Jay Hoops: Polaroids

The exhibition presents a selection of intimate and enigmatic color Polaroid photographs by artist Jay Hoops. Discovered in her studio by a friend after Hoops’ death, these images represent part of her photographic legacy. While little is known about these works or how and why they were made, there is a striking manner in how these small prints describe light, color, and space. Most of the images were presumably created around her Long Island home near Shinnecock Hills, revealing beaches, architectural details, and uninhabited spaces during the last few decades of her life. Others are more indecipherable, appearing to be double exposures, or even Polaroids taken directly of her computer screen while layering or manipulating images in the early versions of Photoshop. They seemingly exist as a sketchbook of sorts, as personal studies of her environment and examples of works in progress. As a collection, Hoops’ Polaroids provide an abstruse vision of quiet, dreamlike places that fluctuate between reality and fiction.

Curators: Tracy Longley-Cook and Gary Beeber