Road Show (TX)

Jessica Kourkounis' Road Show (TX) is a body of photographic work that attempts to offer a view of the random and seemingly spontaneous emergence of super highways and looks at areas where the hard elements of freeway culture encroach upon and co-exist with the fragility of human beings. Work on the series began in 2003. The show consists of ten large scales prints (48x33), around 100 small prints (4x6) and several video projections.

http://kourkounis.com/

Bio: Jessica Kourkounis

Born in 1974, Western New York native Jessica Kourkounis attended the State University of New York at Albany and at Buffalo, taking courses in fine art and photography, before moving to New York City in 1996 to apprentice with magazine and documentary photographer Chris Toliver.

In 1998 Jessica returned to Buffalo and began taking freelance photo assignments from local weekly publications, architecture firms and universities as well as from national and international magazines. She also taught photography in Buffalo Public Schools through programs arranged by the acclaimed Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Arts (CEPA).

In 1999 Jessica was hired as staff photographer at the Buffalo Beat. After the weekly paper was sold, she served as photo editor and chief staff photographer for the new parent company's monthly glossy magazine Buffalo Spree, as well as the revamped arts weekly, Blue Dog Press. At the Blue Dog Press Jessica was the recipient of several AAN (Association of Alternative Newsweeklies) awards including a 2002 Cover Award.

Later in 2002, Jessica, along with freelance magazine writer and New York Press columnist Matt Taibbi, co-founded the globally read Buffalo Beast. The Beast was a highly irreverent and controversial bi-weekly with a distinctive take on politics and art that entailed the staff of the publication becoming active participants in the news making process.

In 2003 Jessica relocated to North Texas and began working as full-time contract photographer at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, as well as shooting for the Associated Press and serving as house photographer for non-denominational, internationally-renowned “mega”-church, The Potter's House, in Dallas.

Star-Telegram's Assistant Managing Editor, Mark Rogers, has chosen her latest multimedia web presentation on teen pregnancy in the Hispanic immigrant community to be entered into competition for the Press Club of Dallas Katie Awards for the year 2005.

Jessica also has been recently awarded the CEPA Gallery Artworks! National Residency Award for September 2005, a position funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Her solo exhibition opens in Buffalo on September 16, 2005.

Jessica now lives in Houston, Texas where she works as a photojournalist for the Houston Chronicle and the Associated Press.