A showcase of the winners of the first annual MESH prize, organized by FotoFilmic. Launched in late 2018 as a unique juried call designed to foster new dialogues between contemporary photography and other visual arts disciplines, MESH invited practicing artists worldwide to submit work commenting on the shared materiality of their respective medium, and how physicality intertwines with critical meaning at the dawn of an age of virtual reality.

Izabella Provan's engaging black-and-white scenes offer a glimpse of a figure or an event that are poetically abstracted by her camera. While a narrative arises, it is inconclusive, and the viewer is encouraged to meander through her beautiful forms and uncertain situations. She is paired with the artist Gregory Kaplowitz whose work is tactile and luscious. In shades of red and predominantly abstract, his physical impressions of personal spaces resonate as intimate portraits of time in the world. Together their work creates a dialogue between image and form, representation and abstraction, colour, and its absence.

The exhibition was curated by Rebecca Morse, Curator of Photography, Wallis Annenberg Photography Department, LACMA and Linsey Young, Curator, British Contemporary Art at Tate, London.

Izabella Provan (b. 1993) is a photographer living in Portland, Maine. She received a BFA from the Maine College of Art in 2015. Her images examine privacy, space, censorship, and contradictions in gray areas. Utilizing analog, digital, and experimental processes, Provan is also concerned by our isolated existence. Her images have been shown at the PhoPa Gallery in Maine, localhost.gallery, and printed in publications including Wilt Magazine and Papersafe Magazine. She currently works as the Media Technician for the Maine College of Art.

Gregory Kaplowitz is artist living in San Francisco working, at the intersection of photography, painting, and textiles. He received a double BFA in photography and graphic design from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco in 2007. He’s had a solo and two person exhibitions at Transmitter in Brooklyn, Interface in Oakland, and C2C Project Space in San Francisco. He’s participated in group exhibitions at: Grey Contemporary in Houston, TX in 2018, Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco, CA in 2018, Transmitter in Brooklyn, NY in 2018, 2nd Floor Projects in San Francisco, CA in 2015, Root Division in San Francisco, CA in 2013, Vox Populi in Philadelphia, PA in 2013, Christopher Henry Gallery in New York City, NY in 2009, and the Richmond Art Center in Richmond, CA in 2007. From 2011-2014, several of his video works were included in touring programs that screened in: San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Fe, Austin, New York City, Montreal, Berlin, and Australian Public Access TV. He attended residencies at The Vermont Studio Center in 2018 and 2020, and at The Art Students League of New York’s League Residency at Vyt in 2015. He also won the Windgate Foundation’s Fellowship Award to attend The Vermont Studio Center in 2020, The Vermont Studio Center’s Fellowship Award in 2018, and the The League Residency at Vyt's Ruth Katzman Scholarship in 2015. His work is included in New American Paintings issue #139 in 2019, Art Maze Magazine issue #13 in 2019, and New American Paintings issue #121 in 2015. Gregory Kaplowitz is currently a studio resident at 1240 Minnesota, the Minnesota Street Project’s studio program in San Francisco.

Founded in 2012, FotoFilmic is an arts organization based on Bowen Island in metro Vancouver, BC, dedicated to supporting emerging and mid-career analogue photographic artists internationally through exhibitions programs and printed publications, as well as seminars, guest artist talks, in-person workshops, and online masterclasses. FotoFilmic's mandate consists of stimulating socio-critical dialogues on the future of material practices in contemporary photography. https://fotofilmic.com/

The Fotofilmic MESH Exhibition Prize is generously supported by the Buschlen Mowatt Nichol Foundation