Presented in conjunction with CPW in Kingston, the exhibition is curated by Bard College art historians Tom Wolf and Laurie Dahlberg, and is the first full-scale retrospective of the artists, both longtime Woodstock residents.   

During the 1970s and ‘80s, photographers Colleen Kenyon (American, 1951-2022) and Kathleen Kenyon (American, 1951-2023) were part of the women artists’ movement that challenged the photographic establishment with innovative approaches to the medium. Colleen Kenyon made hand-colored portraits of herself and her identical twin sister, while her sister, Kathleen Kenyon, appropriated gender-specific images of women from the mass media to create ironic photomontages. During the 1980s and ‘90s, the Kenyon sisters served as Director (Colleen) and Associate Director (Kathleen) of the Center for Photography at Woodstock. 

My Sister, My Self also features photographs by other identical twin women artists.  Frances McLaughlin-Gill and Kathryn McLaughlin Abbe were successful fashion photographers and co-authors of the book Twins on Twins. Another pair of sisters, Ellen Kahn and Lynda Kahn, are Emmy award-winning artists known for their futuristic self-portraits and bold, graphic tableaux. By including work by other twin women artists, My Sister, My Self contextualizes the rarified world of twins while exploring visual dualities and women’s identities in post Roe v. Wade America.

MORE ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Ellen Kahn and Lynda Kahn, Emmy-award winning, twin team, multi-disciplinary artists (AKA TwinArt) are recognized as pioneers in digital media. They are recipients of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship grant in Visual Arts in 1981. Since the early 80s, TwinArt participated in exhibitions internationally in museums and galleries, including The Whitney, Pompidou Centre, ICA London, Nassau County Museum of Art, Laguna Art Museum, and Tokyo Video Biennale. Nam June Paik, the father of video art and mentor to TwinArt, collaborated with Ellen and Lynda on “Bye Bye Kipling”, a satellite broadcast airing on television in the US, Japan and Korea. Polaroid sponsored TwinArt’s large format photographs (20X24 project) and short films. Their creative directorial accomplishments include “Peewee’s Playhouse”, “Pucci Love”, “Composition in Op”, and “Arrested Development”. Absolut Vodka artist series selected the duo to design ABSOLUT TWINART, a magazine ad and digital poster, in the collection of Sweden’s Spritmuseum. The record label Modern Harmonic released the double vinyl LP “TwinArt presents: Instant This / Instant That.” TwinArt exhibited “AfterGlow X TwinArt” at Melissa Morgan Fine Art in Palm Desert, CA. In 2025, exhibitions include the AI series “TwinArt in the Museum” at the Center for Photography in Woodstock and Wexler Gallery. Ellen graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BFA from Tyler School of Art in Rome and Philadelphia. Lynda graduated with honors and an MFA from The Art Institute of Chicago. Ellen Kahn currently lives in NYC, while Lynda Kahn resides in LA.

Frances McLaughlin-Gill and Kathryn McLaughlin Abbe (1919 – 2014) broke the glass ceiling for women in photography. They each had distinguished careers: Abbe was a photographer of fashion icons, entertainment personalities, children, street vignettes, and artists, and McLaughlin-Gill was the first contracted female fashion photographer for Vogue magazine. In addition to fashion photographs, her images included celebrity photos and still lifes for editorials and covers of House & Garden. Together the sisters wrote and published Twins on Twins (1981) and Twin Lives in Photography (2011). The sisters were the subject of a 2009 documentary, Twin Lenses produced by Nina Rosenblum, which highlighted their pioneering roles in photography and included interviews with the sisters.