JONA FRANK
JF@jonafrank.com
www.jonafrank.com
PUBLICATIONS
Jona Frank: Model Home Bowdoin College Museum of Art
Cherry Hill: A Childhood Reimagined The Monacelli Press
The Modern Kids, Kehrer Verlag
RIGHT: Portraits From the Evangelical Ivy League, Chronicle Books
High School, Arenas Street Publishing, Los Angeles
Beyond the Portrait: Young American Photography, TH Inside, Milan
Identities Now: Contemporary Portrait Photography, Peter Hay Halpert Fine Art
Adolescence, Landscape Stories, Vulcano Publishing, Italy
Autobiography of the San Francisco Bay Area, Part One, SF Camerawork
Dear Future Me, A First Exposures Publication, San Francisco
SOLO EXHIBITIONS and TWO PERSON EXHIBITS
2023 You Are Not Enough, Euqinom Gallery, San Francisco
2022 Jona Frank: Model Home, Bowdoin College Museum of Art
2020 Cherry Hill, Rustic Canyon Park, Santa Monica Canyon
2018 It’s The Traveling Life, Liverpool Irish Festival, solo exhibited and curated group exhibition
The Art of Falling Apart, Liverpool Mental Heath Festival, curated group exhibition
2016 Trying-Out(AUSPROBIEREN) Bild Kultur, Stuttgart Germany
2015 Looking For America, Diffusion Festival, Cardiff Wales
The Modern Kids, LOOK Photographic Festival, Liverpool, England
In Position: Jona Frank and Amy Elkins, DeSoto Gallery, Venice, CA
2013 Learning to Fly, Gallery 169. Santa Monica. February
2011 Lianzhou Photographic Festival, Guangzhou, China
2010 Boys: in Progress, Bolinas Museum, June
2009 Boys: In Progress, DNJ Gallery, Los Angeles
Church and State, Sherry Frumkin Gallery, Santa Monica
2008 In The Paths of Righteousness, California Museum of Photography, Riverside
2007 Time Lapse, Mind Section, The Exploratorium, San Francisco
Lincoln High: ROTC, Project Room Two, Santa Monica Museum of Art
2005 Selections from High School, Wildwood Gallery Visiting Artist Series, Los Angeles
2004 High School, Foley Gallery, New York
Still/Motion Studies, 101 California, San Francisco
2003 High School, Residency Exhibition Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
2002 Interpreting High School, Jackson Street Gallery, University High, San Francisco
High School, Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco
1998 School Pictures 1995-1997, Kimball Art Center, Park City, Utah
1997 School Pictures 1995-1997, SCI-ARC, Los Angeles
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 The Art of Sport, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland
CMP at 50, UCR Arts, California Museum of Photography, Riverside, CA
2017 Women Look Out, Arena One Gallery, Santa Monica
The Outwin 2016. American Portraiture Today, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City
The Outwin 2016. American Portraiture Today, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX
The Outwin 2016. American Portraiture Today, Tacoma Art Museum, Washington
2016 The Outwin 2016. American Portraiture Today, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC
Ourselves Through The Lens: From the Ramer Collection, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento
2015 Role Play, Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Idaho
Personalities: Fantasy and Identity in Photography and New Media, Palm Springs Art Museum
2013 Teenager. Photo Central, Hayward, CA
2011 Awkward Stage: Adolescence and Identity, Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Idaho
The Art of Caring: A Look at Life Through Photography, Museum of Art / Ft. Lauderdale
The Art of Caring: A Look at Life Through Photography, Art Museum of South Texas
2010 The Art of Caring: A Look at Life Through Photography, Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal
2009 An Autobiography Of The San Francisco Bay Area, San Francisco Camerawork
Weird in NJ, The Noyes Museum, Oceanville, NJ
Ersatz, San Francisco Camerawork
Slideshow: Introductions to CA Artists, The Annenberg Center for Photography, Los Angeles
Bed, Umbrella Arts, New York
2007 From Mind to Hand: Artists and Graphology, Triple Base Gallery, San Francisco
2006 Joint Venture, Contemporary and Vintage Photography The Ramer Collection and Other Selected Work
Richard L. Nelson Gallery / Pence Gallery, UC Davis
2005 Beyond the Portrait, Tommy Hilfiger, Milan, Italy
Contemporary American Photography, Internationale Fototage, Mannheim/Ludwigshafen Germany
When We Were Young, Foley Gallery, New York
2004 Village Roadshow Pictures, Santa Monica, CA, Berman Collection: Recent Acquisitions
FRAME Analysis of Movement, Center for Photography at Woodstock, New York
Never Been Better, Dintaman Gallery, Los Angeles
Schoolin’, a.o.v. Gallery,, San Francisco
2003 Still/Motion, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco
Exhibition Game, San Francisco Arts Commision
Self Performed, Freddie Fong Contemporary Art, San Francisco
2002 Bay Area Now 3, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
About Face, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York
2001 Don't Ever Change, The Tuttle Gallery, Baltimore
Vivid: Photographs by Camerawork Members, SFCamerawork, SF
