Garie Waltzer

Garie Waltzer’s images provide a vantage point outside the fray of everyday life from which to contemplate the unseen history of a particular place. The artist, who was born in New York City, studied painting and photography at the State University of New York in Buffalo, and she has since developed an artistic practice that necessitates she travels extensively—as Waltzer puts it, she is “compelled by the sweet chaos of unknown places,” and through her photographs, she to aspires to “recording to remember and understand.” As such, Waltzer’s beautifully crafted carbon pigmented inkjet images explore the convergence of time, place, and populace; they feature views of public gathering spaces—parks, piazzas, pools, and busy streets—as a sort of visual witness to a collective narrative of our time.

Artist Leslie Rose Close has aptly illuminated Waltzer’s work by explaining, “The signature prospect of her photographs locates Waltzer, and the viewer, on a virtual piano nobile, the “noble plane” identified in Renaissance architecture as the optimal spot from which to view the landscape architecture. Like a Piranesi, this low-flying bird’s-eye view, so particular to Waltzer’s approach, provides a vantage point neither remote as that of an aerial photographer nor as embedded as the pedestrian.” 

Waltzer’s early experimental work with color xerography collage has been included in numerous gallery and museum shows nationally as well as in publications on the genre and can be found in private, corporate, and museum collections alike. A recipient of artist grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council, Waltzer has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland, the Columbus Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the Princeton University Art Museum, among others. In 2008, she participated in Light Work’s artist-in-residence program.