Griffin Atelier Gallery

Statement and Bio
My first formal introduction to photography came after college. That first summer I enrolled in a class at the New England School of Photography, aka NESOP. My instructor, Barry Kiperman, who had spent time with Walker Evans while at Yale, insisted that I take a weekend workshop with a guy named Gary Winogrand. By Monday I was looking to sell my car so that I could buy a Leica. By the time I had (almost) completed the two year program at NESOP I was assisting numerous Boston photographers, starting my own commercial studio, and shooting on the street whenever possible with yes, a Leica. Forty-five years later, after the commercial work, after the teaching, I still prefer the street.

Since 1973, I have been returning to Rome, Italy. There was the summer school and fall semester at Trinity College; the travel passes from my wife, a Delta flight attendant; and the 2004 high school semester with my youngest daughter, after the fire that destroyed my studio. Now, that same daughter has been living in Rome for over a decade. Not that I ever needed an excuse, but it is a delight to visit family (often with family) and spend multiple weeks photographing my favorite city. The ever present dogs in Rome have always found their way into my photographs, but in the last few years the dogs have become principle actors. One year ago, Paula reviewed a book I produced of Roman photographs: “Roman Haikus: I-III”. Knowing of her love of dogs, I also brought along a small box of dog photographs from Rome. After viewing the Haikus, she looked through the box of 5×7 dog prints and said, “I want to show these next year, this size, no frames, and in this room.” And here we are. Thank you Paula! – RA

CV
HONORS & GRANTS

2016 – The Outwin: American Portraiture Today – The National Portrait Gallery, DC

2014 – Critical Mass 200 2014 – Invitation to host portfolios at ArtPhotoIndex.com 2014 – Juried entrant at Review Santa Fe 2014 – Invitation to host portfolios at LensCulture.com

2013 – New England Photography Biennial

2013 – Photography Fellowship Grant – Massachusetts Cultural Council

2011 – New England Museum Association | Second Place Book Awards Jeremiah Lee Mansion: A Photographic Tour by Rick Ashley 2009 – Juried entrant at Review Santa Fe

1995 – Massachusetts Local Cultural Council Arts Grant 1990 – Massachusetts Local Cultural Council Arts Grant

1986 – New York Art Directors, Gold Pencil Award for “AIDS, It takes all kinds”, TV PSA

EXHIBITIONS

2020 – Marblehead Museum & Historic Society, “From the Ashes”, Surviving photographs from the 2003 School Street Fire: The Marblehead Portrait Project and Marblehead Celebrates, Marblehead’s Annual Parades and Public Events. February 1 – April 30

2018 – Ackland Museum of Art, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, “The Outwin: American Portraiture Today” June 1, 2018 – August 26, 2018

2018 – Artis―Naples, The Baker Museum, Naples,Florida, “The Outwin: American Portraiture Today” January 31, 2018 – May 6, 2018

2017 – Marblehead Museum & Historic Society, “Off Season” – The Jeremiah Lee Mansion October 1 – November 15

2017 – Virginia Carten Gallery, “Bartlett’s Garage”, Marblehead MA, November 1 – 30

2017 – Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO “The Outwin: American Portraiture Today” October 6, 2017 – January 7, 2018

2017 – The Gallery UPSTAIRS, Orleans, MA, Neal Rantoul & Rick Ashley, June 8 – July 10

2017 – Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX “The Outwin: American Portraiture Today” June 8 – September 10

2017 – Griffin Museum of Photography, Lafayette Gallery, “Aviary” group exhibit, March 21 – July 21

2017 – Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, Washington “The Outwin: American Portraiture Today” February 4 – May 14

2016 – National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian, Washington, DC “The Outwin: American Portraiture Today”. March 12, 2016 – January 8, 2017

2016 – Marblehead Arts Association – Ballroom Gallery “Marblehead’s Horrible Parade and the Kids that Love it”, October 1 – November 13

2016 – Laura’s Center for the Arts, “Perspectives on Inclusion”, Hanover, MA, March 29 – April 30

2015 – Virginia Carten Gallery, “Open Spaces”, Marblehead MA

2015 – The Gallery at The School of Design at Mount Ida College “New Visionaries”

2014 – Griffin Museum of Photography Virtual Gallery, 20th Juried Exhibition, Juror: Aline Smithson

2014 – Flash Forward Festival/Boston, Fall Back, Spring Forward at the Photographic Resource Center curated by Francine Weiss, PHD

2014 – New Art Center, 2013 MCC Fellowship Recipients Exhibition, Newtonville, MA

2013 – Danforth Museum of Art, Photography Biennial, Framingham MA, Juror: Francine Weiss

2013 – Panopticon Gallery, “Michael” in Dress Up, Boston MA

2012 – Virginia Carten Gallery, “94 Pleasant Street”, Marblehead MA

2011 – Panopticon Gallery, Instant Connections curated by Jim Fitts, Boston MA

2011 – Chase Young Gallery, “Studio Diptychs” photographs with Bernd Haussmann, painter, Boston

2010 – Gallery Kayafas, “Prom Couples” Special Edition Books with Original Prints, Boston

