Martina Shenal
Biography
Martina Shenal is a Professor of Art and Chair of the Photography, Video & Imaging area at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She earned her MFA from Arizona State University and BFA from Ohio State University. For her professional work, she has received grants and fellowships including a Faculty Collaboration Grant for her project Space + Place from the UA Confluence Center for Creative Inquiry; WESTAF/NEA Regional Fellowship; Visual Art Fellowship from the Tennessee Arts Commission; Professional Development Grants from the Arizona Commission on the Arts; Contemporary Forum Material Grant from the Phoenix Art Museum.
Selected solo and group exhibitions have been held at Place M Gallery, Tokyo, JP; CICA Museum, Korea; Southeast Center for Photography; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art; New Mexico Museum of Art; Fort Wayne Museum of Art; Whittier College; Rutgers University; University of Tennessee-Chattanooga.
Artist Statement
Over the past decade, Martina’s photographic series Secondary Nature examined human interactions within the landscape- highlighting the ways that we alter, mediate, and represent it. She explored the intricate systems that act to limit the destructive forces of volcanic landscapes in Japan, Korea, Hawai’i, and the Azores archipelago. These images simultaneously referenced the manipulation of nature while acknowledging the forces of nature–undersea volcanos creating islands that appear and disappear; precariously fragile ground and shifting lava beds; geothermal vents and pools; controlled burns that attempt to mitigate the risk of wildfires.
In 2019, her focus shifted to frame the work through the lens of a rapidly changing climate, highlighting the accelerated pace and impact of rising seas, hurricanes and super typhoons, and devastating wildfires. The series 20/20 (notes on visibility), bears witness to the effects of 2,027 raging wildfires that were burning in the west while she was doing fieldwork in the Newberry National Volcanic Monument in central Oregon. The title references sight, and more specifically, the ability to see – perfect vision. However, the air quality in the high desert was deemed the most hazardous in the world at that time, as similar conditions were playing out across the West, fueled by a mega-drought, high temperatures, and strong winds.