GRANTS/AWARDS
2016 Santo Foundation Individual Artist Award
2016 Prix Virginia, Paris, Jury’s Choice Selection
2008 American Photo Magazine: Best Books, RIGHT: Portraits of the Evangelical Ivy League
2002-03 Wattis Artist-in Residence, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
2002 Nominated for John Guttman Fellowship
2001 Individual Arts Commission Grant, San Francisco Arts Commission
1999 Dockers Grant for Excellence in Short Film Directing
COLLECTIONS
Palm Springs Museum of Art
California Museum of Photography, Riverside, CA
Center For Photography at Woodstock
Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
Johnson & Johnson Corporate Collection
SF Camerawork Fine Print Collection Program
David Kronn Collection, Irish Museum of Modern Art
Albright Photography Collection, New Orleans
Berman Photography Collection, Los Angeles
Ramer Photography Collection, Sacramento
Pal Photography Collection, Los Angeles
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2023
Local Stories, Check out Jona Frank’s Story, VoyageLA, March 8, 2023
2022
Phil Mistry, Photographer Jona Frank casts Actress Laura Dern as her Mother, Petapixel, August 8
Jorge S. Arango, Art Review: Take a Tour of Photographer Jona Frank’s Childhood in ‘Model Home’, Press Herald, April 10
Rachel Hurn, Model Home - Step into Jona Frank’s beautiful yet troubled Suburban childhood, Maine Home & Design, March
Janet Briggs, Housewarming: ‘Jona Frank: Model Home’ explores what place means, The Bowdoin Orient, March 4
2021
Colin Westerbeck, SoCal Photographers Cover It All, Artillery Mag, May 4
Schnayerman, Identity Series: Jona Frank, Schnayderman, April 23
Sylvia Beckerman, Sylvia & Me - My Reading Corner, life APRES, April 8
Gabrielle Rael, Grenade in a Jar Cherry Hill: A Childhood Reimagined, Grenade In A Jar, March
loeldelaphotographie, Jona Frank: A Childhood Reimagined, loeldelaphotographie - The Eye of Photography, March 8
Ramona Duoba, Jona Frank: A Childhood Reimagined w/ Laura Dern, Provokr
Amy S. Rosenberg, “Laura Dern stars in Jona Frank’s new photo memoir about a suffocating Cherry Hill childhood”, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 31
Emily Gosling, You Won’t Want to Miss These Essential Art Books, Elephant, Jan. 28
Emily Gosling, Laura Dern stars in photographic tale of repressive suburbia, Creative Boom, January 25
Kate Morgan, Laura Dern’s Cherry Hill, SJ Magazine, January
2020
Casey Orr, Cherry Hill: A Childhood Reimagined, Photomonitor
Elinor Carucci, Favorite Photobooks of 2020, Lensculture
Ayla Angelos, “In her new Photo Book, Jona Frank reconstructs vivid scenes of her youth”, It’s Nice That, Dec. 4
Kirkus Editors, 12 Books That Make Great Holiday Books, Kirkus, Dec. 3
Angela Matano, Best Holiday Books to Gift, Campus Circle, Nov. 27
Catherine Coyle, “Art collides with family dynamics and interpersonal relationships in this selection of inspiring, beautifully illustrated books”, Home & Interiors Scotland, Nov. 23
David Hudson, November Books - New & Noteworthy, The Criterion Collection, Nov. 19
Vanity Fair, The V.F. Index: What to Read, Wear and Buy this Month, Vanity Fair, Nov. 3
Arthur Lebow, Jona Frank: Between Reality and Fantasy, New York Times, Nov. 1
Dana Goodyear, Laura Dern Plays a Depressed Suburban Housewife in a New Photo Memoir, New Yorker Magazine, Oct. 26
PODCASTS
2022 Life Apres Sylvia & Me, Episode 72, April 8
Big Table with J.C. Gabel, Episode 19, February 18
EDUCATION
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
School of Cinema-Television, 1990-1993
Graduate Studies in Film Production
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.
Graduated Honors, Cum Laude, B.A. English, 1988
Jona Frank is a photographic artist living in Santa Monica, CA. In 2020 she published her fourth book, Cherry Hill: A Childhood Reimagined. Set in the 1970s, Cherry Hill, chronicles the story of a young photographer stuck in the confines of suburbia. Akin to a graphic novel, this hybrid of personal essay and photographs breaks open the memoir format and details Frank's life as she spends her days dreaming of a friendship with Emily Dickinson, longing for Bruce Springsteen and eschewing the rules of femininity.
Throughout her career Frank has worked extensively in narrative portraiture, focusing on youth culture. Her last book, The Modern Kids, combines the qualities of formal fine-art portraits with the mystery and intimacy of the sport of boxing. RIGHT, her second book, follows religious youth who aspire to become Republican political leaders.
And her first book, High School, explores the hierarchy of public high school across the United States.
In winter of 2022 Bowdoin College hosted the premier exhibition from the Cherry Hill series, Jona Frank: Model Home. She is currently at work on a new book about a fictional FSA photographer, loosely based on the life of Marion Post Wolcott.
instagram: @_jonafrank_
To reach Jona: JF@jonafrank.com
If you would like to purchase a book please contact Jona or
Arcana Book: https://www.arcanabooks.com/