2010 – RayKo Gallery, “Prom Couples” (Por)trait Revealed, San Francisco CA

2010 – Griffin Museum of Photography, “94 Pleasant Street” 16th Juried Exhibition Juror: Jorg Colberg ,Winchester MA

2010 – Gallery Kayafas, “Prom Couples”, Boston MA

2009 – Photographic Resource Center, “Prom Couples” Exposure 2009 Juror: Russell Hart, editor of American Photo

ONLINE & PRINT PUBLICATIONS

2020 – Marblehead Magazine, Winter “Rick Ashley captures a town’s history”

2017 – IlPost.it Con chi vai al ballo di fine anno? (Prom Couples)

2016 – What Will You Remember, Elin Spring Photography Blog, O Superman

2014 – FeatureShoot.com Conceptual Portraits of a Man with Down Syndrome Reference Art History and Superman 

2014 – VisualNews.com This Super Man With Down Syndrome Is Not Camera Shy

2014 – TheMighty.com Photo Series Challenges Preconceived Notions About People With Down Syndrome

2014 – ufunk.com

Michael – Magnifiques portraits d’un homme atteint du syndrome de Down

2014 – aplus.com Artist Takes Photos Of His Brother-In-Law In The Superman Outfit We can all be superheroes if we want to be. 

2014 – Wonderzine – Moscow Arts & Culture Magazine: Prom Couples in America 

2014 – Huffington Post: Photographer Rick Ashley: Altering Perceptions Through Portraiture 

2013 – Elin Spring Photography Blog: Rick Ashley update: Elizabeth City, NC 

2013 – photoweenie.com: Rick Ashley Introduces Superman to Inges, Manet, Sargent, and Hopper

2013 – Wonders of Photography, by Dennis Curtin, gallery of photographs

2013 – Elin Spring Photography Blog: Agent Provocateur?

2012 – WickedLocalMarblehead.com (print & online) Arts & More: The Y gone by, exhibition review

2011 – Photo District News, July; “What Collectors Want” by Holly Hughes

2011 – Jeremiah Lee Mansion: A Photographic Tour by Rick Ashley, published and sold through The Marblehead Museum 

2010 – SalemNews.com (print & online) A New View of Lee Mansion, photography book by Rick Ashley

2010 – WickedLocalMarblehead.com (print & online) Arts & More, photography book by Rick Ashley

2009 – The Photo Review, online exhibition, 2009 Everyday People, “Prom Couples”

2009 – Flash Flood: 13 Favorites from 2009 Review Santa Fe , “Prom Couples”

2001 – Digital Desktop Studio Photography, co-author with Dennis Curtin, published by Shortcourses

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2013 – Kelby Worldwide Photowalk leader, Rome, Italy 2012 – Artist in Residence at Boston University’s Center for Digital Imaging Arts

2012 – Kelby Worldwide Photowalk leader, Marblehead, MA 2008 – Adobe Lightroom Expert Certification

2007 – Trained teaching assistants for Adobe Lightroom release at Photoshop World/Boston

2006 – 2010: Program Director, Photography Department, Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts

2005 – 2011: Instructor of photography at the Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts

2004 – present: Workshops and lectures on digital photography

1983 – 1986 Co-Owner, New Reelism Video Productions Writing, producing, and shooting, specializing in sports marketing and TV spots.

1986 recipient of New York Art Directors One Show Gold Pencil, Hatch and Clio awards, with AIDS PSA commercial airing on the Super Bowl

1979 – present: Commercial photographer

EDUCATION

1977-1979: New England School of Photography 1972-1976: Trinity College, BA Religion 

Statement
Over the last 21 years I have had the privilege of organizing, inventorying and placing my father’s archive. Todd Walker was a pioneering photographic artist who began self-publishing artist books in 1965, was at the leading edge of historical photographic processes in the 1960’s and began printing his photographs as ink on paper (which is now how most images are printed) in 1970. In 1981 he began to explore digital photography long before photoshop existed, teaching himself machine language. He was my mentor, role model and encouraged me to dance at the edges of photography, just outside of my comfort zone.

These images have been in the making for over 50 years, representing a posthumous collaboration with my father and an investigation of the materiality and impermanence of the photographic object. The film emulsion has been subjected to fluctuations in temperature and moisture now barely clinging to the base it’s transparent substrate.

Before my father left commercial photography in 1970 to become an artist and professor, he was a highly successful free-lance advertising photographer in Los Angeles and worked for many notable clients. Frequently a child model in these constructed photographic ‘realities’, I grew up with a healthy skepticism of the images utilized in advertising. My father was at moral odds with advertising work, knowing that the images he was making were to be used for corporate gain and lies. Many of these early commercial negatives done in a rush, were nothing that he was particularly proud of and were not cared for properly. The images I include in this exhibition are some of what I have discovered in my detective work coming to terms with the loss of my father. These distressed negatives bear witness to the interaction of time, heat, and moisture as they transform into resemblances of reality. They serve as a critique of the marketing construct that was named The American Dream and bear witness to a history reconsidered.  – MW

Bio
Melanie Walker has been a practicing artist for over 50 years. Her expertise is in the area of alternative photographic processes, digital and mixed media as well as large scale immersive photographic installations as well as public art. She attended San Francisco State University for a Bachelor’s degree in Art and Florida State University for an MFA. She has received a number of awards including an NEA Visual Arts Fellowship, Colorado Council on the Arts Fellowship, Polaroid Materials Grants and an Aaron Siskind Award. She has  taught at a number of universities including San Francisco State University, SUNY Albany, Alfred University and the University of Kentucky, Lexington. She currently teaches in the Media Arts Area at the University of Colorado Boulder and has work in over 100 collections including LACMA, Center fro Creative Photography, Princeton Art Museum and San Francisco Museum of Art.

