Marcella Hackbardt is a visual artist, curator, and educator living in central Ohio. She is Professor and Chair of studio art at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Her current work explores aspects of knowledge, self-reflection, the environment, and symbolic states. She received her M.F.A. in studio art/photography from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, and a B.A. in studio art from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Her work has been included in exhibitions at The Girl’s Club Collection in Fort Lauderdale, Station Independent Projects in New York, Cleveland’s Museum of Contemporary Art, and at The University of Notre Dame, among others. Her work is included in the book Keeper of the Hearth: Picturing Roland Barthes’ Unseen Photograph, ed. Odette England (Schilt Press), as well asTypology of Intimacy, editor and artistic project designer Francisco Moura Veiga, with reproductions of and essay on her series True Confessionals, in conjunction with the installation and exhibition entrée & homage, Basel, Switzerland. Two of her projected works have been performed at the Ingenuity Festival of Art and Technology, Cleveland. A book project titled Various Unbaked Cookies was included in an exhibition based on the book Various Small Books (MIT Press) at Gagosian Gallery in New York and Paris, and at the Museum Brandhorst in Munich, Germany.
Her curatorial projects include Material Message: Photographs of Fabric, featuring work by seven contemporary photographers at The Weston Art Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio. She has also curated two exhibitions of contemporary photography at the Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery in Columbus, Ohio. Hackbardt presented lectures on Material Message in 2019 at the National Society for Photographic Educators conference, and at the University of Johannesburg and at the Encounters with the [Im]material International Symposium at the Wits Art Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa. Her essay on photographer Jeff Brouws is included in the book Jeff Brouws: Silent Monoliths (Steidl Press) to be published in 2024.
She has received recognition and support for her work from OAC Individual Excellence Grants, Kenyon College Faculty grants, the Midwest Society for Photographic Educators, and the Great Lakes Colleges Association. In 2014 and 2021, she was the Director of the Kenyon Rome Program, traveling to Rome with Kenyon students for four months. Her service record includes her work as Kenyon College Chair of Faculty and Studio Art Department Chair, a Professional Practices Committee Member for the College Art Association, and numerous positions as Juror for group exhibitions. She has been a Children’s Champion for the Columbus Nationwide Children’s Hospital Marathon, and Half Marathon, participating in the marathons and raising hundreds of dollars for young patients.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2023 Trauma-In-Place: Chautauqua National Exhibition, Giles Gallery, Eastern Kentucky University
2023 Mirror Mirror, College of Wooster Art Museum, Ohio
2023 The Homecoming, Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, Denver, Colorado
2023 Flow, Shot Tower Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
2023 Rinse & Repeat, Girl's Club Gallery, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
2023 Story: Real or Not So Much, Escondido Arts Center, California
2022 Mirror Mirror, Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, Ohio
2022 PhotOH2, Iris Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
2022 Negative, Intersect Arts Center, Saint Louis, Missouri
2022 Biosphere, The Downtown Gallery, Indiana University Kokomo, Indiana
2022 Lens2022, Perspective Gallery, Evanston, Illinois
2020 Keeper of the Hearth, Houston Center for Photography, Texas
2020 ImageOhio20, Fort Hayes Shot Tower Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
2018 Figurative Works, Foundry Art Centre, St Charles, Missouri
2018 Tapped, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
2017 From Virtual to Actual, Viridian Artists, New York, New York
2017 Gund Gallery, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, solo exhibition
2017 Annual Juried Exhibition, Vermont Center for Photography, Brattleboro, Vermont
2017 ImageOhio17, Fort Hayes Shot Tower Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
2016 Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois, solo exhibition
2016 Interrupted, Coburn Art Gallery, Ashland University, Ohio
2016 Ed Ruscha Books & Co, Gagosian Gallery Beverly Hills, California
2016 Light & Shadow, 1650 Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2016 Interiors, Jadite Gallery, New York, NY
2016 ImageOhio16, Fort Hayes Shot Tower Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
2015 Ed Ruscha Books & Co, Gagosian Gallery Paris, Paris, France
2015 The Moment. The Backdrop. The Persona., Girls’ Club, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
2014 Shapeshifting: Contemporary Masculinities, Wooster Art Museum, Ohio
2014 The Absence of Presence, Skylight Gallery, New York City
2013 DIY: Photographers + Books, Columbia College Chicago, IL
