Wake Up!
Wake Up!
Photographs by Tyler Epps
Exhibition Dates: Thursday, November 12th – Saturday December 12th
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 14th, 1-4pm (artist reading at 3pm)
Location: O+ Exchange Gallery, 334 Wall St, Kingston, NY
Gallery Hours: Thurs-Sat 12-6pm or by appt
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
O+ is proud to present Wake Up!, the first solo exhibition of photography by Kingston-based artist, writer, and father Tyler Epps. This series of black and white images presents parenthood as a paradoxical experience; full of plans and spontaneity, fear and tenderness, grief and joy. As a single father, splitting time with his triplets, Epps reflects on the beauty of everyday life, including the heartbreak inherent in the passage of time and in moments missed. In these images we see expressions of the dichotomy in observing the world as it is while working to protect the innocence and freedom of our children’s experience within it.
ARTIST STATEMENT
This work directly confronts the dual realities of my life. Here are images capturing moments when I am with my sons next to moments when I am without them. I began life as a single father, being with them half the time when the boys were 3 years old. Strictly based on custodial time, between then and when they turn 18, I will miss 7.5 years of their life.
I see the world through a lens of grief, a void, a great sense of care and love. There is a hope that one day my sons will be able to see these photographs and grapple with making sense of their reactions to them. This work is a love letter. One where I continue choosing to wake up, to walk outside, to observe, to survive, to explore, expand, to be.To my sons, I love you, and I’m trying.
ARTIST BIO
Tyler Epps (he/him) is a writer, photographer, and former Division I basketball player from Charlotte, NC now living in Kingston, NY. He is a father of triplets, who are a driving force in his desire to heal and to create. He was the 2025 recipient of the Margaret and John Bard Scholars Prize in Language and Literature at Bard College. Epps holds a BA in Written Arts from Bard College and is currently an MFA candidate in Poetry at Randolph College. He is passionate about health and physical fitness, recently winning his first entered triathlon, works as a facilitator for TMI Project, and currently moonlights as a disc jockey for Radio Kingston.@tyler_epps
The O+ Exchange Gallery is an exhibition and performance space located within the organization’s home base. The gallery prioritizes performances and exhibitions by O+ alumni and other artists working throughout the Hudson Valley as a way to provide them with opportunities to share their work with the public as a pathway to healthcare access through O+’s distinct exchange-based model of care.