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GALLERY REPRESENTATION

Walker Fine Art, Denver, CO

Tilt Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ

 

SELECTED AWARDS

Judith Rothschild Foundation Grant, 2003

Colorado Council for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship, 1996

National Endowment for the Arts – Photography Fellowship, 1995

Aaron Siskind Foundation Fellowship, 1992

Al Smith Fellowship in New Genres, 1992

Southern Arts Federation Sculpture Fellowship, 1991

NEA Inter-Arts Grant, Administered by New Langton Arts, San Francisco, Calif., 1989

Polaroid Materials Grant, 1987 and 1988

 

SELECTED PERMANENT COLLECTIONS

SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, Washington, DC

PRINCETON ART MUSEUM, Aaron Siskind Archive, Princeton, NJ

LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART, Los Angeles, Calif.

FRIENDS OF PHOTOGRAPHY, San Francisco, Calif.

CENTER FOR CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY, Tucson, Arizona.

POLAROID CORPORATION, Cambridge, Massachusetts

CHRYSLER MUSEUM OF ART, Norfolk, Virginia

SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF ART, San Francisco, Calif.

PETERSBURG MUSEUM OF ART, St. Petersburg, Florida

GRAHAM NASH COLLECTION. Los Angeles, Calif.

 

SELECTED COMMISSIONS:

Information can be found at www.airworks-studio.com

 

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:

2020: Ghost Forest, Walker Fine Art, Denver, CO

Leaves of Absence, Denver Botanical Gardens, Denver, CO

2019: GRACE: Gender, Race & Identity, Lawrence Miller Gallery, NYC

PROGRESSION, dnj Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

Imago Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

Diffusion, SE Center for Photography, Greenville, SC

2018: Tilt Gallery, Walker & Walker, Scottsdale, CA

Depth of Field, Center for Photographic Arts, Carmel, CA

Double Vision, Anderson Ranch Art Center, Snowmass Village, CO

Murmuration, VAE, Raleigh, NC

2017:ReMix, Sync Gallery, Denver, CO (Best in show)

Positive Manipulation, Rembrandt’s Yard, Boulder, CO (Best in show)

The Big Picture, Month of Photography Denver, Public Art Project, Denver, CO

Summer, Southeast Center for Photography, Molina, GA

2016: Fine Art Center for Photography, One person show, Ft. Collins, CO

2013: HOUSEWORKS – Western Colorado Center for Visual Arts, Grand Junction, CO

Invitational – 5×7 – dnj Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

PhotoPlace Gallery – International Juried Exhibition, Middlebury, VT.

LAND Exhibition – Invitational exhibition organized through Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder,CO

Republic Plaza curated invitational exhibition in conjunction with the Denver Month of Photography, Denver, CO

Denver Month of Photography juried exhibition – work was exhibited in Paris, France

Snap to Grid, Los Angeles Center for Digital Arts, Los Angeles, CA

2012: Museum of Outdoor Arts, Englewood, CO

dnj Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

Snap to Grid, LACDA, Los Angeles, CA

Invitational Group Exhibition – Stag & Deer, Cork, Ireland

Alternatives 2012 – Invitational Group Exhibition – New Zealand

Invitational Group Exhibition – Republic Plaza, Denver, CO

Invitational Group Exhibition – Airborne, Otis School of Art, LA, CA

iWorld! – Colorado Photographic Art Center, Lakewood, CO

iWorld! 2 – Denver Public Library Denver, CO

The Printed Surface – Aims Community College, Greeley, CO

The Veil – Gardner Gallery, Bartlett Center for the Visual Arts, Stillwater, OK

Tbilisi History Museum (Karvasla) Tbilisi, Georgia (Russia)

5×7 – dnj Gallery – Santa Monica, CA

2011: Grand Junction Arts Center-Grand Junction, CO

Haskell Gallery, Jacksonville International Airport-Jacksonville, Florida.

2010:

El Espiritu de las hermanas,Mante, Mexico

Polaroid en Peril, Mus¿e de l’Elys¿e, Lausanne – Switzerland

Selections From the Polaroid Collection, Espace Van Gogh, Arles, FRANCE

FLIGHT, Gallery 115, University of Central Missouri Gallery of Art and Design,Warrensburg, MO

2009:The Human Canvas-Center for Fine Art Photography, Ft. Collins, CO

Print Walls Gallery-University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

Alexey VonSchlippe Gallery-University of Connecticut, Avery Point, Conn.

Indiana University East Galleries, Richmond, Indiana

Drury Univerisity, Springfield, MO

2008: Soho Photo – Alternative Photography Exhibition (2^ND Place Award) New York, NY

Pocatontas Meets Hello Kitty  Richard F. Brush Art Gallery, St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York.