2013 Ed Ruscha Books & Co, Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany
2013 In the Zone, Station Independent Projects Gallery, New York City
2013 Various Small Books, Gagosian Gallery, New York City
2012 Deus Ex Machina, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
2012 Re-Framing the Feminine, Girls’ Club, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
2011 Contrasts, SohoPhoto, New York City
2011 Weston Art Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio, solo exhibition
2011 Fluid Terrain, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio
2011 Here’s Looking at You, Riffe Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
2009 Abstract Realism, Dahl Arts Center, Rapid City, South Dakota
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2021 Curator
Material Message: Photographs of Fabric, The Weston Art Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
Featuring photographs by contemporary artists Patty Carroll, Selina Román, Morgan Ford Willingham,
Jacinda Russell, John Mann, Leonard Suryajaya, and Elizabeth M. Claffey
2016 Curator
Earthy Delights, Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
Featuring 15 of Ohio’s contemporary photographic artists
2010 Curator
Deep Space: Ohio Photographers, Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
Featuring 14 of Ohio’s contemporary photographic artists
2010 Co-Curator
Spreading the Influence, Olin Gallery, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio
Co-curated with Francie Bishop Good, Jane Hart, Michelle Weinberg and Karen Snouffer, including works from the Girl’s Club Collection, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
2009 Guest Curator
Heavenly Day, Buchwald Art Center, Mount Vernon Nazarene University, Ohio
The inaugural exhibition for the new, renovated, downtown MVNU Art Department space
PUBLICATIONS
2016 True Confessionals, monograph, Mount Vernon: Cake Press, 2016
2010 Various Unbaked Cookies and Milk, monograph, Mount Vernon: Cake Press, 2010
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2024 Jeff Brouws: Silent Monoliths: The Coaling Tower Project, essay on the artist, Göttingen: Steidl
2020 Keeper of the Hearth: Picturing Roland Barthes’ Unseen Photograph, ed. Odette England, Schilt, pgs 126-127
2020 Typology of Intimacy: An Emotional Catalogue, reproductions of and essay on my series True Confessionals,
ed. Francisco Moura Veiga, in conjunction with the exhibition entrée & homage, Basel, Switzerland
2013 Various Small Books: Referencing the Work of Ed Ruscha, eds. Hermann Zschiegner,
Jeff Brouws, and Wendy Burton, Cambridge: MIT Press, pgs 226-27
2012 Re-framing the Feminine, ed. Michelle Weinberg, Fort Lauderdale: Girl’s Club, pgs 34-35
2011 Camera Obscura, journal of literature and photography, Vol 3, Sum-Fall 2011
2007 Light+Lens: Photography in the Digital Age, Robert Hirsch, Focal Press, pg 323
SELECTED AWARDS
2017 Ohio Arts Council, Individual Excellence Award
2011 Ohio Arts Council, Individual Excellence Award
2009 Ohio Arts Council, Individual Excellence Award
2005 First Place, National Photography Contest, Alligator Juniper literary journal, published
by Prescott College, Arizona, Juror Bea Nettles
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2000-present KENYON COLLEGE, Gambier, Ohio
Art Studio 106 Photography I
Art Studio 191/Biology 191 Special Topics: Botany and New Botanical Art
Art Studio 226 The Photography of Invention
Art Studio 225 Special Topics: The Electronic Photographic Image
Art Studio 227 Photography: Contemporary Practice
Art Studio 228 Photography II
Art Studio 291 Narrative Photography in Italy
Art Studio 321 Digital Photography
Art Studio 320 Color Photography
Art Studio 391 Contemporary Artistic Practice: Working in Rome
Art Studio 391 Special Topics: Digital Photography II
Art Studio 480/481 Advanced Studio Seminar
DRAMA AND DANCE COLLABORATIONS
2007 Projection Artwork, Fault Lines, performance at Ingenuity Festival of Art and Technology, Cleveland,
Ohio, collaboration with Double-Edge Dance Company
2007 Theatre set, panels totaling 60’ of color photographs, for production of Neil LaBute’s Fat Pig, Attic Rep,
San Antonio, Texas, collaboration with Designer Martha Penaranda
2006 Projection Artwork, Uprooted, digital images and Flash movie, collaboration with choreographer Kora Radella,
dancer Julie Brodie, and composer Ross Feller. Performance at Pandemonium, Cleveland Public Theatre,
Ohio; Palace Theatre, Cleveland; Ingenuity Festival of Art and Technology, Cleveland; North Carolina
Computer Music Festival, North Carolina State University in Raleigh; and Columbus Dance Theatre
2004 Dance performance set, The Changing Room, photo on fabric, moveable set for performance directed by
Julie Brodie, Franklin Park Conservatory, Columbus, Ohio
2003 Digital photo theatre set, moveable panels totaling 15'x21' for production of Shakespeare's As You Like It,
Bolton Theatre, Kenyon College, collaboration with Designer Martha Penaranda
2003 Digital photo theatre set, five 4'x8' hanging panels, for production of Arthur Miller play, The Price, at the Jewish
Theatre of Pittsburgh, collaboration with Designer Martha Penaranda