Platinum Print Photographer Andrea Modica Closes 2016-17 May Lecture Series

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 9, 2017) — The University of Kentucky Art Museum will close out the 2016-17 Robert C. May Photography Lecture Series this month with a talk by Andrea Modica, an American photographer known for the evocative narratives she creates in her pictures. The lecture begins 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10, in the Kincaid Auditorium in the Gatton College of Business and Economics Building. In conjunction with the lecture, an exhibition of Modica's work, "Best Friends," which explores the deep bonds between high school students in America and Italy, is running through April 23, at the museum. Both the lecture and the exhibition are free and open to the public.

Andrea Modica works on developing an intimacy and trust with her subjects by working on projects over long periods of time. In her highly acclaimed series and book "Treadwell," she followed the struggles of a girl named Barbara and her family in rural upstate New York from 1986 to 2001. In "Human Being," she worked with an anthropologist to make portraits of the skulls of anonymous patients who had been buried in a mass grave in the 1890s in the former Colorado Insane Asylum near Pueblo.

The winner of numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Fulbright grant, Modica has exhibited extensively in Europe and the United States. Her photographs are part of the permanent collections of numerous institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the International Museum of Photography and Film at the George Eastman House, and the Bibliothèque Nationale.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1960, Modica earned her bachelor's degree from State University of New York Purchase College and her master's degree from Yale University. Currently, Modica is a professor of photography at Drexel University.

The May Lecture Series explores photography's roots in the 19th century and its reinvention in the digital world. The lecture series is made possible through the Robert C. May Photography Endowment, a museum fund established in 1994 for the support of acquisitions and programs relating to photography.

The mission of the UK Art Museum, part of the UK College of Fine Arts, is to promote the understanding and appreciation of art to enhance the quality of life for people of Kentucky through collecting, exhibiting, preserving and interpreting outstanding works of visual art from all cultures. Home to a collection of more than 4,800 objects including American and European paintings, drawings, photographs, prints and sculpture, the museum presents both special exhibitions and shows of work from its permanent collection.