FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Oct. 12, 2006

Contact: Joshua Hollis

(662) 329-7119

 

Acclaimed Mississippi photographer to be featured in MUW art exhibition

 

            COLUMBUS, Miss. – During this year’s annual Eudora Welty Writers’ Symposium, two types of artists will be on the campus of Mississippi University for Women: those who practice and excel in art of the literary variety, such as this year’s headliner Elizabeth Spencer, and those who practice art on the visual level, such as critically acclaimed Mississippi photographer Maude Schuyler Clay.

            An exhibition of her work, Maude Schuyler Clay: Photographs, will run from Oct. 17 through Nov. 4 in the MUW Art Gallery in Shattuck Hall. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, Oct. 19, from 4 to 6 p.m.

            Featured in the exhibit are landscapes from her Delta Land series as well as photographs from her most recent project, a collection of color portraits that spans nearly 15 years and includes images of Eudora Welty.

            Clay, a native of Greenwood, attended the University of Mississippi and Memphis College of Art and apprenticed with photographer Williams Eggleston. While living in New York City, she worked as a photography editor and a photographer for magazines such as Esquire, Fortune and Vanity Fair, among others. Upon returning to Mississippi, she also worked as the photography editor of Oxford American magazine.

            She published a book of her photographs, “Delta Land,” in 1999 to much acclaim. A year later, she received the Mississippi Arts and Letters award for the book.

            Some of Clay’s work is housed in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts-Houston and the National Museum for Women in the Arts.

            Clay will speak on the afternoon of Friday, Oct. 20, as part of the Welty Writers’ Symposium. That morning, she will participate in a critique of photography students.

            The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information on the exhibit or to arrange visiting times, contact the Department of Art and Design at (662) 329-7341 or e-mail aswills@muw.edu