Visiting professor has an award-winning photography repertoire

Many professors have professions and hobbies outside of campus life; Brett Kallusky manages being a visiting assistant professor in photography at UW-River Falls as well as having his studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Kallusky has had solo exhibitions for his photographs, and in 2009 his art was displayed for the Viaggio con le Viste in Gallery 101 at UWRF and for the Create Studio at Waterbury Building in Minneapolis. This was sponsored by the Italian Cultural Center for Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota.

“I've shown my work locally, nationally and internationally," Kallusky said. "Most recently I was in at an exhibit at the Sioux Visual Art Center which was a fundraiser for them to get to their new space.”

This year he has an upcoming solo exhibition titled "Line of Communication" at the Phipps Center for the Arts in Hudson, Wisconsin.

Kallusky knew he wanted to be a photographer since first going to college.

“I'm a landscape photographer. I spend most of my time focusing on the way that we inhabit a space or travel through a space or spaces," Kallusky said. "I think I'm really interested in what we do when we're in those places but not necessarily in terms of photographing people, in terms of what we leave behind or how we alter the landscape.”

According to his biography on his website, Kallusky was born in St. Paul in 1975. He received his master of fine arts in photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in 2005. He has exhibited his photographs nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions, and his work is held in both private and public collections including the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation and Macalester College in St. Paul.

Kallusky was the 2005 and 2006 recipient of the Miguel Vinciguerra Fulbright Fellowship to work on a photographic project entitled "Viaggio con Vista" in Italy.

“I tend to compartmentalize my time--time management is key," Kallusky said. "So, Google calendar, I tend to live and die by it. You just make it work.”

In 2010, he received a Minnesota State Arts Board Initiative Grant to continue his photographic work in Italy, and once again in 2013 to self-publish a book of the project.

“I received grants and funding through [the] Minnesota State Arts Board through the Fulbright Fellowship and an international award," Kallusky said. "I've received scholarships for my work as a student.”

According to Kallusky’s website, he is interested in the relationship between the view of the landscape and the collective understanding of it. His work strives to present the surface of things that may not appear beautiful, but to him have an intrinsic beauty. This focus for his photography is born from repeated physical exploration of an unfamiliar space, and through this a photographic representation of a familiar place. This is an in-progress project.

Kallusky currently resides in Minneapolis with his wife, daughter, two cats and one dog.