OUT OF TUCSON – International Invitational – Galerie Lichtblick, Koln,    Germany

BLINK Gallery – Boulder, CO

Revisioning the Middle East – Evergreen State University, Ellensburg, WA

The Veil: Visible & Invisible Spaces Dairy Center for the Arts, Boulder, CO

Visible & Invisible Spaces-University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR

Visible & Invisible Spaces-University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI

2007: WEATHER REPORT – Artists on Climate Change – Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art & National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado

2006: Khalil Sakikini Center, Ramallah, Palestine

International Center of Bethlehem, Bethlehem, Palestine

Central Arizona College Gallery, Coolidge, AZ

Soho Photo – Alternative Photography Exhibition, New York, NY

Transformations – Space 301, Mobile. Alabama

El Mirador Gallery, Tucson, AZ

Wilde Meyer Gallery, Tucson, AZ

University of North Florida Galllery, Jacksonville, FL

Memorial Hall Gallery – Chadron State College , Chadron, NE

2005: The Corcoran College of Art & Design, Washington, DC

Orfali Gallery, Amman, Jordan

Sisson Gallery, Henry Ford Community College, Dearborn, MI

Broken Telephone, Galerma de Arte Fotografico Melitsn Rodriguez., Instituto de Artes, Medellin, Colombia

View Melanie Walker’s Website.

Statement
For almost 40 years, I’ve been sailing off the beaches of Lake Michigan. As a kid and now a father with children, I’ve always loved the shore. As time has marched on, I’ve noticed the increase in plastics on the beach year after year. A few years ago, I started collecting and disposing of the plastic bits I would find. Now I collect plastic to create photogram photographs. The images depict plastic parts and pieces as underwater creatures. The pieces dramatize, for now, a fictitious state where plastics displace nature. I’ve been calling this series, “Lacus Plasticus”.   RZ

Bio
My memory of a love for photography started early on. Using my father’s Pentax Spotmatic during a family road trip to Cape Canaveral, I clearly remember taking photographs of an early rocket sitting on its launch pad. By 14, I had my own darkroom and was very fortunate to have a very good photography department in my high school. This gave me the tools to move on to Rochester Institute of Technology, where I gained a solid technical background in photographic illustration. Wishing to explore photography as fine art and art in general, I moved on to study at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where I received a BFA in photography and sculpture in 1991.

My personal pursuits in photography have not waned through the years. Though my subject matter is varied, the intensity and thought put into each project is the same. While some work has been produced as digital prints from both color negatives and digital files, most of my work is done traditionally in a personal darkroom that I’ve maintained for the last 35 years. In the same time, I’ve used many alternative processes such as kallitypes, ambrotypes, cyanotypes, and orotones in my art. My work in orotones has been included in the Getty Conservation Institute’s Research on the Conservation of Photographs project.

My work has been a part of the Museum of Contemporary Photography’s Midwest Photographers Project in Chicago and is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Art in Houston, TX. A recipient of an Illinois Art Council Fellowship and a Buhl Foundation Grant, I have also been featured in publications including Black & White Magazine, Photography Quarterly, Diffusion Magazine, Camera Arts Magazine and Photo District News, as well as many others. I am currently represented by Etherton Gallery in Tucson, AZ and Obscura Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. -RZ

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Education
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, BFA, 1991,
Concentration: Photography, Sculpture

 Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, May 1986–December 1987,
Concentration: Photographic Illustration

Collections
Capital One Corporate Art Collection, Capital One, Chicago IL, 2017
Joan Morgenstern Private Collection, Houston, TX, 2012
Museum Art Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX, 2008
Getty Conservation Institute, J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA, 2007
Collections, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2008
Richard & Ellen Sandor Family Collection, Chicago, IL, 2007
Deloitte & Touche Corporate Art Collection, Deloitte Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2006
Museum Art Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX, 2005
Midwest Photographers Project, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, 2003-05
Harris Bank Corporate Art Collection, Harris Bank, Chicago, IL, 2003
Sprint Corporate Art Collection, Sprint World Headquarters, Overland Park, KS, 2002
Multiple private collections, 1991-2019

Publication
Unconventional Photography, Diffusion Magazine Volume 10, 2019
Fotomagazine, Germany, 2017
Alternative Printing Process, Black & White Magazine, October 2016
The Hand Magazine, Issue 10, 2015
Black + White Photography, United Kingdom, 2015
The Hand Magazine, Issue 9, 2015
Fotomagazine, Germany, 2015
Unconventional Photography, Special Issue Volume #1 – Limited Edition, Diffusion Magazine, 2013
Understanding the Effect That Photographs Have on Us: Case Studies in Photographic Criticism, James R. Huginin, 2012
The Photo Review, 2012
Newspace Center for Photography, Retrospective, 2011
Unconventional Photography, Diffusion Magazine Volume 3, 2011
Photography Annual, Photo District News, May, 2007, 2008
Artist Showcase, CamerArts Magazine, March, 2007, 2008
Photography Now, Photography Quarterly #91, Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY, 2005
Spotlight Feature, Black & White Magazine, December, 2003

