Dawn Watson • Griffin Museum

Sep 21

Conjuring Alchemy

“My photographic work is performative. It is an energetic, kinetic alchemy, a collaboration between physical material and an intuitive conversation with a vibrant presence to engage and provoke. These pieces explore the elemental, the body, the suspension of belief, forces of nature, higher realms, and the world of symbolic meaning. I lean into light and shadow. I am open to the entire spectrum of experience while remaining grounded. I hold in my heart both the dark and the light. The vivid hues of color allow me to develop a more dynamic translation of the world beyond the world.

I am drawn to our primal sensibilities, the suspension of belief, forces of nature, higher realms, and the symbolic in all things.

In Conjuring: Alchemy, I pull from work both old and new, layering one over the other, top over bottom over top, watching and waiting with bated breath for creation to reveal itself.” -Dawn Watson

Griffin Museum

67 Shore Road, Winchester MA 01890
July 30th - October 31th, 2023
Tuesday - Sunday 12pm - 4pm

Artist Bio

After a successful career as a professional dancer/choreographer, Dawn Watson shifted her artistic practice to fine art photography, finding affinity in the visual storytelling offered by both live performance and photographic image. Watson’s photographic renderings continue to explore transformation through form, space, light, movement, and storytelling, as she did as a performer.

Watson’s solo exhibitions include the Griffin Museum of Photography and The Los Angeles Center for Photography. Her work has been seen in juried exhibitions in the United States and Europe, including the Salon des Beaux Arts/Paris, Center for Fine Art Photography, Davis-Orton Gallery, Tilt Gallery, and Tang Teaching Museum. Features online and in print include amongst others Diffusion X Magazine, Elizabeth Avedon Journal, Lenscratch, SXSE Magazine, and What Will You Remember. Her work is held in private collections and is on permanent display at The Lodge at Woodloch.

Watson graduated with Honors in Dance from Skidmore College and has studied photography at ICP, Maine Media and Santa Fe Workshops, among others. She was a member of Find Your Vision/Sandi Haber Fifield critique workshop from 2012-2022. Based in Hastings on Hudson, NY, Watson continues her long association as board member of the regional environmental organization Scenic Hudson.