Kerry Skarbakka

Kerry Skarbakka was born in Duluth, Minnesota.{{Cite web|url=https://creative-capital.org/grantees/view/140/project:115|title=Creative Capital - Investing in Artists who Shape the Future|website=creative-capital.org|language=en|access-date=2017-02-28}} His family embraced Christian fundamentalism when Skarbakka was a young boy. They moved to a farming community in Tennessee. At age 7, Skarbakka found that he could speak in tongues. The Chicago Reader states that he "witnessed faith healings at tent revivals and in storefronts and basements. People he knew told of encounters with the devil."{{Cite web|url=http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/to-leap-without-faith/Content?oid=919091|title=To Leap Without Faith|last=Marlan|first=Tori|website=Chicago Reader|date=9 June 2005 |access-date=2017-02-28}} This early experience informed his career as an artist.

Skarbakka received his BA in studio art with an emphasis in sculpture from the University of Washington School of Art. In 2003 he received an MFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago.{{Cite web|url=http://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/users/kerry-skarbakka|title=Kerry Skarbakka|website=College of Liberal Arts|language=en|access-date=2017-02-28}}

One of Skarbakka's first major exhibitions occurred at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago as part of their "New Artists/New Work" series. The photography shown depicted "anxiety-provoking, large-format photographs" showing the artist falling to near certain death.{{Cite web|url=https://mcachicago.org/Exhibitions/2002/Kerry-Skarbakka|title=MCA – Exhibitions: Kerry Skarbakka|website=mcachicago.org|language=en|access-date=2017-02-28}} In 2005, one of Skarbakka's "falling" works was featured on the cover of Aperture with an accompanying essay by Wayne Koestenbaum.{{Cite web|url=http://aperture.org/shop/http-www-aperture-org-shop-magazine-aperture-179-ulzefgfzh8e/|title=Aperture 179|website=Aperture.org|language=en-US|access-date=2017-02-28}}

In 2005, one of his "falling man" performances sparked controversy when some claimed it was a recreation of some of the tragic jumpers from the World Trade Center during September 11 attacks.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2013/mar/01/falling-man-kerry-skarbakka-pictures|title=The falling man: the art of Kerry Skarbakka - in pictures|date=2013-03-01|website=the Guardian|access-date=2017-02-28}} The artist said that the images were inspired both by the "death of his mother and the events of September 11."{{Cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/11/kerry-skarbakkas-photographs-falling_n_2451138.html|title='I Photograph The Body As It Dangles From Dangerous Precipices'|date=2013-01-11|website=The Huffington Post|access-date=2017-02-28}} He began the project to deal with his "emotional pain and existential insecurity."

In 2005 Skarbakka received a Creative Capital grant for his project Fluid.{{Cite web|url=https://creative-capital.org/projects/view/115|title=Creative Capital - Investing in Artists who Shape the Future|website=creative-capital.org|language=en|access-date=2017-02-28}} The project premiered at Lawrimore Project in Seattle, Washington.

{{Reflist|refs=

{{citation|title=Kerry Skarbakka|publisher=OSU College of Liberal Arts|url=http://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/users/kerry-skarbakka}}

{{citation |url=http://www.today.com/id/30323362/ns/today-today_news/t/fall-guy-takes-pictures-his-own-plunges/ |title="Fall guy" takes pictures of his own plunges|work=Today|author=Mike Celizic|date=April 21, 2009 }}

{{citation |title=Portraits of Falling|date=January 23, 2013|author= Christopher Jobson|work=Slate|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2013/01/23/kerry_skarbakka_struggle_to_right_oneself_captured_moments_of_suspended.html}}

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• [https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2013/mar/01/falling-man-kerry-skarbakka-pictures The falling man: the art of Kerry Skarbakka - in pictures], The Guardian
• [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/6709606/Kerry-Skarbakka-the-Falling-Photographer.html Kerry Skarbakka : the Falling Photographer], The Daily Telegraph

• {{citation|title=Artwork, Anxiety, and Ambiguity: The Photographic Images of Kerry Skarbakka|author=Corey Dzenko|publisher=University of Alabama|year=2007|url=http://www.secacart.org/assets/documents/secac/conference-history/2007_abstracts_final.pdf}} SECAC Abstracts from the Annual Meeting in Charleston, West Virginia October 17–20, 2007
• {{citation|title=Continuing to Work toward US Manhood: Contemporary Performance-photographer Kerry Skarbakka's The Struggle to Right Oneself|first=Corey |last=Dzenko|doi=10.1177/1097184X15604687 | journal=Men and Masculinities|publisher=Sage|date=July 25, 2016|s2cid=145049043 }}

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• {{Official website|http://www.skarbakka.com}}

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Category:Living people

Category:American photographers

Category:Oregon State University faculty

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:University of Washington School of Art + Art History + Design alumni

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