For over 30 years, Jeane Umbreit has utilized the medium of photography to reveal hidden dimensions of the physical world. While her subject matter is deeply familiar, her compositions of everyday life on the street, at home, and in nature are otherworldly and surreal. She enhances her images for emotional effect, and at times further augments with digital layering and intentional double exposures, deepening their mystical qualities. Umbreit captures the viewer’s attention with ease and immediacy, but her process and presentation evoke often dualistic interpretations. Her veiled, dream-like scenes speak broadly as symbols, echoing the intimacies, insecurities, and complex relationships we share with our environments.
Based in Memphis, Umbreit has exhibited across the United States and has participated in traveling group exhibitions curated by the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the Brooklyn Museum. She is featured in a number of collections of museums and corporations including the Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock; Assisi Foundation, Memphis; Baker Donelson, Memphis; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France; Boca Museum, Boca Raton, FL; Campbell Clinic, Memphis; Cincinnati Museum of Art, Cincinnati; The Crump Firm, Memphis; Deloitte & Touche, Nashville; Delta Airlines, Memphis; Dobb's House, Inc., Dallas; Ernst & Young, Memphis; Enterprise National Bank, Memphis; Harrah’s Casino Headquarters, Tunica MS; Holiday Corporation, Atlanta; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art; Memphis International Airport Corporate Offices, Memphis; New Orleans Museum of Art; Nissan, Chicago; Plough, Inc, New York; Promus Hotel Corporation, Memphis; Santa Barbara Museum of Art; Southeast; Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, FL; SouthTrust Bank, Memphis; and Victory Bank, Memphis.