Eleanor is a photographic artist whose studio practice reconsiders a feminist view of history to reveal connections between bodily, spatial, and geologic memories. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions at Belle Isle Viewing Room (Detroit), Valade Gallery (Detroit). and Tyler Wood Gallery (New York and San Francisco), and recent group exhibitions at the Houston Center for Photography (Houston), Filter Space (Chicago), Silver Eye Center for Photography (Pittsburgh), and Wasserman Projects (Detroit).
She is the recipient of a Flourish Fund grant from Culture Source and the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Center Annual Award from the Houston Center for Photography, a Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Art Award from the San Francisco Foundation, and an Applebaum Emerging Artist Residency, among others. Oakes earned her MFA in Art Practice from Stanford University and a BA in Art and Art History from Princeton University.
Currently residing in Detroit, Michigan, she is Associate Professor and Section Lead of Photography at the College for Creative Studies and is President of Creative Body Institute, a research platform dedicated to embodied creative practice across disciplines.
Image above by Kristine Hunter.
SELECT CV
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EDUCATION
2014 Stanford University, MFA Art Practice
2007 Princeton University, BA Visual Arts + Art History, Cum Laude
SOLO + TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
* Indicates two-person exhibition
2025 Shift/Change, Eleanor Oakes + Katie Schulman, The Art Gallery at Macomb Community College, MI *
2024 love’s labor, Valade Gallery, Detroit, MI
2023 milk and tears, Belle Isle Viewing Room, Detroit, MI
2022 exposure / lots lots, The Photography Gallery at Riley Hall, University of Notre Dame, IN
2019 Barnes Hall, Tyler Wood Gallery, Long Island City, NY
2016 Graffiti Wanted, Public Art Project at 849 Henry St, Detroit, MI
2015 Residual Loop, Tyler Wood Gallery, San Francisco, CA
RECENT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 The Smoke, the Ghost, the Balm, Cluster Museum, Ann Arbor, MI
2025 Living Image, The Halide Project, Philadelphia, PA
2025 UnBound14!, Candela Gallery, Richmond, VA
2025 Detroit: A Home for Makers, Hudson’s Detroit, Detroit, MI
2025 Photography Now, Women Made Gallery, Chicago, IL
2025 Tinned, Wasserman Projects, Detroit, MI
2025 Shaping Perception, Valade Gallery, Detroit, MI
2025 Silver and Salt, Valhall Arts, Fort Collins, CO
2025 Lessons on Coping, Hatch Art, Hamtramck, MI
2025 The Art of BasBlue, BasBlue, Detroit, MI
2025 Midwest Society for Photographic Education Members’ Exhibition, Scarab Club, Detroit, MI
2025 Light Conversation: Volume 5, Curated by Small Talk Collective, Oregon Contemporary, Portland, OR
2024 send me anything, Houston Center for Photography, Houston, TX
2024 Lessons on Coping, Hatch Art, Hamtramck, MI
2024 Art Fair | Detroit, Boyer Campbell Building, Detroit, MI
2024 Detroit Lens: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Detroit Artists Market, Detroit, MI
2024 (S)light of Hand, Photographer’s Eye Collective, Escondido, CA
2024 Echoes of the Past, The Light Factory, Charlotte, NC
2024 Solace in Nature, Light Art Space, Silver City, NM
2024 Becoming: The Feminist Image, PhotoSC, Columbia, SC
2024 Inner Sanctuaries, Strata Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2023 In dreams I walk with you, Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA
2023 Center Forward 2023, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO
2023 FAINT, Wasserman Projects, Detroit, MI
2023 Glimpse, Radius Gallery, Santa Cruz, CA
2023 Get Together, Reyes | Finn, Detroit, MI
2023 Objects of Affection, Wasserman Works at Wasserman Projects, Detroit, MI
2022 Double Life, Elaine Jacob Gallery, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
SELECTED AWARDS / GRANTS / RESIDENCIES
2025 Artist-in-Residence, Deep Time, Bodø, Norway
2025 Artist-in-Residence, Rock Street Artist Residency, Marquette, MI
2025 Artist Residency in Motherhood, Virtual
2024 Artist-in-Residence, AADK Spain, Blanca, Spain
2024 The Center Annual Award, Selected by Leo Hsu, Houston Center for Photography, Houston, TX
2022 Flourish Fund Grant Recipient, Culture Source + the Andy Warhol Foundation, Detroit, MI
2022 PhMuseum Women Photographer Grant Shortlist, Bologna, Italy
2016 Applebaum Emerging Artist Resident, Ponyride, Detroit, MI
PUBLICATIONS AS AUTHOR
“Jarod Lew: ‘Strange You Never Knew’ University of Michigan Museum of Art,” Dear Dave, Magazine, May 2025.
“Process," Plume, Issue 5: Play. Detroit, MI: College for Creative Studies Library, Fall 2024.
“Detroit in Piles,” Infinite Mile. Detroit, MI, February 2016 Print Release.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
“love’s labor,” Fraction Magazine, Issue 177, Summer 2024, Online.
“milk and tears,” Beyond. Heidelberg, Germany: Kalamari Klub, Fall 2022 Print Release.
“Renovations, January 2018,” Detroit Sequential. Detroit, MI: Rotland Press, Fall 2019.
“Removed,” LOSTiN Detroit. Berlin, Germany: LOSTin City Guides, October 2019 Print Release.
“Detroit Voter Portraits,” Beyond. Heidelberg, Germany: Kalamari Klub, June 2019 Print Release.
“Detroit in Piles” (Author), Infinite Mile. Detroit, MI, February 2016 Print Release.
Flash Forward - Emerging Photographers 2012.
Toronto, Ontario: Magenta Publishing for the Arts, 2012.
25 Under 25: Up-And-Coming American Photographers, Vol. 2. Brooklyn, New York: powerHouse Books and the Center for Documentary Studies, 2008.
Ebbing Borders, Flowing Lives: Articulating Reality in a Northeastern Megalopolis. Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, 2006.
RECENT REVIEWS + PRESS
“Eleanor Oakes,” Interview with Elizabeth Ransom on Women Alternative Photography Group, October 2023.
Myesha Johnson, “150 Metro Detroit Artists on Display in Corktown,” The Detroit News, March 2023.
“Eleanor Oakes, milk and tears,” Fast Forward Women in Photography, Oct 2022.
“Unwrapping with Eleanor Oakes,” Culture Volt, Oct 2021.
Stephanie Steinberg, “Darkroom Detroit gives photographers a home to create,” The Detroit News, Sep 2017.
Tanya Moutzalias, “Public Art Project Encourages Graffiti on Wall Near Downtown Detroit,” MLive, June 2016.
Stephanie Steinberg, “Photographer Seeks Detroit Graffiti for Art Project,” The Detroit News, May 2016.
SELECTED LECTURES / PANELS / WORKSHOPS
2025 Co-Leader with Cherise Morris, Maternal Health Workshop in partnership with Priority Total Health Foundation and Doula Detroit, Bulk Space, Detroit, MI
2025 Presenter, Art of Experimentation: Symposium on Alternative Photographic Processes, Online
2023 Image-maker Lecture, Society for Photographic Education Midwest, Columbia College, Chicago, IL
2023 Instructor, Salt Printing Workshop, Radius Gallery, Santa Cruz, CA
2022 Presenter, Symposium for Artistic Research in Analog Photography, Helsinki Darkroom Festival, Helsinki, Finland
2022 Panel Moderator, Freep Film Festival, “Grain” Film Panel Discussion, Detroit, MI