Grants/Awards
Third Place, Choice Awards, Center, Santa Fe, NM, 2014
Second Place, Annual Alternative Processes Competition, Soho Photo, New York, NY, 2007, 2012
Honorable Mention, Regional Exhibition, South Haven Arts Center, South Haven, MI, 2012
First Prize, The Photo Review International Photography Competition, The Photo Review, Boston MA, 2011
Illinois Arts Council Photography Fellowship Award, 2009
Featured Artist, 15th Annual Juried Show, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA, 2009
Winner, New Works Gallery Competition, Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA, 2009
Honorable Mention, Singular Image Competition, Center, Santa Fe, NM, 2009
Third Place, Annual Alternative Processes Competition, Soho Photo, New York, NY, 2009
Jurors’ Choice, Alternative Process Show, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, September, 2007
Critical Mass Top 50 Entries, Photolucida, 2006, 2007
Honorable Mention, International Photography Awards, 2004, 2007
Buhl Foundation 4th Biennial Grant, Buhl Foundation, New York, NY, 2004

Teaching/Speaking/Other
Board Member, Artist Representative, Bucktown Arts Fest, Chicago, IL 2007–present
Hosted photography camp for teens, summer 2012, 2015, 2016
Artist Lecture, Chicago Photography Center, 2005, 2011
Artist Lecture and Workshop, Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, OR, 2008
Juror: 3rd Annual Juried Photography Exhibit, Morpho Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2007
Instructor: Basic Darkroom Photography, Alternative and Historical Processes, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL, Fall 2007
A Career in Photography Workshop, Burley Elementary School, Chicago, IL, 2003, 2004, 2007
Photography Workshop, Ogden Elementary School, Chicago, IL, 2003

Recent Exhibitions
One-Of-A-Kind, Obscura Gallery, Albuquerque, NM, 2019
International Juried Exhibition, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA, 2019
Alternative Process Photography Exhibition, Image Flow Gallery, Mill Valley, CA, 2019
Light Sensitive, Art Intersection Gallery, Gilbert, AZ, 2019
Alternative Visions, Lightbox Gallery, Astoria, OR, 2019
Alternative Perspective, The Art Center, Dover, NH, 2019
Light Sensitive, Art Intersection Gallery, Gilbert, AZ, 2018
13^th Annual Alternative Process Competition, Soho Photo Gallery, New York, NY, 2017
Light Sensitive, Art Intersection Gallery, Gilbert, AZ, 2017
Remnants: On the Edge of Avant-Garde and Antiquarian Photography, Lightbox Photographic Gallery, Astoria, OR, 2016
74th Rockford Midwestern Biennial, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL, 2016
The Photography Show – Presented by AIPAD, Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY, 2016
Light Sensitive, Art Intersection Gallery, Gilbert, AZ, 2016
Photography Re-imagined, Tilt Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ, 2016
Alternative Cameras: Pinholes to Plastic, Photoplace Gallery, Middlebury, VT, 2015
Space Oddity, Wallspace Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA, 2015
11^th Annual Alternative Process Competition, Soho Photo Gallery, New York, NY, 2015
Alternative Process, Texas Photographic Society, Odessa TX, 2015
Light Sensitive, Art Intersection Gallery, Gilbert, AZ, 2015
Breaking Ground, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, 2014
The Curve Exhibition, Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM, 2014
Photo LA, The 23rd Annual International Los Angeles Photographic Art Exposition, Los Angeles, CA, 2014
Photo Objects and Small Prints, photo-eye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2013
Unconventional Photography, 15th Lishui International Photography Festival, Lishui, China, 2013
Under Glass, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA, 2013
8th Annual Alternative Processes Competition, Soho Photo, New York, NY, 2012
Regional Exhibition, South Haven Arts Center, South Haven, MI, 2012
Best of Show: The Photo Review 2011 Competition Prize Winners,
The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 2011
Solo Exhibition: Mixing it Up, Historically, Chicago Photography Center, Chicago, IL, 2011
Art Chicago, photo-eye Gallery, Chicago IL, 2010
Alternatives: Uncommon & Unconventional Processes, Minneapolis Center for Photography, Minneapolis, MN, 2010
Blue, Photoplace Gallery, Middlebury, VT, 2010
NIMBY, New Works Gallery Competition, Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA, 2009
5th Annual Alternative Processes Competition, Soho Photo, New York, NY, 2009
15th Annual Juried Show, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA, 2009
BareWalls, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2001–2009
Photo Forum Exhibition, Museum of Fine Art Houston, Houston, TX, 2008
Second Annual Mary Beth Creiger Memorial Photo Exhibition,
Around the Coyote Gallery, Chicago IL, 2008
Our Environment; the Good, Bad, and the Ugly, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2008
NIMBY, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2008
NIMBY Solo Exhibition, Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, OR, 2008
Elemental/Environmental: SPACE, New Orleans Photo Alliance, New Orleans, LA, 2008
Annual Photography Re-Imagined, Tilt Gallery, Phoenix, AZ, 2007, 2008
Found at fotofest, John Cleary Gallery, Houston, TX, 2008
Resurrection; A New Look at Old Photographic Processes, 23 Sandy Gallery, Portland, OR, 2008
Evanston + Vicinity Biennial, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL, 1994, 2002, 2008
Third Annual Alternative Processes Competition, Soho Photo Gallery, New York, NY, 2007
Member’s Exhibition, Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, WA, 2007
First Annual Mary Beth Creiger Memorial Photo Exhibition, Around the Coyote Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2007
Fotowerk 2007, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2007
Alternative Processes Exhibition, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2007
13th Annual Juried Show, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA, 2007
DIA Art Exhibition, Denver International Airport, Denver, CO, 2007
Members’ Exhibition, Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, WA, 2006
Members’ Exhibition, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2006
Black & White, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2006
NIMBY, Mars Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2006
Photo Works of the 21st Century, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2006
Positive Negative, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2006
National Competition Exhibition, Soho Photo Gallery, New York, NY, 2005
1st Annual National Juried Exhibition, Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, OR, 2005
Online Onsite, photo-eye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2005
Photo LA, photo-eye Gallery, Los Angles, CA, 2004
AAF Contemporary Art Fair, Meter Gallery, New York, NY,2004
Photo San Francisco, Lyonswier Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 2004
Serial, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2004
Curators’ Choice, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2004
Rockford Midwest Exhibition, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL, 2004
Darkroom Only, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2003
Artist’s Open, Chicago Artist Coalition, Chicago, IL, 2003
Anti-Spacesuit, The Dirty Future, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Alumni Association, Chicago, IL, 2003
Around the Coyote, Around the Coyote Arts Festival, Chicago, IL, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2003,
Curators’ Choice Award, 1999, 2001, 2003
Outside the Box, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2002
Momento Momenta, ART of the Central Coast Art Gathering, Morro Bay, CA, 2002
Unnatural Landscapes, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2002
4 Corners, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Alumni Association, Chicago, IL, 2001
Urban Archeology, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2001
In Transit, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2001
Modern Ruins, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2000
Emotional Landscape, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2000
Urban Views, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Alumni Association, Chicago, IL, 1997
Annual Show, Wilmette Arts Guild, Wilmette, IL, 1990–1997, Purchase Award, 1995, 1996
The Signature Show, John Hancock Building, Signature Lounge, Chicago, IL, 1994
18th Biennial Regional Art Competition, South Bend Regional Museum of Art, South Bend, IN, 1993
One Man Show, Izimbra, Chicago, IL, 1993
Amalgamations, Gallery 2, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Ill, 1992

