Krista Svalbonas
Migrator 6, 2016
Uv print n Dibond on wood
22 x 14 x 7"

Artist Statement
The notions of home and dislocation resonate deeply with me as the child of refugee parents who fled to the United States. Born in Latvia and Lithuania, my parents spent years in displaced-persons camps in Germany after World War II before immigrating. Their experience is part of a broader history of uprooted individuals for whom "home" is fluid and influenced by external political forces.

This background has nurtured my fascination with spatial relationships and how architectural forms impact our psychological environments. Photography plays a critical role in this narrative, as my family carried few belongings when they fled the Russian occupation, with photographs documenting a homeland many believed they would never see again. These images and stories shaped my perception of home until the Baltic states regained their freedom in 1991.

My project, "Migrator," began with photographs taken in the three places I've called home over the past eight years: the New York metro area, rural Pennsylvania, and Chicago. Each image captures the essence of the landscape at that moment in my life.

Printed on dibond and CNC-routed, the images are reassembled in sets of three. I constructed wooden sculptural planes at varying heights and angles, creating hybrid structures that reinterpret and reinvent architecture, disrupting space, light, and direction. "Migrator" reflects on the architecture of my past and present while exploring the concept of home.

Artist Bio
Krista Svalbonas holds a BFA in Photography and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies. Her work has been exhibited at prestigious venues, including Paris Photo, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Spartanburg Art Museum in South Carolina, Howard Yezerski Gallery in Boston, Klompching Gallery, and ISE Cultural Foundation in New York. Her pieces are included in private collections and public institutions such as LACMA in Los Angeles, the Cesis Art Museum in Latvia, the Gregg Museum of Art and Design in North Carolina, and the Woodmere Art Museum and Temple University in Philadelphia.

Svalbonas has received numerous awards, including the Center for Photographic Art Artist Grant (2022), the Baumanis Creative Projects Grant (2020), the Rhonda Wilson Award (2017), the Puffin Foundation Grant (2016), and a Bemis Fellowship (2015). Recently, she held solo exhibitions of her series "Displacement" at the Copenhagen Photography Festival in Denmark, the Tallinn City Museum in Estonia, the Museum of Textile and Industry in Augsburg, Germany, the Kazys Varnelis Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania, and the Janina Monkute Marks Museum in Kedainiai, Lithuania. She is an associate professor of photography at St. Joseph's University and resides in Philadelphia, where she continues her work.

Courtesy of Marshall Gallery Los Angeles

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