Biography and Contact Information
Janna Ireland was born in Philadelphia in 1985. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, sons, cat, and dog. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Art and Art History at Occidental College.
Her name rhymes with "Donna," not "Hannah." Hard J.
Get in touch: janna at jannaireland.com.
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Curriculum Vitae
Education
2013 MFA, University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Art
2007 BFA, New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Department of Photography and Imaging
Academic Position
2022-present Assistant Professor, Department of Art and Art History, Occidental College
Solo Exhibitions
2024 “True Story Index,” Santa Barbara Museum of Art/Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA
2023 “Janna Ireland on the Architectural Legacy of Paul Revere Williams,” AIA Center for Architecture, New York, NY
2022 “Janna Ireland on the Architectural Legacy of Paul Revere Williams,” Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas, NV
“Janna Ireland on the Architectural Legacy of Paul Revere Williams,” Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV
“Tender Boughs,” council_st, Los Angeles, CA
“Milk and Honey,” Tyler Wood Gallery, New York, NY
2021 “Looking In, Looking Out,” Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation, Ojai, CA
2019 “Familiar Presence,” Agility, Los Angeles, CA
"The Valley Below," Antenna Works, New Orleans, LA
2018 "Open Studio," Arlene Schnitzer Gallery, Harvard-Westlake School, Los Angeles, CA
2017 "There is Only One Paul R. Williams," WUHO Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2014 "The Spotless Mirror," Tyler Wood Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2013 "The Spotless Mirror," Schneider Gallery, Chicago, IL
Two-Person Exhibitions
2020 “Exhibition 7,” Equilateral Gallwry, Los Angeles, CA
2015 "-ism," Butetown History and Arts Centre, Cardiff, Wales
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 “Black American Portraits,” Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN
“Don't Believe Everything You Think,” Brand Library & Art Center, Glendale, CA
“The Power of the Female Lens,” The Ebell of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
“LA Photoscape,” CMay Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Muscle Memory,” The Fulcrum, Los Angeles, CA
“Black American Portraits,” Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
2022 “A Time of Gifts,” Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
“The Lens of Architecture: Photography, Buildings, and Meaning,” Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
“Fragile / Fiber,” Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation, Ojai, CA
2021 “Family Album: Dannielle Bowman, Janna Ireland, and Contemporary Works from LACMA,” Los Angeles County Museum
of Art, Charles White Elementary School Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Where Do We Go From Here?” 700 Main Street, Los Angeles Fashion District, Los Angeles, CA
“We will all eventually return to the earth,” Ballarat International Foto Biennale, The Mining Exchange, Ballarat, Victoria,
Australia
“Sanctuary: Recent Acquisitions to the Permanent Collection,” California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
“Podium II,” 181 Fremont, San Francisco, CA
2020 “What Does Democracy Look Like?,” Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL
“Sanctuary: Recent Acquisitions to the Permanent Collection,” California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
“If Everything is an Outrage,” Track 16 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2019 “Awareness,” dnj Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
“Binder of Women,” The Pit, Glendale, CA
“2019 Faculty Exhibition,” Boone Family Art Gallery, Pasadena City College, Pasadena, CA
“New Works from the DPI Faculty and Alumni,” Photoville, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn, NY
“The Closet as Archive,” NYU Tisch, New York, NY
“New Works from the DPI Faculty and Alumni,” NYU Tisch, New York, NY
"Photoville LA," Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, CA
"The BEACON Project," Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA
"Inter/Section," Rotterdam Photo Festival, Rotterdam, Netherlands
"Valley Girl Redefined," Brand Library & Art Center, Glendale, CA
2018 "Odds and Ends Art Book Fair," Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
"Faculty Exhibition," Boone Gallery, Pasadena City College, Pasadena, CA
2017 "Clickbait," The Front, New Orleans, LA
"Black," Beacon Sacramento, Sacramento, CA
"Blue Library Volume 2: Conversations," 500X Gallery, Dallas, TX
2016 "Blue Library Volume 2: Conversations," Antenna Works, New Orleans, LA
"Without Design or Sketch: The Story of The Room," LAUNCH LA, Los Angeles, CA
"If We Came From Nowhere Here, Why Can’t We Go Somewhere There?" Trenton Artworks, Trenton, NJ
2015 "On Being Black," Arnika Dawkins Gallery, Atlanta, GA
"Select 2015," Artisphere, Arlington, VA
2014 "If We Came From Nowhere Here, Why Can’t We Go Somewhere There?" Vivid Solutions, Washington, DC
2013 "The Photographic Self," Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL
"Face of California," Santa Paula Art Museum, Santa Paula, CA
"MFA Show Three," UCLA New Wight Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
