UNB15! Artist Features: IX
UNBOUND15!
July 1 – August 8, 2026
COLLEEN KEIHM • CHRISTINE CARR• JESSE EGNER • GARY EMRICH • ROSAMUND CASEY • ISAAC MCKENNA • FURICHA (YULIIA GLADKA)
COLLEEN KEIHM | CHICAGO, IL
RA4 Color Enlarger Print,
11 x 14 inches, 17 x 21 inches framed
Unique
$450
Making images starts by putting time on the calendar. I protect this time by setting darkroom dates, saying no conflicting events, and giving myself time to process. These last few years of life and loss have reminded me to make the most of my time and be protective of it. I work best under constraint and iteration. Recently, I’ve been working in a darkroom that I have access to every 8 weeks or so. The paper and my time are vulnerable to overexposure while access to this darkroom or being alone are scarce. I use the time to create pleasurable images.
When the day arrives, I pack up my RA4 chemistry, two packs of paper, digital negatives and my notebook. Every enlarger has its quirks so my notebook documents the moves I make with information on what works and doesn’t. I have a kit of 4” and 6” plexi cuts of circles and squares in yellow, orange, red, green, and light blue. I have the negative space around these objects too. The digital negatives (whole or a fragment) are of images I make at home with these cuts. I prepare my first composition in the light. The first photogram of a day is a test of getting black and white tones alongside making an interesting composition. I memorize location, points of interesting overlap, and hold them in my mind's eye. When the lights are off, I arrange a set and prepare for the light sensitive paper to slide underneath. I expose the paper and then process it in a hand drum which means more time in the dark waiting to see results. The final stage, a water bath, allows me to see the print while making mental adjustments or enjoying its resolve. I think of this as a slow rapid editing process where every move is a response to the previous.
I’m enamored with light. I’ve trained my sensitivity to observe it and dedicated my life to affix it for others to see. That’s why a camera or enlarger has always felt so right in my hands—we move together in choreographed pulses, exploring what we can make of light with the time and stage we’ve been given.
These works highlight shadow and light passing through color, with the spatial power to build upon existing architecture. At the same time, the portal appears as both rupture and passage—an opening carved out of a stable world, rimmed with light, edged with shadow.
Red Building, 2025. RA4 Color Enlarger Print, 11 x 14 inches, 17 x 21 inches framed. Unique. $450
Colleen Keihm is an artist from Levittown, NY currently based in Chicago, IL. She received her MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a BS in Photography from Drexel University. Her work has been exhibited at AWall Gallery, Flatland, Roman Susan, Filter Photo, and Tiger Strikes Asteroid. Colleen has been an artist in residence with Hatch Projects at the Chicago Artists Coalition, Institut für alles Mögliche in Berlin, and Studio 3325 in Chicago. Her photographs are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, and she is a proud member of the Midwest Photographers Project. She is currently a Visiting Instructor in the Photography Department at the University of Illinois Chicago.
CHRISTINE CARR | ROANOKE, VA
The Two-Headed Creature, 2026 (printed) Cyanotype, 6 x 4 inches, framed 20 x 16 inches
Open Edition
$375
The Two-Headed Creature, 2026 (printed) Cyanotype, 6 x 4 inches,
framed 20 x 16 inches. Open edition. $375
During a dark and cold period, I began working with images of the sky as a way to seek light. Drawn to the glow and openness of the blue sky, I used the imagery as raw material, allowing it to become the source for experimentation and play.
Using Photoshop, I cut sections from the original image, then repeated, resized, and reconfigured these fragments into structured arrangements, reveling in the resulting abstraction and implied sense of space. As a fan of Op Art, I enjoyed creating forms that appeared to protrude from or recede into the frame.
Because of the blue-sky source material and my own yearning for light, I envisioned the work’s final manifestation as a cyanotype. The process of cyanotype—dependent on light, exposure, and chance—felt conceptually aligned with both the subject matter and the emotional impetus behind the work, allowing light itself to become an active collaborator in the image’s final form.
Christine Carr grew up in Virginia, received her BFA from the Corcoran College of Art and Design and her MFA from the Tyler School of Art. She works with photography, video, and installation to raise awareness of environmental and cultural issues. Using methods such as flatbed scanning, Photoshop compositing, time lapses, and extended exposure cyanotypes, she has explored a range of urgent concerns from the pervasive litter of cigarette debris and the invisible threat of air pollution to the devastating impacts of California wildfires. In her most recent project, she addresses the cultural impacts of violent and incendiary political language.
She is a recipient of the Puffin Foundation Grant, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship, and the Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities Grant at Iowa State University. She has exhibited in solo shows at Albion College, Texas Tech University, and the University of La Verne, and in numerous group shows throughout the United States and internationally. Her work has been published in Harper’s Magazine, Musée Magazine, and the 5th edition of Exploring Color Photography by Robert Hirsch. Since 2010, she has participated in seven artist residencies and was an Assistant Professor at both Iowa State and Hollins University.
