STILL LIGHT | Pam Fox
VMFA Amuse & Claiborne Robertson Room
Aug 12, 2026–Feb 15, 2027
Many of the flowers, vines, and ferns that I photograph I gather from my yard and neighborhood in the morning before I begin to work. Time acts quickly on these plants, and I only have a brief period to arrange each image. As I create my tabletop photographs, I want to capture these plants in ways that are not merely decorative, but that animate the life force inherent in them.
I photograph using the most fleeting of light sources: sunlight moving through fabric. Lit from behind, the arrangements cast shadows forward. Objects behind the loosely woven fabric distort, shapes break down, and foreground, background, and fabric merge into one another. The resulting images are ambiguous, yet unmanipulated.
I am drawn to ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging, for the quality of attention it requires. Ikebana practitioners work at eye level with their arrangements, placing each element with quiet focus. When successful, an arrangement can enhance the essence of its materials and allude to something intangible—the tension between permanence and ephemerality. That is the space where I am working.
Pam Fox is a recipient of a 2003–04 and 2011–12 VMFA Professional Visual Arts Fellowship.
ABOUT THE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship Program is a vital source of funding for the visual arts and art history in Virginia. VMFA is committed to supporting professional artists as well as art students who demonstrate exceptional creative ability in their chosen discipline. Since its establishment in 1940 by the late John Lee Pratt of Fredericksburg, VMFA's Fellowship Program has awarded more than $6 million to Virginians. The program marked its 85th anniversary in 2025.
As part of our commitment to Virginians, the Pauley Center Galleries, Amuse Restaurant, the Claiborne Robertson Room, and select spaces at the Richmond International Airport are dedicated to showcasing the work of VMFA Visual Arts Fellowship recipients. In addition, VMFA collaborates with Statewide Partners around the commonwealth to host exhibitions featuring recent recipients of a VMFA Visual Arts Fellowship.