"Myths," Santa Monica Art Studios, Santa Monica, CA
2012 "MFA 2013 Exhibition," UCLA New Wight Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
"GLAMFA (Greater Los Angeles Masters of Fine Art)," Cal State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA
"BOOM," Pacific Design Center/d.e.n. contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
"My Place Like Home," Space 4 Art, San Diego, CA
"Hard 8," Untitled Art Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2008 "The Lack of Desire," Brooklyn Arts Council, Brooklyn, NY
2007 "Access," Harriet's Alter Ego, Brooklyn, NY
"Transformations: Photography and Imaging @ 25," Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, New York, NY
"BFA Exhibition 2007," Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, New York, NY
"Show 3," Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, New York, NY
2005 "Flash Forward," Magenta Foundation, Lennox Contemporary, Toronto, ON
"Flash Forward," Magenta Foundation, Redux Gallery, New York, NY
"Common Grounds," Steinhardt School of Education, New York University, New York, NY
Curatorial Project
2020 "The World is Never Still,” The Binder of Women, online
Collections
California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Chicago, IL
Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
Woodbury University School of Architecture, Burbank, CA
Selected Print Publications
The Wall Street Journal, July 5, 2021
The New York Times Magazine, January 31, 2021
Los Angeles Times, January 17, 2021
Frieze, January/February 2021
LALA Magazine, Summer 2020
Harper’s Magazine, August 2020
The New Yorker, April 27, 2020
Harper’s Magazine, April 2019
Los Angeles Times, October 21, 2018
Aperture, Fall 2018
Art Papers, Spring 2018
Vice, December 2016
Selected Talks, Lectures, and Panels
2022 “Artists at the Table,” panelist, LACMA, Los Angeles, CA
2021 “Main Event,” featured speaker, SCI-Arc, Los Angeles, CA
“Picturing Intimacy: Janna Ireland, Catherine Opie, Paul Mpagi Sepuya,” panelist, Carolyn Glasoe
Bailey Foundation, Ojai, CA
“In Response—Perspectives on Vera Lutter: Museum in the Camera,” panelist, LACMA, Los Angeles, CA
“Paul R. Williams: Rediscovering an Architectural Icon,” panelist, Urban Land Institute, Los
Angeles/AIA, Los Angeles/Getty Research Institute/USC School of Architecture/National Organization of Minority
Architects (Southern California Chapter), Los Angeles, CA
“Regarding Paul R. Williams,” Los Angeles Public Library, Los Angeles, CA
2020 “Pump to Plug,” featured speaker, USC Dornsife College, Los Angeles, CA
“Reflecting on the Moment,” panelist, NYU Department of Photography & Imaging, New York, NY
“Regarding Paul R. Williams,” The Glass House, New Canaan, CT, September 24.
“In Conversation,” panelist, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
“Beauty in the Backyard,” panelist, Heidi Duckler Dance/Willowbrook Library, Willowbrook, CA
2019 “Under/Represented,” featured speaker and panelist, Docomomo, Los Angeles, CA
“Architecture and Race,” featured speaker and panelist, Ojai Institute Artist & Ideas Festival/Carolyn Glasoe
Bailey Foundation, Ojai, CA
"Preserving the City of the Future: Civic and Corporate Los Angeles in the 20th Century,"
featured speaker and panelist, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
"There is Only One Paul R. Williams," Photoville LA, Los Angeles, CA
"Inspired Live," featured speaker, Photoville LA, Los Angeles, CA
"ENCOMPASS: Inclusive Architecture," featured speaker, American Institute of Architects,
Los Angeles, CA
"Is There an L.A. Sensibility?" featured speaker, Los Angeles Mayor's Office/Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA
"City of Images," panelist, Aperture/Photo LA, Santa Monica, CA
2018 “Looking, Past and Through,” Southland Institute/MAK Center for Art and Architecture/Schindler House,
Los Angeles, CA
"Paul Williams and the Los Angeles Look," Emerson College Los Angeles Center, Los Angeles, CA
"Process," Harvard-Westlake School, Los Angeles, CA
"There is Only One Paul R. Williams," Spacial Awareness Network, Los Angeles, CA
"There is Only One Paul R. Williams," Pasadena Photo Arts, Pasadena, CA
"There is Only One Paul R. Williams," National Organization for Minority Architects, Woodbury University,
Burbank, CA
Awards/Other
2023 City of Los Angeles Individual Master Artist Project Grant, Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles, CA
Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from the State of Nevada
The Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation Art Prize, Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation, Ojai, CA
2021 Peter E. Pool Research Fellow, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV
2020 Paris Photo - Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards, First PhotoBook shortlist
2018 DCA Trailblazer, Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles, CA
Arlene Director Schnitzer ’47 Visiting Artist, Harvard-Westlake School, Los Angeles, CA
2014 LOOKbetween Festival participant, Charlottesville, VA
New York Times Portfolio Review participant, New York, NY
2013 Snider Prize, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, IL
2011 Eddie Adams Workshop, Jeffersonville, NY
Look3 Festival of the Photograph Student Scholarship, Charlottesville, VA
2002 Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts, Erie, PA