Event Information

Kelli Connell: Pictures for Charis

Cleveland Museum of Art
Start: January 26, 2025 10:00 am
End: April 2, 2025 5:00 pm

Address:
11150 East Blvd.
Cleveland, OH – 44106-1797

Admission Price: Free

In Pictures for Charis, American photographer Kelli Connell reconsiders the relationship between writer Charis (pronounced CARE-iss) Wilson and photographer Edward Weston through a close examination of Wilson’s prose and Weston’s iconic photographs of the Western landscape and the female nude. Connell weaves together the stories of Wilson and Weston with that of her own relationship with her partner at the time, Betsy Odom, enriching our understanding of the couple from her contemporary queer and feminist perspective. Using Weston and Wilson publications as a guide, Connell and Odom created portrait and landscape photographs at sites where Wilson and Weston lived, made art, and spent time together. This exhibition juxtaposes Connell’s photographs with classic figure studies and landscapes by Weston from 1934–45, one of his most productive periods and the span of his relationship with Wilson. The monograph Kelli Connell: Pictures for Charis (2024) is copublished by Aperture and the Center for Creative Photography; it brings together Connell’s text, portraits of Odom, new landscape views, and original materials by both Wilson and Weston. The Cleveland Museum of Art is funded in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. This exhibition was supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.