User:Doctor Interesting

Jamie Baldridge
Jamie Baldridge was born in New Iberia, Louisiana on May 24, 1975. He was raised in a very conservative and traditional Catholic household in the southernmost part of Louisiana known as Acadiana, a bastion of southern Catholicism. . He decided to become an artist at an early age after discovering a picture book entitled "101 Fairy Tales" while rummaging through his grandmother's attic. The colourful and fantastic images in the book captured his imagination and engendered in him the desire to re-create the same feeling of wonder in others. He went on to study creative writing, theology, and fine art photography at Louisiana State University where he received both his Bachelor of Fine Art and later his Master of Fine Art degrees. He is currently a professor of fine art at the University of Louisiana.

He is known for creating highly manipulated surreal Tableau vivant photographs. Baldridge's work references many literary, philosophical, religious, and artistic themes such as the symbolism and psychology of dream imagery, the frangibility of relationships, altered states of consciousness,Jungian archetypes, and esoteric tales and fables. "He has filtered those loaded fables through his subconscious, tempered them with dystopia, tasty fetishes and research gleaned from the musty stacks of Latin scholarship, and emerged with (a) painterly surrealistic vision." He cites Søren Kierkegaard, Joseph Campbell, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Remedios Varo, Edward Gorey, and the Epic of Gilgamesh as but a few of his varied inspirations. His subjects, usually female, often have their faces and/or heads obscured allowing the viewer greater opportunity for symbolic interpretations of identity and challenging accepted preconceptions about the genre of portraiture.

Publications
Baldridge, Jamie (foreword: Graham Nash). Almost Fiction. San Francisco: Modernbook Editions, 2013

Baldridge, Jamie. The Everywhere Chronicles. New York: Leo & Wolfe/21st,  2008

Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions

Almost Fiction    Modernbook Gallery   San Francisco, CA    2013

Playing with Arsenic   Camara Oscura galeria de arte   Madrid, Spain   2013

Belle Epoque  Taylor Bercier Fine Art   New Orleans, Louisiana  2010

The Everywhere Chronicles  Galerie Utrecht   Amsterdam, Netherlands  2009

Dystopia  Camara Oscura galeria de arte   Madrid, Spain   2009

Pilgrims & Peregrines  Richard Goodall Gallery   Manchester, United Kingdom  2008

Informed Visions  Millenia Fine Art   Orlando, FL  2008

Two Person Exhibitions

VS. / Jamie Baldridge & Bernhard Burmann  Carbon 12 Gallery   Dubai, United Arab Emirates  2012

Magic Realism  Schneider Contemporary Photography   Chicago, IL  2009

Jamie Baldridge & Adam Farrington  Taylor Bercier Fine Art   New Orleans, LA   2007

Selected Group Exhibitions

Decisive Moments  Honolulu Museum of Art   Honolulu, HI  2014

Decisive Moments  Honolulu Museum of Art   Honolulu, HI  2013

Enigma  Brunner Gallery/Shaw Center for the Arts   Baton Rouge, LA  2013

Through a Glass Darkly    Stephanie Hoppen Gallery   London, U.K.  2013

A Visual Journey Through the Imagination  Holden Luntz Gallery   West Palm Beach, FL   2012

Approaching the Unreal  Modernbook Gallery   San Francisco, CA  2011

Photography  Bonham’s of London   Dubai, United Arab Emirates   2011

India Art Summit  Carbon 12 Gallery   New Delhi, India  2011

De Zomer Inzameling (Summer Collections)  Morren Gallerie   Amsterdam, Netherlands  2011

Art Chicago  Schneider Contemporary Photography   Chicago, Illinois   2011

Blue Skie'd and Clear''    Carbon 12 Gallery   Dubai, U.A.E.  2010

Spring Show''  Richard Goodall Gallery   Manchester, U.K.  2010

Nieuwe Werken  Morren Gallery   Amsterdam, Netherlands  2010

Fantastic   North Dakota Museum of Art   Grand Forks, ND  2010

Descubrimientos PHE  Complejo el Aguila   Madrid, Spain  2009

New Works  Galerie Utrecht   Utrecht, Netherlands   2009

Myth, Mystery & Magic  Holden Luntz Gallery   West Palm Beach, FL  2009

New Works  PressItOn Gallery   Miami, FL  2009

10 Years  Modernbook Gallery   Palo Alto, CA   2009

Summer Show  Modernbook Loft Gallery   Palo Alto, CA   2009

New Acquisitions  Millenia Fine Art Time Warner Center   New York, NY   2008

New Works  Modernbook Loft Gallery   Palo Alto, CA  2008

New Work  Taylor Bercier Gallery   New Orleans, LA   2008

Contemporarities  Honolulu Museum of Contemporary Art    Honolulu, HI  2006

New Works  Taylor Bercier Fine Art    New Orleans, LA   2006