Check out Ryan Zoghlin’s website

Artist Statement
Walker Pickering writes about his project: “As a child, I was fortunate to spend time with my father while he lived in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. This instilled in me a great sense of adventure, where travel has been formative to my work, and caused me to seek out the exotic among the ordinary. My long-term project, Nearly West, is a journey through the land of my childhood, re-imagining places my ancestors lived and experienced.”

Statement by Russell Lord on Nearly West
Looking intensely is an important, but strangely underrated, practice in contemporary photography. As Laughlin reminds us, it is through the act of looking intensely that we can begin to understand ourselves and the world around us. When we are very young, we do almost nothing but look. Consequently, we learn at an incredible rate in the early stages of life. As we age, learning and recognition becomes habitual, and looking becomes a cursory process. We look, we think we know, and we move on.

Walker Pickering (born 1980) is still paying very close attention to the things around him, and in his body of work, Nearly West, he draws our attention to various compelling remnants of human history: a children’s slide in a forest, a solar powered American flag light, building signage, motels, and empty parking lots. In some cases, Pickering presents a distant past (the slide is rusting and the flag light faded) in others, however, it appears that we have stumbled upon a recently—and suddenly—vacated space. All of these pictures embody a haunting and surreal sense of place and history, emphasizing the strangeness of the worlds that we create, populate, and then leave behind. Clarence John Laughlin often went out of his way to manipulate, distort, double, and stretch his subjects in order to impart a kind of psychic energy, to stress the surreal. Pickering, whose images are straight—if beautiful—transcripts of actual places, reminds us that the world is often strange enough as it is.

Russell Lord
Freeman Family Curator of Photographs
New Orleans Museum of Art

Bio
Walker Pickering (born 1980, Odessa, Texas, USA) is an American artist and photographer. Pickering was a 2018 finalist for the Prix HSBC pour la Photography, and winner of the 2013 Clarence John Laughlin Award. His work is widely exhibited both in the US and abroad, and included in private and public collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Since 2014 he has been an Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska, and he lives and works in Lincoln, NE and New York, NY.

 

Review What Will You Remember

Artist Statement
The Stata Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a monumental building, saturated with colors, that juts out in every direction. By capturing the structure in monochrome, I deconstructed this architectural work, flattened it, and transformed it into a graphical form. My aim is to pull the viewer into a surreal, disembodied space, without completely breaking from rational observation. This work was born out of a radical shift in my perception and emotion as I conducted my neuroscientific research at the Institute, where I had a direct view of the Stata Center.

As a researcher, I entered the laboratory to create theories about consciousness and to pursue truth through reasoning and scientific evidence. The longer I was at MIT, the more I came to understand the overwhelming, and unattainable, expectation to solve impossible problems and create knowledge that bends the historical arc of science. I witnessed ways that people – friends and colleagues – engaged in self-destructive behavior because of this pressure. As I honed my research skills, I grew disquieted as the secure sense of belief in rational thought and empirical evidence began to unravel. Like many others, I was left dysregulated, fragmented, and without a sense of direction. I intend for these images to represent this dis-ease.

