Dawn Roe (b. 1971, Sault Ste. Marie, MI) was born and raised amidst what are now known as the Great Lakes where she developed a long term interest in land/water relations between human and more-than-human communities. Informed by early studies in experimental filmmaking and darkroom-based photography, Roe’s practice combines historic and contemporary photographic methods with digital video to examine the role of these media in shaping personal and social understandings of our environment through site-responsive engagement. With recognition of her response-abilities as a white woman from settler ancestry, Roe approaches land and water tentatively, as an uninvited guest. Her current work seeks to develop methods of respectful engagement with place centering multispecies relations as vital to supporting the health of interconnected waterways and the communities they support.
Roe's work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and internationally at venues including The Sault Ste. Marie Museum (Sault Ste. Marie, ON, Canada); The Lightner Museum (St. Augsting, FL); GroundWork Gallery (Norfolk, U.K.); The Frost Art Museum (Miami, FL); ISU University Galleries (Normal, IL); The Orlando Museum of Art (Orlando, FL); Newspace Center for Photography (Portland, OR); Chiang Mai Photo Festival (Chiang Mai, Thailand); Screen Space Gallery (Melbourne, VIC, Australia); and The Perth Centre for Photography (Perth, WA, Australia). Her video works and installations have been screened at events including Off the Screen for the Ann Arbor Film Festival (Ann Arbor, MI); The Athens International Film Festival (Athens, OH); and InLight Richmond (Richmond, VA); among others. A two-year public art commission and residency from the Broward County Division of Cultural Affairs resulted in the production of a suite of artworks for the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida in 2015.
The recipient of honors and grants including Urbanautica Institute Awards, LensCulture Critics Choice Awards, United Arts of Central Florida Artist Grant, and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs Artist Grant, Roe has also been invited to numerous artist residencies including the International Changing Climate Residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute (Santa Fe, NM); Villa Barr Art Park (Novi, MI); Playa Art & Science Residency (Summer Lake, OR); H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest (Blue River, OR); Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation (Big Bay, MI); Nau Côclea Centre for Contemporary Creation (Camallera, Catalonia, Spain); The Banff Centre (Banff, AB, Canada), Listhús í Fjallabyggðis (Ólafsfjörður, Iceland); The Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts & Sciences (Rabun Gap, GA); and the Visual Arts Centre at LaTrobe University (Bendigo, VIC, Australia). Her imagery and writing has been featured in many print and on-line publications including Two Inadequate Voices, Lenscratch, Floorr, Aint-Bad, Oxford American, The Detroit Center for Contemporary Photography's series Frame/s, and the Routledge publication, photographies.
Roe received a BFA from Marylhurst University and an MFA from Illinois State University. She divides her time between Asheville, North Carolina and Winter Park, Florida where she serves as Professor of Art at Rollins College. In 2013 she founded the public art space Window (re/production | re/presentation) and served as the curator through 2020, when the project concluded. Her work is represented by Tracey Morgan Gallery in Asheville, NC.
PROJECTS
DESCENT ≈ An Atlas of Relation
Current Work-In-Progress
2021 - Present
Conditions for an Unfinished
Work of Mourning
2018 - 2020
The Majority of Those Who Are Dead
2017-18
2014-2016
The Sunshine Bores | The Daylights
2016
No One Was With Her When She Died
2013-15
2011-13
2009-12
