ROXBURY — “Ki i ‘no Hawai’i,” a solo show of work by Elaine Mayes, will open with an Artist Reception at 3 p.m. Jan. 25 at the Roxbury Arts Center at 5025 Vega Mountain Road in Roxbury.
According to a media release, Mayes received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1991 to photograph in Hawaii, and with an Atherton Foundation grant in 2003 published this work in a limited edition book titled “Ki’i No Hawai’i” in 2009. Mayes’ Hawaii photographs were exhibited at the Honolulu Museum of Art Spalding House, formerly known as The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, in 2003.
Mayes has been an active visual artist since 1960, the release stated. A main focus and emphasis for her work has been investigations of “seeing” and documentary forms in photography. This interest led to a number of projects and seeking out various close at hand situations in the world as subject material for her photographs.
Mayes majored in painting and art history at Stanford University and then studied at the San Francisco Art Institute with John Collier Jr., Paul Hassel, Minor White, Nathan Oliviera and Richard Diebenkorn. Between 1961 and 1968 she was an independent photojournalist working in San Francisco for magazines and graphic designers. During 1967 and 1968 she was a rock ‘n’ roll photographer and photographed the ‘Summer of Love’ and scene in the Haight Ashbury District of San Francisco. One of her assignments was to photograph the Monterey Pop Festival. This work was published in her book called, “It Happened In Monterey.”
Mayes taught photography for 35 years, beginning at the University of Minnesota in 1968. Then she taught at Hampshire College from 1971 to 1981, at Bard College during 1982 and 1983, and at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts from 1983 until 2001. She was chair of the Tisch Photography Department from 1997 until her retirement from teaching. Currently she is professor emeritus and lives in the Catskill Mountains of New York actively continuing her work. She is affiliated with Getty Images, Joseph Bellows Gallery, Morrison Hotel Galleries and Liberal Arts Roxbury.
The Artists Reception is free and open to all. The exhibit is open through March 22. For complete details, visit roxburyartsgroup.org.