Bio
Joshua Sariñana, PhD, took an interest in photography as his passion in the brain and mind started to develop. As he studied neuroscience at UCLA, MIT and Harvard, Sariñana began to switch his focus to the practice and theoretical study of photography.

He has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Griffin Museum of Photography, Panopticon Gallery, Aperture Gallery and has shown at the Month of Photography Los Angeles, and Photoville.
Sariñana is a two-time Critical Mass Top 200 Finalist. His work has been recognized by the Sony World Photography Awards, American Photography, and LensCulture. Sariñana has published his photography in several periodicals, including PDN, Black & White, Silvershotz, and SHOTS Magazines and has been featured on Time, CNN, and an iPhone commercial. He twice received the Council for the Arts Grant at MIT.

He has published several articles on the intersection of photography and neuroscience for PetaPixel, Don’t Take Pictures, and The Smart View. He has also given talks on neuroscience and photography at Trinity College, Dublin, Northeastern University, Flashpoint Boston, and the Griffin Museum of Photography. Sariñana currently resides in Cambridge, MA.

Statement
During her meetings with 10 centenarians from the Montérégie region, Québec, Arianne Clement became interested in the efforts that these women put into (or don’t), looking good and the many challenges that they face. She asked  them about youth, old age, feminism, sexuality, charm, appearance, love, etc. Through these portraits, Arianne questions society’s obsession with youth and beauty standards. She also seeks to give a voice to these women whose beauty is rarely acknowledged.

Bio
While working as a journalist in Nunavut, Arianne Clement began playing with photography. This experience inspired  her to do a Master’s degree in photojournalism at the University of the Arts of London, which she obtained with honors. During her numerous trips abroad, she developed a photographic style that combines both art and documentary.

From the Great North to the West Coast, the Amazon to Eastern Europe, Argentina to Ireland, her most recurrent themes are the forgotten ones, the excluded, and the marginalized.

Attracted to rough coarse and grainy textures, she is constantly on the lookout for powerful contrasts:  light and texture, past and present, but especially contrasts between the attractive and the unsavoury, serenity and calamity, the beauty of life and its cold cruelty.

For years, Arianne has been taking interest in the “invisible” people living in her community. She now devotes a big part of her art to the elderly—her approach and the expertise she has developed give her work an unrivalled depth and authenticity. She has recently participated in a number of exhibitions on senior citizens, and obtained numerous awards, grants and honors.

Website

Statement
This body of work has been made over the last twenty years and more and shows no signs of being even near finished.

I was not working specifically on a ‘project’ until this collection started to take shape of its own accord. After moving around the country several times in the last 25 years, I realized I had covered a lot of territory and it began to feel to me as though this work was forging a chaotic observation about blue highways. Colored by my interests and experiences, the work lists between sentimentality and cynicism but is ultimately skewed by raw social curiosity. Mostly, when editing, I am struck by the realization that you just can’t make this stuff up. We live in a curious place.

The title, Miss Americana, is intended to convey both the corny good feeling that comes from tourist attractions and listening to roadside prophets, from loving this place where we live… replete with nostalgia and the passage of time and seeing loved ones pass among strangers. But prefixing the ‘Miss’ in front of ‘Americana’ is an intentional effort to subvert the rose-tinted nostalgia that sogs our cultural landscape. On larger issues, we seldom agree on much of anything. No matter who you are, there are subjective and objective realities to be had and someone to tussle with if you should be so inclined. Along the highways and byways, there is no end of enterprises to amuse, confuse, educate or anger those who are willing to pull over and pay attention.

My motives are generally mixed up between the simpler impulse to make images of my friends and family and surroundings on the one hand and my opposite tendency to wrestle images into a more theatrical being in hopes of conveying specific ideas or questions on the other. The admittedly hybrid result is a visual breakdown lying somewhere between my inventions and my intentions. This is a record of one person’s thoughts and ideas, and maybe not always an honest record at that. -GS

Bio
Gordon Stettinius’ work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, his photography can be found in both private and public collections, and he is a winner of the 2009 Theresa Pollak award for Excellence in the Arts. Stettinius is represented by Robin Rice Gallery in New York and Page Bond Gallery in Richmond, Virginia. He is also an emeritus member of 1708 Gallery in Richmond, Virginia.

In 2010, Stettinius decided to start up an independent publishing company, Candela Books, which released its first fine art photography book, a monograph of photographer Gita Lenz. An exhibition of Lenz’ work opened concurrently at Gitterman Gallery in New York. In 2011, Stettinius published the fourth book, Salt & Truth. from American photographer Shelby Lee Adams. Currently, Candela is working on its third and fourth titles.

In 2011, Candela Gallery was founded opening with exhibitions to support Candela’s first book titles but quickly filling its schedule with photographers of national reputation. The gallery is located in the downtown arts district in a newly renovated building.

