It has been said that human beings now have a larger impact on the landscape than rain. Jeremy Underwood’s work embodies our complicated relationship with the environment and the contemporary landscape, focusing on the tension between nature and culture shaping these physical spaces. Looking to the land as an agent for meaning, his work examines both the physical terrain and the ideology that we project upon the landscape.
Jeremy is recognized for his series, Human Debris, spotlighting the environmental condition of our waterways through the building of site-specific sculptures assembled out of harvested refuse collected from the beach. Commenting on what humans leave in the natural landscape, the objects are simply artifacts to support the work, photographed in interaction with the land, then left to be discovered. His other notable body of work, Chernobyl Hidden From View, explores the contemporary landscape of Ukraine’s exclusion zone. It is a story of nature in an unnatural place, of loss and renewal and of things hidden from view. Underwood’s work challenges viewers to reflect upon our consumer society, the connection we have with our environment and the pervasion of pollution.
Jeremy has been published in Photo District News and named an emerging talent by Lens Culture magazine. He has received a number of grants and fellowships from such institutions as the Society for Photographic Education, the University of Houston and the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts. Recent exhibitions include the Houston Center for Photography, Fotofest and the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center. Jeremy has been awarded residency at Yaddo, one of the oldest and most competitive artist residencies in the United States. His recent research project entails collaboration with the Colorado Art Ranch, Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, and the US Fish and Wildlife, exploring wilderness stewardship along Massachusetts’s marine and coastal region.
Jeremy received his BS from the University of Central Missouri and his MFA from the University of Houston in addition to study at the University of Central Lancashire in England. Underwood lives and works in the Kansas City, MO area.