Review Santa Fe participant Jay Muhlin is a Philadelphia photographer with a focus on artist books. His work explores themes of loss, intimacy, comfort, anxiety, and masculinity. What results are multivalent narratives, visual threads that not only “define his subjects with empathy, but also seek emotional truth.”

Jay received a BFA in Photography from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts  and recently completed his MFA in Transmedia/Art Photography at Syracuse University. His work has appeared in various editorial publications worldwide and he has recently completed residencies at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester NY, The Millay Colony for the Arts in Austerlitz, NY and at Contemporary Artists Center at Woodside in Troy NY. Jay teaches courses at Syracuse University, Salem Community College and was a visiting faculty member at Bennington College in 2011.

Relief is offered through humor as it transforms coping into a joy that makes moving forward more meaningful. When this work is exhibited Muhlin uses an installation format, creating a quasidomestic space. Images are hung salon style in gaudy white frames with numerous different dimensions. The artist’s couch is available for sitting and viewing his book dummy, draped with a quilt embroidered with a wintery image from the project. Greeting cards, newspapers, and balloons- all ephemera to be given away, distributed, disturbed, or forgotten.