Stettinius is also currently teaching as an adjunct professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Website 

Article Harvard Magazine, July August 2019

Mark Feeney’s Globe Review

What Will You Remember’s Review

Statement
For over a dozen years I have gone to a place in Southern New Hampshire, in August and photographed the night. Beginning around 10pm the stars appeared: thousands of them- a sight so enchanting I stand there in silent awe. These are long exposures, 45 minutes to an hour and strange things happen: mists come and cover the lens, stars streak and moons rise and fall. No ambient light intrudes other than my flashlight or the occasional house lights. More recently I’ve gone to the Southwest where the night sky is too brilliant to imagine. Amoung the great rocks and giant saguaros, another kind of magic takes hold and once more, my handheld flash lights shape the image.

Bio

Received a BFA from Syracuse University, MA from Rutgers University, and MFA from Syracuse University (all in Visual Arts).

Painter, photographer. Writes art criticism and articles on the visual arts for arts magazines. Photography teacher for over twenty-five years at New York University.

2016
NJSCA Artist Fellowship for Works on Paper.

2015
Arthur Griffin Legacy Award, Griffin Museum,

2009
Honorable Mention in FineArts Photography Lucie Awards.

Four-time recipient of NJSCA fellowship award. Numerous one-person shows, most recently in Hunterdon Museum of Art Clinton, NJ, Medellin, Columbia, Taipei,Taiwan, Lubbock, Texas and New York City. Curated several exhibits, including ”Memory & Loss”, a five-person photo-based exhibit at the Mary Anthony Gallery in New York City. Her work is in several notable corporate, museum and private collections. Recent publications about her work include Photography’s Antiquarian Avant-Garde, by Lyle Rexer, Abrams Publishing, Light & Lens,Photography in the Digital Age, & Photographic Possibilitiesby Robert Hirsch, Focal Press as well as several other photography books. Photo Insider Magazinefeatured an interview with her about her work in their June issue 2001.

Her co-curated exhibit (with Orville Robertson) “Manifestations: Photographs of Men”, opened at the Southeast Museum of photography in 2004.

Collections include Pfizer Corporation, New York, NY, The Buhl Collection, New York, NY, Southern Alleghenies Museum, Loretto, PA, Colombo Centro Americano, Medellin,Colombia, Prudential Insurance Company, Newark,NJ, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Lawrenceville, NJ,  Taiwan Photo-Fest, Taipei, Taiwan, Nantong Museum, China, Brooklyn Museum Artist Books Collection, Newark Public Library Artist Books Collection, Philadelphia Free Public Library, PNC Corp., New Brunswick, NJ, and Provident Bank, NJ

Website

Statement

I am now privileged to be a full-time fine art photographer, having transitioned from a 40 year career in biomedical research. While the camera is my principal tool of discovery, the stages of my work have not changed. The discovery (now of light, color, and form), the development of the idea highlighted by the discovery (now in image enhancement, printing, revision, and editing), and the public presentation (now online and in galleries), remains much the same process as my previous career with many of the same rewards. I am lucky to have discovered that contemporary photography represents just as vibrant a community as does contemporary scientific research.

What is it that attracts my eye that I wish to communicate? In research, much of my work was directed at the function of cell membrane proteins. The membranes of a cell are an interface that separates its compartments, and as a result, are where all the communication to and from is focused. In discovering my photographic images, I put myself at a similar interface – the eyepiece, the lens, the monitor, the printer – and search for visual information coming and going. I have become fascinated by how the flat surface of a boat hull along its waterline – or even on a decaying plant – can hold accumulated residues, scratches, wrinkles, and scrapes that can convey the space of a landscape or seascape, or the passage of time. The patterns of wear and oxidized paint flowing from drain holes on the boat hulls have provided indisputable records of pollutants entering the sea, and offer another portal of information.

As I have searched for landscape imagery along boat hull waterlines, I have been struck by evidence of the record of water pollution. The waterline is sometimes interrupted by drains and scupper holes from which the outflow leaves traces of various corrosives, rust, and pollutants disgorged from within. The drain hole is the concentrated source of these pollutants that are diluted once they enter the sea. The color and forms introduced by the interaction of the pollutants with the boat’s bottom paint provide iconic symbols of man’s disturbance of nature, and are inescapable evidence of the downside of the sailor’s voyage upon the sea.

Bio
Richard Alan Cohen grew up in Portland and attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick where he co-majored in art and science. Having always maintained an interest in art, he has now transitioned from a 40-year career in cardiovascular research to being a full-time fine art photographer. The aspects of discovery (now of subject, light, and color in the field) as well as the imagination and creativity involved in the development of the concept of each image (now in editing and printing), are very similar in the two careers, with many of the same rewards. Richard has exhibited his photographs in numerous solo and group shows at venues including 555 Gallery, Panopticon Gallery, the Griffin Museum of Photography, Galatea Gallery, and Sohn Fine Art.

Based on his experience as a youth in and around boatyards, many recent images are derived from photographs of the sides of boat hulls sitting in their cradles. The waterline is perceived as an horizon, and imperfections and encrustations accumulated during the passing seasons provide the abstract details of imagined landscapes, perhaps those that could be seen from the boats themselves as they sailed. He has also perceived abstract landscapes in the dying fronds of agave cacti in his series, “Agave Night Visions”, and has visualized landscapes also in mossy, rotting tree stumps in “Moonlit”.

CV

Solo Shows

2018

Gallery on the Green, