Tara Cronin is an artist working in various mediums focusing on alternative photographic methods, works on paper, installation and book-arts. She has pursued an art career that has both helped her solve problems in her own internal space as well as in the space she finds herself situated externally. Tara received a BA in Writing from New School University, and an MFA in Photography from Bard College and the ICP-Bard Program, and has Twice-earned the ICP Director’s Fellowship Award.
During her graduate and post-graduate work, Tara explored this interface between the material and the individual by making photographically-based work involving images or prints combined with materials such as reconstituted hemoglobin and chlorophyllin as well as with dust and with liquid metals. She holds various co-patents with partner and scientist Ed Chen including one on a unique polymer made from those materials used in her artwork, which after scientific research demonstrated itself to be the first synthetic membrane able to remove CO2 directly from air and convert it into useful liquids. This resulted in a solo show in the Museo de la Ciudad in Querétaro, Mexico in 2012, and later an invitation to be a guest-speaker and exhibition participant at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC. Having exhibited throughout New York City, North America and Internationally, Tara's most recent exhibitions include participation in the MT. ROKKO PHOTO FESTIVAL in Kobe, Japan, and a 6-person exhibition with PHOTO DISTRICT NEWS at Foley Gallery in New York, NY.
Tara is a recipient of the annual FRESH EXHIBITION prize held by KlompChing Galletr in DUMBO, NY. The exhibition is expected to be on view from September to October 2020. Through working with the methods she does, Tara also works entrepreneurially and hopes to promote the idea of Science and Art as being symbiotic. Tara has worked on multiple startups with partner and scientist Ed Chen attempting to transform traditional skepticism of climate change through their technologies, while also promoting the relevance of Art and Science.
Tara and Ed embarked on piloting their agricultural technology on the oldest certified Organic coffee farm in Kona Hawai'i in Summer 2015 and Tara is proud to be 5 years into her experience as a coffee roaster.
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 business partner and 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. She is happy and grateful to have joined the Board of Directors at SKEA, Society for Kona's Education & Art, in 2016 in Kona, HI, as well sits on the Exhibitions Committee for Donkey Mill Art Center in Holualoa, HI.
Tara is nomadic, working primarily on the Big Island of Hawaii in the United States
instagram: @wakingbastet
