リベッカ・ドローレン Rebecca Drolen
Profile
アーカンソー在住のアーティスト・教育者。アイデンティティがどのように視覚的に構築されるのか、また、性差を持った身体表現に置かれた、作られた理想像についての関心を写真作品の中で扱っている。インスタレーション、アッサンブラージュ、パフォーマンスを取り入れ、現代美術における写真作品の拡張的性質を軽やかに探る。
グループ展や個展での作品発表だけでなく国内外での出版物にも掲載されている。主な会場にスプリングフィールド美術館、オクラホマ州立大学美術館、韓国金浦市CICA美術館、ガルベストン・アート・センター、Filter Photo、ハフィントン・ポスト、オクスフォードアメリカン誌”Eyes on the South”、The Light Factory、Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Theory of Clouds Galleryなど。2022年にInnovate Artist Grantを受賞、2024年にAnderson Ranch Arts Center、また2025年にマットレス・ファクトリーにて滞在制作アーティストとして招聘。
アーカンソー大学フルブライト芸術科学大学で准教授を務め、写真教科の先導に協力しているほか、スタジオ・アートの共同プログラムディレクターを担っている。芸術活動の中でも教育は優先事項として捉えており常に生徒からの影響を受け続けている。
Rebecca Drolen is an artist and educator working in Arkansas. Her photographs are concerned with how identities are visually assembled, and the constructed ideals placed on gendered bodily performance. Her work playfully explores the expansive nature of photography in contemporary art as it incorporates installation, assemblage and performance.
Drolen’s work has been shown in group and solo exhibitions as well as publications on a national and international level, within noteworthy venues such as the Springfield Art Museum, The Oklahoma State Museum of Art, the CICA Museum in Gimpo, Korea, the Galveston Art Center, Filter Photo, the Huffington Post, Oxford American’s “Eyes on the South,” the Light Factory, the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, and the Theory of Clouds Gallery in Kobe, Japan. Drolen was awarded the Innovate Artist Grant in 2022 and was an invited artist in residence at Anderson Ranch Art Center in 2024 and at the Mattress Factory Contemporary Art Museum in 2025.
Drolen is an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Arkansas School of Art where she collaborates to lead the Photography program and has also serves as the Co-Program Director of Studio Art. She considers teaching a core priority within her art practice and is continuously impacted by her students.
Experience
EDUCATION
2009 Master of Fine Arts, Photography, Indiana University – Bloomington, IN
2005 Bachelor of Arts, Journalism, Minors in Art History & Studio Art, Photography,
Indiana University – Bloomington, IN
SOLO & SMALL GROUP CURATED EXHIBITIONS
2023 Unstable Entity / Filter Photo – Chicago, IL
Unstable Entity / University of Tulsa, Alexandre Hogue Gallery – Tulsa, OK
2022 Working Together: Neil Callander & Rebecca Drolen / 2-person exhibition / Niles-Maine
District Library – Niles, IL
Below the Sight Line / SRO Photo Gallery, Texas Tech University – Lubbock, TX
2021 Four by Four: Midwest Invitational Exhibition / Springfield Art Museum – Springfield, MO
Unstable Entity / Galveston Arts Center – Galveston, TX
Factory (select works) / 21C Museum Hotel Vitrine – Bentonville, AR
2020 Something Familiar: Work by Rebecca Drolen & Bree Lamb / Louise Hopkins
Underwood Center for the Arts – Lubbock, TX
Resolution / Clamp Light Gallery / 4-person exhibition – San Antonio, TX
2019 Body & Identity, 12thJeonju International Photo Festival / 4-person invitational – Jeonju,
S. Korea
2018 Ponytails and Souvenirs / The Light Factory Gallery – Charlotte, NC
Factory / Oklahoma State Museum of Art – Stillwater, OK
Hair Pieces / St. Joseph’s University – Philadelphia, PA
Hair / Tarleton State University – Stephenville, TX
2016 Transplants / Palmetto Center for the Visual Arts / FotoSeptiembre
Northwest Vista College – San Antonio, TX
2014 Hair Pieces / Three Squared Gallery – Nashville, TN
2013 Hair Pieces / Royale Hair Parlor – Bloomington, IN
Hair Pieces / Gallery 121 – Belmont University, Nashville, TN
2012 Hair Pieces / Gallery 101 – University of Georgia– Athens, GA
Hair Pieces / SRO Photo Gallery – Texas Tech University – Lubbock, TX
2011 Particular Histories / Castell Photography Gallery – Asheville, NC
2009 Particular Histories / SoFA Gallery – Indiana University – Bloomington, IN
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
2026 Imagemaker Lecture / Society for Photographic Education National Conference, March 2026
2025 Artist-in-Residence / Mattress Factory / Pittsburgh, PA
2024 Review Santa Fe Participant / Juried Photography Review / Santa Fe, NM
2023 Artist-in-Residence Family Residency / Anderson Ranch Arts Center / Dec 2023 –
Snowmass Village, CO
Recognition: 20 Under 40: 2023 / Annual List of Amazing Young Alumni / Indiana University
College of Arts & Sciences / Bloomington, IN
2022 Grant Recipient / Innovate Grant – Winter 2022 (Photography) Grant Cycle
2021 Grant Recipient / SPACE on Ryder Farm, Brewster, NY (Summer 21)
Curatorial Fellowship / Stay Home Gallery & Residency, Paris TN
