Artists G-K

Participating Artists G-K

Diana Guerra

Diana Guerra is a Peruvian American lens-based artist, art educator and activist who is currently based in New York. She holds an MFA in Digital and Interdisciplinary Art Practice from the City College of New York and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. Guerra’s early training in photography was at Parsons School of Design as part of the MFA Photography and New Media program. Diana started her artistic career in Peru following research methods typical of a sociological field. Now, she focuses on memory, belonging and the experiential as an indigenous woman of the diaspora in New York City. Guerra is a 2022 ‘En Foco’ Photography Fellow. Her work has been featured in Photoville, Mana Contemporary, Humble Arts Foundation, The Journal of New and New Media Photography, among others.

Gail Albert Halaban

Gail Albert Halaban is an American artist born in Washington, DC. Her interest in photography began when she made a pinhole camera for her first-grade science fair. Though her equipment has become more complex, her love of photography has never wavered. Her work plays with the notions of truth and fiction - straddling the line between documentary and staged. She attended the Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University, and Yale University, from which she received a Master of Fine Arts in Photography. She teaches at Columbia University in the Department of Narrative Medicine. She has been published widely including three monographs. Her work has been exhibited extensively in solo and group shows including a solo exhibit in 2018 at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York. Numerous galleries around the world have shown her work with her primary representation at the Edwynn Houk Gallery in New York City, Jackson Fine Arts in Atlanta, and Weinstein Hammons in Minneapolis. Public and private collections including the Hermes Foundation, George Eastman Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, Nelson Atkins Museum, Getty Museum, Cape Ann Museum, Wichita Art Museum, Minneapolis Institute of art hold her work.

Chantal Heijnen and Lou van Melik

Chantal Heijnen (1976, The Netherlands) is a visual storyteller who uses photography to build connections on both sides of the lens. She holds a BA in Social Work and Photography. Her career as a social worker greatly informs her observant and collaborative approach to imagemaking. Chantal is also an educator. She teaches teen programs at the International Center of Photography, and in New York City shelters with Lantern Community Services where she uses photography as a tool to work with New Yorkers who are impacted by or threatened with homelessness. 

Chantal’s documentary and portrait work has been published in international newspapers and magazines, such as The New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times. She has been exhibited internationally at LagosPhoto Festival, FotoFestival Naarden, FOAM, Bronx Documentary Center, Andrew Freedman Home and Photoville. She self-published two photo books ‘Ghost Republic Somaliland’ in 2012 and ‘Lou’s Summer’ in 2021 which is part of the Inaugural Photography Triennial at Museum of the City of New York.

Lou van Melik (2014, NYC) first picked up a camera during the lockdown in 2020. He just turned 6 years old. While observing the empty streets of NYC from the back seat of the rental car Lou started taking photos, intuitively and unassuming. Just one click and done. Sean Corcoran, Curator of Prints and Photographs Museum of the City of New York, called it a “wide-eye perspective of a child”. During the car rides Lou loved to listen to his favorite song Blinding Lights from The Weeknd. Music inspired him while photographing and this album became the soundtrack to his lockdown experience.

Photo Credit: Chantal Heijnen

 

Neil Kramer

Neil Kramer is a photographer and writer based in Queens, New York.  His work explores the personal, often with humor.  He studied English Literature at Columbia University and Film Production at the USC School of Cinema.  His photographs have been exhibited at the Museum of the City of New York, the International Center of Photography, Photoville, the Los Angeles Center of Photography, the Headon Photo Festival in Australia, and the Donggang Photo Festival in South Korea. His ongoing project, Quarantine in Queens, about living with his mother and ex-wife during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been featured on NBC’s Today Show, NPR, The Washington Post, and media outlets worldwide.