Biography / CV
Born in Szczecin, Poland, Patryce Bąk graduated with a BFA in photography from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and received her MFA from Hunter College in New York in 2010. Her work has been exhibited in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Zurich, Portland, ME, Denton, TX and Cincinnati, OH. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California.
Patryce Bak's photography is an investigation in the fracturing of perceived dimensions. In her works Sites of Storage and The inner things, the outer things layering photos on top of photos, along with mirrors and other three-dimensional objects Bąk creates a collapse of space and time in her work. The images shift between past, present and future as the eye identifies the actual background space, references to past images and reflections which lead to the infinite. In this way the photograph functions much like the mind and produces the kind of friction that exists between memory and experience. By creating a psychological space that allows room for inquiry and thought, Bąk's artwork mimics thought processes, prompting the viewer to negotiate the space of the artwork similarly to that of the murky crevices of the mind.
In her works Performers, Stages, Sight Unseen and Event and Evidence, Bąk interprets familiar terrain in an unusual way by blurring the boundaries between reality/ fiction and between fiction/ artifice. Her investigations in photography manifest in a visual language of familiar symbols within constructed spaces. The image either absent of inhabitants and rich with objects that incite meaning, or focused on a subject arrested in mid-act is imbued with the tension of a story only partially revealed.
The play of light is the event.
The residue of life is evidence.
The performer activates a space.
The stage is a space where action may take place.
The fractured image is memory at work.
CV
Born Szczecin, Poland
EDUCATION
2010 MFA, Hunter College of the City University of New York, New York, NY
1999 BFA, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA
1994-1995 University of California, Santa Cruz, CA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2007 Souls Triangles Space, Junior Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
2006 Measured Definitions, North Hall Gallery, New York, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2014 Rivertree Arts, Kennebunkport, ME
2011 Shallow, The Barn, Los Angeles, CA
2011 Narrative Arc, UNT On the Square, Denton, TX
2010 MFA Thesis Exhibition, Hunter College, New York, NY
2010 Tools for Thought: Haiti Benefit, Sotheby's, New York, NY
2007 ScopeNY, 31Grand Gallery, New York, NY
2006 Tiny Vices, Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York, NY
2005 Nightmare on Grand Street, 31Grand Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2005 Portraits in Photography, National Arts Club, New York, NY
2005 Portraits: New Jersey Foster Children, The Heart Gallery, Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, NJ
2005 ScopeNY, 31Grand Gallery, Flatotel Hotel, New York, NY
2005 Heavenly Creatures, 31Grand Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2004 Threads Associations Implications, Stay Gold Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2003 Fantasy, Brooklyn Public House, Brooklyn, NY
2000 Each His Own, Organic Gallery, Echo Park, CA
2000 Untitled, Art Share, Los Angeles, CA
SELECTED CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2004 Threads Associations Implications, Stay Gold Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2003 Fantasy, Brooklyn Public House, Brooklyn, NY
SELECTED AWARDS
2008 William Graf Travel Abroad Scholarship Award, Hunter College
2001 Photo District News, 30 Under 30, Finalist
1999 CMYK Magazine, Finalist in Photography
1998 CMYK Magazine, Finalist in Photography
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2014 Photo District News
2006 ICON Magazine, Flaunt Magazine
2005 ICON Magazine, Surface Magazine, Picture Magazine
2001 Photo District News
SELECTED PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY
2009 Teaching Assistant to Professor Brian Wood, Introduction to Photography, Hunter College