TARA CRONIN
Artist @ Bard College, International Center of Photography, The New School / Based in New York, NY / South Kona, HI
Tara Cronin, B. 1981, New York, NY
There are places that are part of what we call Home. I explore ways to discover that Place, a memory of a place that could be both standing in our world and yet have never quite existed.
There is something to say for the power and earnest Necessity of Myth in many forms in our daily Humanity.
Tara Anne Cronin is an artist and writer focusing on photography, works on paper, installation and book-arts. She received a BA in Writing from New School University, an MFA from the International Center of Photography [ ICP ]/Bard Program, and has Twice-earned the ICP Director’s Fellowship Award.
Holding various co-patents with partner and scientist Ed Chen, one includes a unique polymer made from materials used in Tara’s artwork, which, after scientific research demonstrated itself to be the first synthetic membrane to effectively remove CO2 from air and convert it into useful materials. This resulted in a solo show in the Museo de la Ciudad in Querétaro, Mexico in 2012, and a guest-speaker and exhibition invitation at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC.
Having exhibited throughout New York City, North America and internationally, recent exhibitions include a six-person exhibition in 2016, “The Curator,” with PDN at Foley Gallery in New York, NY, and at HMOCA in Hilo, HI, in 2017. She was a guest-speaker in 2016 at the School of Visual Arts in NY, NY, and recently placed as a taop 10 Finalist in the FRESH 2018 prize with KlompChing Gallery in DUMBO, NY.
Through working with the methods she does, Tara also hopes to promote the idea of Science and Art as being symbiotic. Tara has worked on multiple startups with Ed, attempting to transform traditional skepticism of climate change through their technologies while also promoting the relevance of Art and Science. In Fall 2014 Tara released the books of three artists co-published with Schilt Publishing and with Magical Thinking Publications, an arts-publication and education organization she co-founded with artist Joshua Lutz. Tara also hosted her co-founded project of the "Fred Talks - Ted Talks with Friends" for a number of years; a monthly lecture series amongst neighbors and peers that includes discussions on the arts, sciences, and any topic in between.
Tara and Ed took on the oldest Organically Certified Kona coffee farm in 2015 to apply their agricultural technology and she is now a coffee roaster and farmer as well. She is on the associate board of directors of the Society for Kona’s Education and Art and has helped teach with Donkey Mill Art Center and also is a member of Donkey Mill’s Exhibitions Committee, on Big Island, HI.
Tara is nomadic, working between New York and New Jersey, and primarily in Hawai’i in the United States.