Don Kirby

Artist Bio Artist Work

Don Kirby literally grew up turning the surface of the earth upside down—on his parent’s sharecropper farms in Northwestern Missouri. Failing in that enterprise, his family moved to other work as he studied math and physics in college with a beginning interest in photography. Emerging with advanced math and science degrees, he moved to the West Coast and began a career in aerospace. Escaping frequently from the city to maintain sanity, he became a backpacker, mountain climber, and river runner, always carrying a slide camera to document his and his friend’s activities. A decade and a half later, for reasons still not clear, B/W film replaced slides, subject matter changed, a darkroom was built, and serious study of expressive photography began, utilizing workshops by Bruce Barnbaum, John Sexton, Ansel Adams, and ultimately teaching with Bruce, Jay Dusard, Stu Levy, and Huntington Witherill. Aerospace was abandoned a few years later.

Don’s photography in the ensuing years includes extensive exploration of the western US landscape, urban architecture, Ancestral Pueblos, historic settlements, classic and non-classic autos, graffiti and night writing a wide-ranging and continually expanding study. Major projects include over 20 years (1989 to the present and continuing) of periodic work on the Ancestral Pueblos of the Colorado Plateau, 15 years (1991-2006) in the Wheatcountry of the Northwestern US, and 5 years in the National Grasslands and other grasslands in the US. Nazraeli Press published Wheatcountry in 2001, You’re not really initiated until your eyes are redder than your lips in 2002, Grasslands in 2009, and The Anasazi Project in 2012.

Don’s photographs have been exhibited in more than fifty individual and group exhibits. Additionally, his photographs are included in the collections of the George Eastman House, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Joy of Giving Something,NY,  the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Portland Art Museum, the Peabody Essex Museum, the New Mexico History Museum, the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Art, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art and private collections.

Don met his wife Joan Gentry in 1992 and eleven years later Joan, a New Mexico gal, led them home to Santa Fe. They run a photography workshop program and travel the country in a pop-top camper in pursuit of their photographic interests.

Public Collections

St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Art, St. Petersburg, FL (Rhoades Collection)
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Eugene, OR, (Rhoades Collection)
Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Salem, OR
George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
Joy of Giving Something, New York, NY
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA
New Mexico History Museum, Santa Fe, NM
Portland Community College, Portland, OR (Rhoades Collection)
University of Portland, Portland, OR (Rhoades Collection)
Dayton Art Museum, Dayton, OH (Rhoades Collection)

Selected Exhibitions

2013

Verve Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico (10th Anniversary Group Exhibit)
Viewpoint Gallery, Sacramento, California
Bond House Museum, Espanola, New Mexico
Clark Gallery, Lincoln, Massachusetts

2012

Verve Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico (Anasazi book signing and exhibit)

2009

Verve Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico (Grasslands book signing and exhibit)
Clark Gallery, Lincoln, Massachusetts (Grasslands book signing and exhibit)

2008 - 2009
422 Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona (Ten 40-inch photographs)

208

Thedford Art Gallery, Thedford, Nebraska (Twenty-Five grassland photographs, joint with Joan Gentry)

2007

Art Association, Jackson Hole, Wyoming (Ten 40-inch photographs)

2007 - 2008

Forest Service Grasslands National Visitors Center, Wall, SD (Twenty-seven grassland photographs)

2007

Thedford Gallery, Nebraska

2006

Broken Oak Gallery, Thousand Oaks, California

2005

Alex Haighley Gallery, Gardena, California
Verve Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico

2004

Walton Arts Center, Fayetteville, Arkansas, (Joint with Joan Gentry)
Busan, Korea (Artists of Nazraeli Press)
Whitewall Gallery, Seoul, Korea (Artists of Nazraeli Press)
Hemphill Fine Arts, Washington D.C. (Artists of Nazraeli Press)

2003

Verve Fine Arts Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Landscape, Wheatcountry, and Anasazi photographs
Malaga Cove Library Art Gallery, Palos Verdes Estates, California. Group exhibit including landscape, Wheatcountry and Anasazi photographs
Spokane Falls College, Spokane, Washington. Landscape, Anasazi, and Wheatcountry photographs

2002

Brigham City Museum Gallery, Brigham City, Utah. Recent Wheatcountry photographs
Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, California. Recent Wheatcountry and Ancestral Pueblo photographs (25 prints) and Wheatcountry book signing

2001

Old Courthouse Gallery, Buena Vista, Colorado. Group exhibit and Wheatcountry book signing, 10 Wheatcountry photographs
Malaga Cove Library Art Gallery, Palos Verdes Estates, California. Group exhibit, 23 photographs including landscape and wheat country photographs

2000

Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, California. Iris prints
Scanlan Studio, Austin, Texas. Dual exhibit with Joan Gentry, 32 photographs
Lorinda Knight Gallery, Spokane, Washington. Individual exhibit, 24 photographs

1999

Janss/Nichols Gallery, Thousand Oaks, California. Dual exhibit (with Ray McSavaney), 22 photographs
The Gallery at Cow Canyon, Bluff, Utah. A 25-year retrospective individual exhibit, 55 photographs
Malaga Cove Library Art Gallery, Palos Verdes Estates, California. Group exhibit, 23 photographs including landscape, wheat fields, and Anasazi photographs

1998
Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, California. Group exhibit, 12 Wheatcountry photographs

1997

Half-Baked Gallery, Bluff, Utah. Individual exhibit, gallery inaugural exhibit, 31 photographs including landscape, Wheatcountry, and Anasazi photographs
Malaga Cove Library Art Gallery, Palos Verdes Estates, California. Group exhibit, 21 photographs including landscape, wheat fields, and Anasazi.

1996

The Photographers Gallery, Palo Alto, California. Individual exhibit, 37 photographs including landscape, Anasazi, and wheat fields

1994

Photographic Image Gallery, Portland, Oregon. Individual exhibit, 15 Anasazi Photographs
The Center for Creative Photography of San Juan Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano, California. Individual exhibit, 15 landscapes, Anasazi, and wheat field photographs

Essays, Interviews, and Reviews

A Timely Vision, by Richard Manning
Grasslandus Interruptus, by Jay Dusard
Wheatcountry Afterword, by Jay Dusard
Wheatcountry Introduction, by Richard Manning
Clark Gallery – Wheat and Water at Clark Gallery
LensWork Magazine Interview
Kevin Francis – Anasazi Exhibit Review
Leah Ollman – Wheatcountry Exhibit Review
PDN – Out West
The New Mexican Review