Kerry Skarbakka (b. 1970) is an artist working at the intersection of studio arts, performance, and constructed photography. The core of his practice examines the complexities of existence, control, and the vulnerabilities of the human condition through performative physical acts and expanded roles of identity.

Skarbakka’s performance-based photographic work has been published and exhibited internationally. Highlights include the Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles; the Haifa Museum of Art, Israel; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the North Carolina Museum of Art, and Fargfabriken Norr, Stockholm. A Creative Capital grantee, he has received funding from the Oregon Arts Commission, The Ford Family Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council, and the Chicago Center of Cultural Affairs. Public art commissions include the City of Seattle - 1% for the Arts Program.

Skarbakka’s work has been featured in notable publications including Aperture, Art and America, ArtReview International, and Architectual Digest. Extensive online media coverage includes The Huffington Post, Wired, Slate, The Guardian, and many others. Additionally, Skarbakka has appeared on several live radio and television interviews including NBC’s “Today Show”. His work was included in After Photography, a documentary film series by Stan Neumann and Juliette Garcias, co-produced by the Centre Pompidou and Rene Daalder’s, Here is Always Somewhere Else, a documentary film about the artist, Bas Jan Ader.

Skarbakka received his Studio Arts degree from the University of Washington and an MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago. He is an Associate Professor of Photography at Oregon State University.