top of page

Context 2021

Filter Photo is pleased to announce Context 2021, our annual spring open call for photography-based work juried by Juli Lowe, former director of the Catherine Edelman Gallery.

On view at Filter Space March 26th  through May 1st. A juror’s choice award and an honorable mention will be announced at the opening reception on March 26th.


"Context 2021 is a reflection of our time: intense, challenging, deliberate, and self-reflective. The photographs featured in this exhibition contemplate life during a pandemic, family heritage, and intimacy while offering hope through community. The images reconstruct traumatic childhood memories and search for identity and belonging within a new culture. Others examine human interaction and the power of touch as well as complex family lineages. They explore challenges within parenthood; the anxieties and fears for our children's well-being and safety. They speak to the Black American experience and unveil the nuanced effects of our global climate crisis. Context 2021 shows a vast array of photographic practices that reveal the common bonds that tie us all together.

I’d like to thank Filter Photo, Jennifer Murray, Jeff Phillips and all the applicants. This process proves there is so much exciting work being made and I encourage all of the artists to keep pushing boundaries and sharing your work with the world. We need your voices!"


—Juli Lowe


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━


Participating Artists:


Kalee Appleton

Bremner Benedict

Cody Bratt

Shawn Bush*

Elizabeth M. Claffey

Julianne Clark

Isabella Convertino

Eli Craven

Michael Darough

Jorge Ariel Escobar

Leslie Fry

Allison Grant

Kayla Suzanne Holdgreve

Emma Creighton Hopson

Ethan Aaro Jones

Tehan Ketema

Jiatong Lu

Noelle McCleaf

Jenny Rafalson

Astrid Reischwitz

Rosalie Rosenthal

Krista Svalbonas

Stephanie Taiber

Rashod Taylor

Anthony R. Vizzari

Sara J. Winston

Iris Wu

Connor Young

Jiawei Zhao**

Lilia Ziamou


**Juror's Choice

*Honorable Mention



This exhibition is partially sponsored by The Illinois Arts Council Agency and a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events.



Exhibition Dates: March 26 - May 1, 2021

Opening Reception: March 26, 5 - 9 pm CT
Location: Filter Space | 1821 W. Hubbard St., Ste. 207

Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday, 11 am – 5 pm | Saturday, 12 - 4 pm

Columbia_Heartland300.jpg
bottom of page