ARTIST TALK: Liz Hickok in Conversation with Ann Jastrab at CHUNG | NAMONT in Noe Valley

LIZ HICKOK is a San Francisco-based artist working at the intersection of photography, video, sculpture and installation. Hickok's artwork has been exhibited across the country and internationally. Her work is included in such collections as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Blue Shield of California, and Mills College Art Museum. Hickok's Cityscapes in Jell-O series attracted media attention, receiving coverage in the New York Times, CBS Early Show, and NPR.

Hickok has developed photomurals for Facebook and Google's San Francisco offices, as well as for UCSF and Sutter Hospitals. In 2019, she created a site-specific installation for the Surreal Sublime exhibition at the San Jose ICA, and had a large solo exhibition at the Longview Museum of Fine Arts in Longview, TX. In 2020, she was part of the Center of Photographic Art in Carmel's 8x10 Fundraising Exhibition. She currently has an outdoor photomural on display in Palo Alto, CA which integrates three-dimensional layers of augmented reality video and sound. Liz's most recent projects include an interactive large-scale video projection for Palo Alto's Code:ART2 festival in October 2021 and an upcoming augmented reality installation in Los Altos, CA. 

Inspired by the ephemeral quality of the Earth's landscape, from the built structures to the subterranean layers that comprise the planet. Liz Hickok explores the intersection of chemistry, the environment, and imagination, engaging material play, conjuring wonder and awe as well as environmental urgency. With glowing colors and shifts in scale, the artist's work calls into question what is real and what is imagined. Using photography and video, the artist captures the evolution of fabricated miniature urban landscapes that are alive and evanescent.

For the Ground Waters series, miniature scenes are built and the tiny environments are flooded with a solution that grows crystals over a period of days/weeks. As time passes, the crystals engulf the sculptures, transforming them into otherworldly spaces. Within the series, each experiment yields unique imagery that, at times, specifically references the landscape. In other instances, the materials reveal a more abstract environment that only suggests the invisible forces at work around us. This series also includes works with augmented reality.

ANN M. JASTRAB is the Executive Director at Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, CA. Prior to joining CPA, Ann worked as gallery director at the beloved RayKo Photo Center for 10 years until their closure. She curated many exhibitions for RayKo during her tenure while also jurying, curating, and organizing numerous exhibitions for other national and international venues outside of the San Francisco Bay Area. While being a champion of artists, she also created a thriving artist-in-residence program at RayKo where recent residents Kathya Marie Landeros, Meghann Riepenhoff, Carlos Javier Ortiz, and McNair Evans all received Guggenheim Fellowships. Prior to taking the position of executive director of CPA, Ann worked as the gallery manager at Scott Nichols Gallery in San Francisco. She has served on numerous boards and fundraising committees and is thrilled to bring her talents, passion, and leadership skills to Carmel. Besides being a curator and an educator, Ann is a writer and editor and she is also a fine art photographer who still carries around a wooden view camera...and a metal one too.

Artist: Liz Hickok