Fulbright Faculty Travel Grant – University of Arkansas, Fall 2021
2018 Circle Foundation for the Arts – Artist of the Year Award Finalist
Artists 360 Grant Finalist, 2018
2015 Juror’s Selection Award – SPE SC Educator Exhibition – Mainsite Gallery
2011 Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award – Ivy Tech Community College
2010 Juror’s Choice Award – The Human Condition – Castell Photography Gallery
2009 Director’s Selection Image – Idea of Self Exhibition – The Center for Fine Art Photography
Permanent Collection Purchase Award – 22nd National McNeese Works on Paper Exhibition
– Abercrombie Gallery
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2024 Flats Files / Artist Feature, Issue 4
2022 Innovate Grant Artist Interview, Winter 2022
2021 Friend of the Artist, vol. 13 – Independent Publisher, 2021
A Yellow Rose Project – Texas A&M University Press, 2021
Becoming Sisters: Women Photography Collectives & Organizations: Women
Photographers International Archive (WOPHA) Congress Catalog – WOPHA
Foundation, Nov. 2021
Four by Four 2020: Midwest Invitational Exhibition Catalogue, Springfield Art
Museum, Missouri Arts Council, 2021
2020 Don’t Cut Your Hair It’s Beautiful (Parley Project Publication) – Black Rock Press,
University of Nevada – by Kellee Morgado (Redfield Fellow), 2020
Photographer’s Companion Magazine – “Hair Pieces” (article) – Nov 2020 Issue (China)
2018 See Yourself X (SYX), by Madeline Schwartzman, Black Dog Publishing – December 2018
2016 Oxford American: Eyes on the South / Featured work “Transplanted”
2014 Huffington Post Arts / Featured work “Surreal Photos Explore Why Women…” – Nov 2014
Statement
「Unstable Entity」では女性の強さやレジリエンス（逆境力）、身体表現に対する文化的に不安定な期待に内包された、転換点やバランス感覚について探求しています。この作品は、一般的な建材が心許なく積み上げられた即興のアッサンブラージュと身体的形体を比較しています。その対比の中にあるのは、身体や、私たちを繰り返し裏切る体制の傍らで”強い女性”であるということの未確定な基準に関する思索です。様々な形のコラージュでは女性の強さと、脅威やセクシャリティ、欲望、または精神的・身体的健康を追求するために必要な個人のスタミナとの関連を考察しています。女性のボディビルダーたちは、力と身体性というパフォーマンスの最大化を象徴したある種のアーキタイプあるいはヒーロー的立場として作品に登場します。この作品は、力の演技的性質や”理想”の不確かな一時性、そして身体の中で今ここに存在するということの心理的安全性を想起させる様々な優先事項が積み重なれたモンタージュなのです。
Unstable Entity explores balancing and tipping points within culturally unstable expectations of female strength, resilience, and bodily performance. The work compares bodily forms to ad-hoc assemblages that are tenuously balanced using common building materials. Within this juxtaposition is a meditation on the body and the unsettled standards of what it means to be a “strong woman” alongside the structures that often fail us. The collage of forms speculates on the relationship of female strength to intimidation, sexuality, and desire as well as the individual stamina required to pursue both mental and physical wellness. Female bodybuilders enter the work as a form of archetype or heroic body representing a maximized performance of strength and physicality. The work is a montage of layered priorities that speaks to the performative nature of strength, the precarious temporality of the “ideal,” and the psychological safety of inhabiting and being present in a body.
Testimonial
リベッカ・ドローレンは2009年にインディアナ大学エスケナージ美術・建築・デザインスクール写真科修士課程を修了した。以降、彼女の作品は概念的にも形式的にも大きく発展し、写真のみならず、インスタレーション、パフォーマンス、彫刻などの手法を積極的に取り入れながら、表現の領域を拡張してきた。ドローレンの作品は、体毛にまつわる社会的な偏見や、女性ボディビルディング、さらには「強さ」や「女性らしさ」をめぐる固定観念といったテーマを通して、女性の身体に課せられたジェンダー的期待を問い続けている。アメリカでファインアート作家として生きることは決して容易ではないが、ドローレンは芸術家としての探究心を貫きながら、教育者、そして母親としての責務も果たしている。その姿勢は、強さと覚悟を体現する模範的な存在といえる。長年にわたり彼女の活動を見守ってきたが、その優れた成果はなお過小評価されがちである。特にアメリカ南部での立ち位置を踏まえると、その重要性は一層際立つ。日本のアート界においても、ドローレンの作品と理念が新たな対話を生み出す契機となることを期待したい。
（オサム・ジェームス・中川）
Rebecca Drolen completed her MFA in Photography at Indiana University, Eskenazi School of Art in 2009. Since then, her work has grown conceptually and expanded physically to include installation, performative, and sculptural practices alongside photography. Over the years, Drolen’s work has focused on gendered expectations placed on women’s bodies ranging from surreal views of body hair to her current exploration of women’s bodybuilding and what it means to be a strong woman. Pursuing a career as a fine artist in the United States is undeniably demanding, yet Rebecca serves as a strong example of resilience and determination as she strives to balance her artistic ambitions with her responsibilities as an educator and a nurturing mother. I have followed Rebecca’s work for many years and believe her accomplishments are often overlooked, especially given her current position in the American South. I am eager to share her work and important ideas with the Japanese art community.
（Osamu James Nakagawa）