JESSE EGNER | BROOKLYN, NY
Throne, 2024. Archival pigment print, 30 x 24 inches; 32 x 26 inches framed. Edition of 8. $950
Rooted in my experiences with body shaming and marginalization, this series uses humor and absurdity to explore themes of queerness through collaborative portraits and scenarios that blur fantasy and reality.
Seeing the phrase “No Femmes. No Fats” on gay dating apps as a teen marked me and my body as unwelcome. As a queer individual with a fat body and invisible disability, this rejection ignited internal tension between my body and my queerness.
I began with self-portraiture as a way to navigate this tension photographically through absurdity, humor, and play. Finding self-portraiture too personal, I expanded to include other queer individuals with collaboration becoming central to the work.
My shoots are spontaneous, in spaces that are personal to my collaborators—their homes, workplaces, or other environments they frequent. Rather than planning or directing, I allow situations to emerge in the moment, with curiosity and play taking the lead, resulting in images that are both personal and collectively shaped.
Although I live in NYC, I aim to oppose metronormativity—the idea that free queer expression is confined to major cities. By focusing my work in small towns and rural areas, like my hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I highlight the vibrant and overlooked queer communities in these areas.
My photographs exist in a realm of ambiguity, between reality and fantasy. They are not rigid definitions, but fluid reflections of the transitional space of queerness. Spontaneity, collaboration, intimacy, play, humor, and absurdity all permeate throughout my work, echoing the boundless dynamism of non-normative queer existence.
Jesse Egner is a queer artist and educator currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Often taking the form of playful and absurd photographic portraiture of himself and other individuals, his work explores themes such as queerness, body image, relationships, collaboration, and humor. He received his BA from Millersville University of Pennsylvania in 2016 and his MFA from Parsons School of Design in 2020. His work is included in the permanent collection at the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts, and has been exhibited and published globally including a recent solo exhibition at Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, OR. He is a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship recipient and has participated in residencies at the Santa Fe Art Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Bunnell Street Arts Center in Homer, Alaska; Studio Vortex in Arles, France; Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, New York; the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont; TILT Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and the Saltonstall Foundation in Ithaca, New York.
GARY EMRICH | DENVER, CO
Actor and Director
Sid Miller, 1954, 2026
Archival pigment print,
13 x 13 inches
Open Edition
$1,200
Actor and Director Sid Miller, 1954, 2026. Archival pigment print, 13 x 13 inches. Open edition. $1,200
Angelo German Actress Lillian Harvey
on the Tight Rope 1931, 2026
Archival pigment print,
13 x 13 inches
Open Edition
$1,200
Anglo German Actress Lillian Harvey on the Tight Rope 1931, 2026. Archival pigment print, 13 x 13 inches. Open edition. $1,200
In the photographic project REVISIONS, I am exploring the transformation of photographic images, representing their journey from their original creation to digital and prompting contemplation of our evolving relationship with photographic purpose, context and methodology.
The project illustrates the various stages an archive of vintage press photographs has undergone; from their initial silver print to wire photo, to photo offset to microfiche and to their eventual digitization. This digitization is represented by ubiquitous Apple product boxes; creating a dialogue between the original photographs and that unique contemporary packaging, serving as a metaphor for our society's complex relationship with technology and the constant push and pull between the past and the present. Each step in this evolution has left its mark on the images, altering their appearance and context. The application of red rubylith, an analog graphic design masking tool, highlights the blending of traditional and contemporary methods.
At its core, this project serves as a visual testament to the transformative power of technology and photography's journey from the original to the digital space—an exploration that challenges us to reflect on our own role, both as guardians of the past and participants in the digital frontier.
Gary Emrich is a Colorado-based media artist/photographer with a 40 year exhibition record. His work resides in numerous private and public collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, the State of Colorado, the University of Colorado Art Museum and the Denver Art Museum. As a fourth generation Coloradan, much of his art work addresses issues revolving around living in the West including water as a commodity and the heroic perception of the West. His work is media-based and combines artist generated and appropriated imagery; investigating how people create personal memories and collective histories from the countless objects and impressions they accumulate on a daily basis and why humans endow certain objects, events, and images with special meaning by preserving them.
Gary received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA degree in Political Science from the University of Colorado.
ROSAMUND CASEY | CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA
The Men in Suits project began with a desire to understand why the male suit never changes and how it has successfully adapted, surviving centuries of fine-tuning and minor variation with no fundamental breakdown of its form and function. I drove up to DC to get a better look. After wandering through the Halls of Power, (Rayburn Building, nearby Double Tree Hotel etc) taking pictures of these men in suits, a moral allegory began to take shape. The ten pieces in the final installations are sequential panels that perform a ‘Stations of the Cross’ morality play beginning with ‘Initiation’, each one marking a wrong turn, to be studied and observed. These composite images combine photography, glass, collage, a toothpick, acrylic paint, and roofing rubber encased in plexiglass and sealed with brass runnels. They vary in size (the largest is 5’x3’)
The suit is the subject. By its design it expresses an unassailable authority, while concealing a myriad of behaviors. When the fabric folds at the joints, the suit can suggest a predatory strike, gathering energy for a spring to action, before reclaiming its perfect columnar structure when the wearer stands. But sometimes in that collapse, fragilities are laid bare and lead to cataclysmic change or compromise. As you walk the streets around Capitol hill and inside the halls of power these dark grey glyphs are everywhere. The actions and inactions they enclose reverberate.
