Jaclyn Kolev Brown

Jaclyn was born in 1990 in Petersburg, Virginia. She earned an MFA in Photography from the University of Hartford’s International Low-Residency Program and her BFA in Photography & Film from Virginia Commonwealth University. She was included in VCUart’s selective alumni show, “The Gold Standard”, which included graduates from the past decade. Recent shows include: “As to be Inaudible” at c/o Berlin in Berlin, Germany and “Sustained Pause” at Joseloff Gallery in Hartford, CT. Kolev-Brown currently lives in Richmond, VA and teaches photography at Virginia State University.

A Kind of Blindness, A Kind of Sight

I am an artist and photographer who often works with the theme of questioning identity, as in individual and as communal identity. I’ve spent the majority of my life attending a Southern Baptist Church. Recently, I have had concerns about the religious structure of the church being stagnant in it’s ideologies. I believe that there is a kind of blindness and also a kind of sight that I see in people that are religious. I admire this holdfast faith that expels positivity and a hope even in dark times. Their ability to look towards the future and at what something could be is a gift, but at the same time this same faith in which these people live their lives can result in a complete blindness to the present time and to reality before them. I see these same qualities in myself both past and present. Through my photographs in this work, I represent this sight (or lack of) through symbolism and abstraction in a fictional narrative.

To view more of Jaclyn Kolev Brown’s work please visit her website.