Five multifaceted artists whose work is currently on display at Middle Tennessee State University‘s renowned Baldwin Photographic Gallery will discuss their art in a special public panel discussion set for Saturday, Jan. 22.

“Shaping Identity: A Non-Linear Journey” opened last November and is on display through Thursday, Feb. 3, in Room 269 of the university’s Bragg Media and Entertainment Building, 1735 Blue Raider Drive.

Featured in the 1,300-square-foot gallery are nearly 100 examples of work by Maggie Carson Jurow, Birthe Piontek, Irene Antonia Diane Reece, Serrah Russell and Aaron Turner.

They’ll gather for the free panel discussion, moderated by MTSU assistant photography professor Kristine Potter, at 3 p.m. Central Feb. 3 via Zoom.

The link to join the panel is https://mtsu.zoom.us/j/89594778699.

Shannon Randol

Baldwin Gallery curator Shannon Randol, who also is an assistant professor of photography in the university’s Department of Media Arts, says this exhibit is part of his plan to “widen the scope” of the Baldwin’s focus by featuring artists at all stages of their careers.

“We’re bringing the emerging artists, established artists, bringing people that make a living off their work and some people who do it because they love it so much,” Randol said.

Maggie Carson Jurow

“This particular group, they’re all very young artists, in their age and their careers as well, so it’s nice to have a different perspective, looking at the world through those younger artists’ eyes, dealing with some contemporary issues. There’s a lot of good work in this show.”

Birthe Piontek

Jurow is a senior product designer at VSCO, the Oakland, California-based social media network and photo/video editing app.

Her career includes experience as an e-commerce art director, studio director and floral designer as well as an artist who works in sculpting, installations, photography and videography.

Piontek is a visual artist living in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, who’s also an assistant professor at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver.

Time magazine nominated her second published project, “Abendlied,” as one of the best photo books of 2019, and her work often combines two-dimensional photographic surfaces and 3D spaces.

Irene Antonia Diane Reece

Reece, a Houston, Texas-based artist and visual activist, has incorporated her family’s historic photo archives into her own projects that feature portraits, images, word art and other items to address civil rights, racial discrimination, police brutality and Black identity.

Russell is a visual artist and independent curator in Seattle, Washington, and serves as co-director of Vignettes, a curatorial collective for emerging and under-represented artists and writers.

Serrah Russell

Her projects use collage and appropriation to express the relationship between emotions and surroundings.

Turner is a photographer and educator at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, where he also is founder of the Center for Photographers of Color.

Aaron Turner

He uses photography to understand home and resilience in two main areas of the United States, the Arkansas and Mississippi Deltas, and creates still-life studies on identity, history, Blackness as material, and abstraction with a 4-inch by 5-inch view camera.

MTSU’s Baldwin Photographic Gallery, which marked its 57th anniversary at MTSU in 2021, is part of the university’s College of Media and Entertainment. It’s located at the top of the stairwell in the Bragg Building’s interior courtyard.

A campus parking map is available at http://bit.ly/MTSUParking. Off-campus gallery visitors can obtain a one-day permit at https://mtsu.edu/parking/visit.php, park free in the university’s Rutherford Boulevard Lot, and ride the Raider Xpress shuttle to the Bragg building.

Guests can arrange gallery tours by contacting Randol at shannon.randol@mtsu.edu. The gallery is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays when MTSU classes are in session.

For more information about the gallery, visit https://baldwinphotogallery.com or www.facebook.com/BaldwinPhotoGallery.

To learn more about the College of Media and Entertainment, visit https://mtsu.edu/media.

— Gina E. Fann (gina.fann@mtsu.edu)

This image by multifaceted California artist Maggie Carson Jurow, “December 29 (pear),” is part of an exhibit at MTSU’s renowned Baldwin Photographic Gallery, “Shaping Identity: A Non-Linear Journey,” that showcases nearly 100 examples of five artists’ work through Feb. 3. (image courtesy of Maggie Carson Jurow)

This image by visual artist Birthe Piontek, “Two Dads,” is part of an exhibit at MTSU’s renowned Baldwin Photographic Gallery, “Shaping Identity: A Non-Linear Journey,” that showcases nearly 100 examples of five artists’ work through Feb. 3. (image courtesy of Birthe Piontek)

This image by Houston, Texas-based artist and visual activist Irene Antonia Diane Reece, “A vision a queen,” is part of an exhibit at MTSU’s renowned Baldwin Photographic Gallery, “Shaping Identity: A Non-Linear Journey,” that showcases nearly 100 examples of five artists’ work through Feb. 3. (image courtesy of Irene Antonia Diane Reece)

This image by Seattle-based artist and curator Serrah Russell, “break, breaking,” is part of an exhibit at MTSU’s renowned Baldwin Photographic Gallery, “Shaping Identity: A Non-Linear Journey,” that showcases nearly 100 examples of five artists’ work through Feb. 3. (image courtesy of Serrah Russell)

This image by Arkansas photographer and educator Aaron Turner, “Meanings of the past, 2020 (Black Alchemy: If this one thing is true),” is part of an exhibit at MTSU’s renowned Baldwin Photographic Gallery, “Shaping Identity: A Non-Linear Journey,” that showcases nearly 100 examples of five artists’ work through Feb. 3. (image courtesy of Aaron Turner)