it’s possible we need it

j houston

november 14 - December 13

Over the past year, J Houston started to return to where they grew up in rural Michigan, now as an adult with a chosen family. Using close friends and trans siblings as stand-ins for biological family, these images manifest a desire to have unconditional relationships and their brother’s body without letting go of the landscape they grew up in. Images of blood family melt with chosen into a fantasy rooted in the mundane, bodies trade places ignoring gender lines. Living outside of Michigan for 12 years now, what’s familiar and unfamiliar becomes a visual inventory to sift through upon return.

The images were made in areas around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Houston lived for six years, and Kalamazoo, Michigan. They include friends, family, partners, and landscapes that reflect bizarre and sweet moments encountered revisiting these spaces.

J Houston was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a focus in art and gender theory. Most recently, they were an artist-in-residence at Otis College of Art and Design, The Growlery, and Vermont Studio Center, and J has received grants from Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, and Carnegie Mellon University. Their photo work on Pittsburgh’s queer community has been a finalist for the Duke CDS Essay Prize and Silver Eye Center for Photography’s fellowship program, and their work has been shown at Houston Center for Photography, Turner Contemporary, Aviary Gallery, Amos Eno Gallery, Contact Gallery, Miller Institute of Contemporary Art, and New York Photo Festival, among others.