rite: this instant
Jack Johnston
C Meier
Annie Reierson
2nd January - 15th February 2025
Opening 5pm Thursday 2nd January
In the diverse works presented by these three artists, we see how the medium of instant photography can be used to express each artist’s particular experience. Be it recasting performance work from their youth to exploring the material and how it responds to drawing and photo methods to animated motion sequences, these works show how the Polaroid can be so adaptive and responsive to the artists’ inquiries. Indeed, by using a restrictive format, each artist works and transcends the medium to their own needs and desires.
What might have started off as a product for instant gratification and memory making now has morphed into a celebrated and strikingly distinct medium that sings, shines, and reflects the efforts placed upon it. While the format had once effectively died out, it is now living again in these diverse works clearly reiterating what is possible to capture in an instant and how it can change and persevere.
jack johnston
Jack Johnston’s practice incorporates chance and process across a range of media. He currently lives and works in West Seattle. He received a BA in Liberal Studies, and an MA in Psychology - Integrated Studies, both from Antioch University, Seattle. Johnston is a wellness coach, focusing on tobacco cessation.
Jack Johnston attended San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) for three years in the mid-seventies. In 1977, he apprenticed in Florence, MA to photographer Bill Arnold. As Jack Fan, from 1979-81 he published two punk fanzines, 20aMPC and Anti-Zine (the original layout copy for both are part of the SF Punk History Collection at the SF Public Library). He wrote music criticism for the Western Assoc. of Rock Disk Jockeys (WARD), from 1982-1993. For the San Francisco New Wave band, Romeo Void, Johnston wrote liner notes for their compilation CD, Warm, In Your Coat, in 1991, and for Live From Mabuhay Gardens, November 14, 1980, released on vinyl for Record Store Day, April 2023. A self-published book of Polaroid self-portraits, Pola-Reds: Confections From the Edge, is in the collection of Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, OR; the library of SFAI; and in the SF Punk Archives at SFPL. As a freelance writer, Johnston contributed “Calculating Beauty,” an essay for Jane Bauman’s Painted Records artist book (2020), and “An Invitation to Engage,” an essay for Junko Yamamoto’s exhibition catalog, Cosmic Web (2023).
Instagram: @_jack_johnston_
c meier
C. Meier (American, b. 1982, they/them) is a nonbinary trans masculine artist and curator based in Portland, Oregon. Their art practice explores color and materiality, reveling in the hybridization of processes including painting, drawing and photographic methods. They earned their MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago (2017) and BFA in Studio Art from Pacific Lutheran University (2004).
Meier has exhibited at Hyde Park Art Center, Mana Contemporary (Chicago), Filter Space, Blue Sky, The Neon Heater, Nine Gallery, among others. Their work is part of the Permanent Collection of Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, WA). Meier co-curated the 2017 exhibition re:collection at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago (MoCP), and curated the 2023 exhibition Size Matters for Medium Photo, San Diego. Professional roles include Collections Manager/Registrar (2018-2020) at the MoCP, Studio Assistant to Barbara Kasten (2019-2020), and Exhibitions Director (2021 - current), at Blue Sky, Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts.
Instagram: @rispix
annie reierson
Annie Reierson is a Seattle-based visual artist and photographer. Reierson graduated in 2023 from Seattle University with a BFA in Photography. She is primarily a lens-based artist who utilizes a variety of techniques; including but not limited to mixed media, installation, and experimental analog methods.
https://anniereierson.myportfolio.com/
Instagram: @annie.reierson