Opening and Artist Talk
[hyphen] American
Keliy Anderson-Staley
Artist Talk: 5pm

Please join us for the opening of [hyphen] American, and installation of 150 unique tintype portraits by Keliy Anderson-Staley. The artist will give a brief talk about her work starting at 5pm followed by a question and answer period.

Keliy Anderson-Staley has been creating a collective portrait of America, and its great diversity, over the past decade. Working in tintype, a 19th-Century photographic process, she has crisscrossed the country to photograph the hundreds of people who make up [hyphen] American. Her portraits often feature people who did not have access to being photographed when tintypes were first invented back in the 1800s. This exhibition showcases portraits made during her stop in Indianapolis in June 2019, as well as subjects photographed in other American cities from New York to Cleveland to San Francisco. To make each tintype, Anderson-Staley mixes and pours the emulsion for each plate on site shortly before a portrait is made. Tintypes need long exposure times, so the subject must remain completely still for up to 30 seconds to produce a sharp picture. This process creates portraits that are atmospheric and very detailed, emphasizing an often intense and mesmerizing gaze. Anderson-Staley’s beautifully textured tintype portraits use 19th-Century technology to depict the wholeness of what “American” means in the 21st Century.