Birthday Portrait, 2015

Birthday Portrait, 2015

Angela Kahoali’i Casagrande believes her camera is her true third eye, revealing an invisible truth we do not see. Creating work that is photographic-based, she examines memory as an aspect of liminal space – a metaphorical ghost. A phantom that haunts us and delights us while all the while reminding us that we cannot quite grasp it. Using photography as the base of her work relates to the photograph as a means of capturing a moment, solidifying and preserving it for eternity.

Casagrande is a multidisciplinary photographic artist residing in New Mexico. Her love of photographic imagery stems from her memories of her grandfather's World War II photographs, her grandmother's National Geographic book of Egypt, and her grandparents' encyclopedia set she would browse daily. She was born and raised in Humboldt County, California, receiving her B.A. in Fine Art from Humboldt State University. She completed her M.F.A. from Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine. She received the 2015 Julia Margaret Cameron Award, was a Center Review Santa Fe Photographer, and was a Top 20 Finalist for the Summer 2023 edition of FOCUS Photo L.A.

Casagrande's work has appeared in publications, and she has curated exhibitions in addition to her participation as an artist. Her group exhibitions include Framework at the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster, CA, Of Memory, Bone, and Myth at the Colonel Eugene Myers Gallery of Art, University of North Dakota, InFocus: Current Photography at the Richmond Art Center in Richmond, California, and Into that Dark Sea: Seven Artists Explore Fragments of Photography in Ark Gallery, San Jose, California. Her work is in private collections as well as educational institution collections. She is an award-winning photographer whose work is exhibited nationally and internationally.