Artist Statement
My artworks derive from a passionate inquiry into the experience of place and the complex environmental and societal issues present and visible in the landscape of the American West. It is my intention to create a contemplative space where one can sense the subtle and profound connections between themselves and the natural world and reflect on how personal and societal actions construct our reality and our destiny. - Sant Khalsa
Sant Khalsa (b. Sheila Roth, January 3, 1953, New York, NY) is an artist, educator and activist living in Southern California since 1975. Her work is widely shown internationally and has been acquired by permanent museum collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Nevada Museum of Art, UCR/California Museum of Photography, and others in addition to private and corporate collections in the U.S. and Europe. In the recent past, her photographs were exhibited in the solo exhibition, River Run: Photographs from Sant Khalsa's 20-year Journey with the Santa Ana River, curated by Colin Westerbeck at the UCR California Museum of Photography in Riverside, CA and two Pacific Standard Time Getty initiative exhibitions with books, Seismic Shift: Lewis Baltz, Joe Deal and California Landscape Photography, 1944 - 1984 at the UCR California Museum of Photography and Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in Southern California Photography, 1945-1982 at the Palm Springs Art Museum.
Khalsa is a recipient of prestigious fellowships, awards and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, California Council for the Humanities, Arts Foundation of San Bernardino County, Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, and others. In March 2012 she was honored as the first recipient of the SPE Insight Award from the Board of Directors of the Society for Photographic Education for her significant contributions to the field of photography as an artist, educator, and mentor.
Her artworks are published in numerous books and exhibition catalogues including Altered Landscape: Photographs of a Changing Environment (Skira/Rizzoli, 2011), Art in Action: Nature, Creativity and Our Collective Future (Natural World Museum and Earth Aware Editions, 2007), The Altered Landscape (University of Nevada Press, 1999), Fotofest H2O 04: Celebrating Water (Fotofest, 2004), Post-Landscape: Between Nature and Culture (Pomona College Museum of Art, 2001), and Water In The West: Eleven Photographers Examine the American Western Landscape (Humboldt State University, 2000). Articles and critical reviews regarding her artwork can be found in Art in America, Art Ltd., Afterimage, Exposure, European Photography, British Journal of Photography, LA Weekly, New Art Examiner, Coagula Art Journal, ArtScene, Los Angeles Times, Artweek, Visions Art Quarterly, PDN/Photo District News, Boston Globe, and High Performance.
Khalsa frequently lectures at professional conferences, art venues, and universities including The Getty Center, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Society for Photographic Education, Western Historical Society, American Photography Institute at New York University, Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Claremont Graduate University, Arizona State University, Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, and California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).
She is a Professor of Art, Emerita at California State University, San Bernardino where she is one of the founding faculty of the Water Resources Institute (WRI).
Sant Khalsa resides in San Bernardino and Joshua Tree, California.
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