show included her large c-print staged tableau pictures of neo-romantic landscapes inhabited by young adolescent girls, half-sprites, half juvenile delinquents. This was her first exhibition of a photographic interest that lasted from 1997, when she began taking pictures of her mentor Laurie Simmons's babysitter and her friends, to 2002. Altogether, Kurland published 69 pictures of girls in a series called "Girl Pictures." The staged photos take place in urban and wilderness settings, with girls depicted as though to imply they are runaways, hopeful and independent.^[4]^[5]

As landscapes she chose the 'secret places' of late childhood; wasteland on the edges of suburbia, 'owned' only by a feral nature and unsupervised children. Her book Spirit West (2000) featured similar work on a more ambitious scale. In early 2001 Kurland spent several months in New Zealand, where she created similar work with schoolgirls there.^[6]

In her show Community, Skyblue (2002), Kurland turned to documenting the utopian communes of Virginia and California, highlighting the unworldly aspirations of the communards by having them appear naked in her pictures and showing them as only distant figures in their landscape.^[7] In 2003 she had European solo shows Golden Dawn (London)^[8] and Welcome Home (Vienna),^[9] based around these series of commune images.

Old Joy (2004) turns to men. She shows visionaries trekking naked into the wilderness, where they undergo spiritual experiences. In her 2004 show Songs of Experience she explored medieval and Biblical imagery. In 2005 she had a solo show in Japan. After having a son, Kurland began to photograph pregnant women and new mothers ("Mama Baby", 2004–2007).^[10] Her son's interest in trains would lead her to photograph hobos and trains from 2007 to 2011 ("This Train Is Bound for Glory");^[11]^[12] as he grew up, she became interested in American masculinity, and created photographs of cars and mechanics ("Sincere Auto Care," 2014–2015).^[4]^[13]

Kurland's work appears on the cover and liner notes of French electronic/shoegaze group M83's 2004 album Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, as well as the covers of the EP releases for the album.^[14]

In an article in Artforum (April 2000) she talked of her inspirations: "I'm always thinking about painting: nineteenth-century English picturesque landscapes and the utopian ideal, genre paintings, and also Julia Margaret Cameron's photographs. I started going to museums at an early age, but my imagery is equally influenced by illustrations from the fairy tales I read as a child."^[2]

Selections from her work Highway Kind were published in the book The Open Road: Photography & the American Road Trip by David Campany.^[15]

Personal life

Kurland began dating women shortly after completing her "Girls" series, work with an undercurrent of sex and female sexuality. As of 2018^[update] she had been dating her current female partner for three years.^[4] Kurland lives and works in New York City.^[16]

Publications

Books by Kurland

Spirit West. Coromandel, 2000. ISBN 9780998631257
Another Girl, Another Planet. Lawrence Rubin Greenberg / Van Doren Fine Art, 2001.^[17]
Old Joy. Artspace, 2004. ISBN 1-891273-05-1.
Highway Kind. Aperture, 2016. ISBN 978-1597113281.
Girl Pictures. Aperture, 2020. ISBN 9781683952183.
SCUMB Manifesto. Mack, 2022. ISBN 978-1-913620-56-1.

Publications with contributions by Kurland

Campany, David (2014). The Open Road: Photography & the American Road Trip. New York City: Aperture. ISBN 978-1-59711-240-6. OCLC 933446167.

Exhibitions

Another Girl, Another Planet (1999), Van Doren Waxter, New York^[2]^[3]
Girl Pictures, 1997-2002 (2018), Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York^[18]^[19]
SCUMB Manifesto (2021), Higher Pictures Generation, New York^[20]^[21]
Self-Pleasure (2024), Thomas Erben Gallery, New York^[22] Group exhibition featuring Tofo Bardi, Nicole Eisenman, Chitra Ganesh, Andrea Éva Győri, Kinke Kooi, Jacky Marshall, Shala Miller, Anne Minich, Senga Nengudi, Janice Nowinski, Adrian Piper, Carla Williams, Jin Young Lee

References

^ Fry, Naomi (24 June 2018). "The Lawless Energy of Teenage Girls". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 25 September 2024. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
^ ^a ^b ^c Dailey, Meghan; Kurland, Justine (April 2000). "A thousand words". Artforum. 38 (8): 118–119. ISSN 1086-7058. ProQuest 214346214. Archived from the original on 29 October 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
^ ^a ^b "Exhibitions - Another Girl Another Planet". Van Doren Waxter (Press release). 1999. Archived from the original on 3 October 2023. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
^ ^a ^b ^c Cohen, Alina (23 May 2018). "This Photographer Envisioned a Fierce Army of Girls, Forging Their Own Paths". Artsy. Archived from the original on 29 January 2024. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
^ Stone, Mee-Lai (12 May 2020). "'An army of teenage runaways': American girls in the wild – in pictures". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 25 August 2024. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
^ "Exhibitions: Justine Kurland". Museum of Contemporary Photography. 2002. Archived from the original on 21 June 2024. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
^ Richard, Frances (November 2002). "Justine Kurland". Artforum. 41 (3): 184. ProQuest 214347536. Archived from the original on 10 November 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
^ Plender, Olivia (11 November 2003). "Justine Kurland - Emily Tsingou Gallery, London, UK". Frieze. No. 79. Archived from the original on 25 April 2024. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
^ "Justine Kurland - There's a Hungry Mouth for Every Peach - October – November 2011". galerie.theruyter.com. 2011. Archived from the original on 6 November 2024. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
^ Stringfield, Anne (February 2007). "Two for the Road". Vogue. 197 (2): 164. Archived from the original on 1 July 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2024 – via Mitchell-Innes & Nash.
^ Frankel, David (January 2010). "Justine Kurland". Artforum. 48 (5): 196. ISSN 1086-7058. ProQuest 214350769. Archived from the original on 18 November 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
^ "Exhibitions - Justine Kurland - This Train is Bound for Glory". Mitchell-Innes & Nash. Archived from the original on 21 July 2024. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
^ Bengal, Rebecca (3 September 2014). "Justine Kurland's Vivid, Haunting Photographs of Men and Cars". T. Archived from the original on 26 July 2024. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
^ "M83 – Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts". Discogs. 2014. Archived from the original on 3 November 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
^ Campany, David (2014). The Open Road: Photography & the American Road Trip. New York, NY: Aperture. pp. 301–317. ISBN 9781597112406. OCLC 933446167.
^ "Artists - Justine Kurland - Biography". Mitchell-Innes & Nash. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
^ "Publications: Another Girl, Another Planet". Van Doren Waxter. 1999. OCLC 44951136. Archived from the original on 5 November 2024. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
^ "Justine Kurland's 'Girl Pictures, 1997-2002'". Juxtapoz. 28 May 2018. Archived from the original on 23 November 2023. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
^ Wrigley, Tish (5 June 2018). "Documenting Girlhood: Justine Kurland's Captivating Pictures, 20 Years On". AnOther. Archived from the original on 22 May 2024. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
^ Ammirati, Domenick (Summer 2021). "Justine Kurland". Artforum. 59 (8). ProQuest 2555628257. Archived from the original on 29 October 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
^ Gilsdorf, Bean (27 September 2023). "Justine Kurland by Bean Gilsdorf: Collages for the Society for Cutting Up Men's Books (SCUMB)". Bomb (Interview). Archived from the original on 31 January 2024. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
^ "Exhibitions: Self-Pleasure". Thomas Erben Gallery. 2024. Archived from the original on 16 July 2024. Retrieved 25 June 2024.