Midge Wattles (b. 1990) is an American artist based in New York and Palermo. Inspired by her interests in art history and the origins of images, she uses photography as a tool to trace a historical or personal lineage throughout each of her series. Her recent work explores the elements of light, time, and surface as both the material and subject of her images. Midge has a BFA in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design where her interest in Italy began through RISD’s European Honors Program at the Palazzo Cenci in Rome. She is a recipient of a Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant in New York for new achievements in the field of photography and a U.S. Fulbright grant with a Vinciguerra Award in fine art to further her work in Sicily from 2016-2017. Her work has been exhibited in both the U.S. and in Italy. She works with Francesco Pantaleone Arte Contemporanea Gallery in Palermo.

Awards & Residencies:
89books Residency & artist book
Palermo, Sicily, IT
October 2018

American Cyborg Artist Residency
Aspen, Colorado, USA
January 2018

Fulbright Scholar & Vinciguerra Award
U.S. Foreign Scholarship to Italy, Fine Arts/Photography
Palermo, Sicily, IT
2016-2017

Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant
Award for achievements in the field of Photography
New York, NY
2015

Education:
The Rhode Island School of Design, BFA Photography, 2008-2012
RISD’s European Honors Program, Rome, 2011

Exhibitions:
Passages curated by Agata Polizzi (solo show)
Francesco Pantaleone Arte Contemporanea
Palermo, Italy
Dec 2018 *upcoming

Castelbuono Paese Mediterraneo
Il Museo Civico di Castelbuono, Castelbuono, Sicily
2017

Due South curated by Marianne Bernstein
Delaware Contemporary Arts Museum, Wilmington, DE
2017

Haunted Objects, Q07 curated by Laura Greig
Peridot Green, New York, NY
2016

Offertorio curated by Francesco Pantaleone
Francesco Pantaleone Arte Contemporanea, Palermo, Italy
2015

RISD In Rome: European Honors Program
Woods-Gerry Gallery, Providence, RI
2014

At This Point / a group show curated by Wen-You Cai
If and Wen Space, New York, NY
2014

Facades and Replicas
Red Eye Gallery, Providence, RI
2012

A Family Portrait
Palazzo Cenci, Rome, Italy
2011


Publications:
Aint Bad Magazine: An Independent Publisher of New Photographic Art. Staff Picks: Midge Wattles published by Anna Brody.
2015

PIN-UP MAGAZINE. The Hybrid Designs of Stephen Burks.
2015

Lenscratch. Young and Emerging Artist Series, Midge Wattles: Lineage by Grant Gill.
2014

The Shin Bijutsu Shinbun Review. From New York, At This Point by Dr. Tomii Reiko.
2014

Lint-roller. 5×5: Classicism and the Uncanny by Olivia Gilmore.
2013