Initiation, 2010. Mixed Media, 51 x 36 inches. Unique. $10,200
Rosamond Casey’s work is represented in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art, the Melbert Cary Collection at Rochester Institute of Technology, the Library of Congress, numerous University collections, and the Jack Ginsberg Collection in Johannesburg, South Africa.
She has exhibited her painting, book art, and gallery installations widely. Her solo exhibitions include the Burroughs Chapin Art Museum, SC; Triangle Gallery, DC; The Fralin Art Museum, VA; Chroma Projects Art Laboratory, VA; McGuffey Art Center, VA; Her work has been included in group exhibitions at the National Museum for Women in the Arts and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC and published in national journals such as Virginia Quarterly Review, Calligraphy Review, Art Directions magazine and Archipelago.
Casey has taught a series of seminars and courses she has designed based on her own explorations in art and her research on the evolution of early written forms and the use of cross-modal associations in art making. She lives and works in Charlottesville Virginia.
ISAAC MCKENNA | SEATTLE, WA
16 silver gelatin prints
from hand-processed 16mm film,
16 x 20 inches framed
Edition #1 of 5
$1000
Interval (Portrait of Julia in One Second), 2025. 16 silver gelatin prints from hand-processed 16mm film, 16 x 20 inches framed. Edition #1 of 5. $1000
This series of 16 prints, enlarged from hand-developed 16mm motion picture film, represents one second of time. I made this piece in collaboration with my partner, Julia Hughes, a professional ballet dancer. The work explores time as a physical object, and the relationship between the body, land, and sea.
Isaac McKenna (b. 2002, Boston, MA) is a photographer, sculptor, and artist based in Seattle, WA. They graduated with honors in Visual Art from Brown University. Using 3D-printed cameras and alternative photographic processes, their work considers materiality, image-subject collapse, and the perspective of natural environments. Their work has been featured in exhibitions at RISD Museum's Gelman Gallery, After/Time Collective Gallery, Solas Gallery, CLAVO Art Fair, List Art Center, and more, and has been published in the Indy and the Brown University Art Review.
FURICHA (YULIIA GLADKA) | KYIV, UKRAINE
Poza.buttya - Too Smart For This Coil, 2025. Instant film print with found river stone, 10 x 10 inches framed. Unique. $1,500 framed.
Poza.buttya - High In The Sky, 2025. Instant film print with found river stone, 10 x 10 inches framed. Unique. $1,500 framed.
This work started with a single stone I found on the bank of the Opir River in the Ukrainian Carpathians. It looked so much like a human face that I stopped and stared at it for a while — but for some reason I left it there. I kept thinking about it afterward, and eventually realized I wanted to go back and look for more. So I did. I went on what I can only call an expedition, walking the riverbank and scanning for stones that had this same quality — faces hiding in natural forms. Pareidolia, basically. The brain's habit of seeing faces where there are none.
For each stone I find, I shoot a Polaroid that becomes its body. The stone sits on top of the framed Polaroid print, physically attached to it, and together they form a character — someone who didn't exist before the two pieces met. The Polaroid gives the gesture, the clothing, the world. The stone gives the face. Neither part works on its own.
Each finished piece is a framed instant film print with a found river stone mounted above it. They're all unique — every stone is different, every character is different.
The project title “Poza.buttya” comes from Ukrainian and literally means “beyond being.”
The dot divides the word into two ideas: “pose” and “being,” suggesting a state where forms remain while existence fades.
Yuliia Gladka (b. 1987) is an artist and photographer born in Dnipro, Ukraine, currently based in Kyiv. She works across oil painting, sculpture, collage, photography, mixed media, and costume and mask design. Her photographic education includes the MYPH Art Photography School (2024–2025) and Roman Pyatkovka's Photography Course (2024). She is also the founder of "Mystetska Rukhan'ka" (Art in Motion), a volunteer project supporting the cultural development of children in de-occupied communities of the Kherson region. Her work has been shown in group exhibitions including "Memory" at Mykolaiv ART Week (2023); "Ukraine" by Decagon Gallery (2023); Ukrainian Photographers in Palermo, Italy (2024); "Post Archiving" in Vinnytsia, Ukraine (2024); "Resilience Formula" at M17 Contemporary Art Center, Kyiv (2024); and Ephemere Photo Fest in Tokyo, Japan (2025).
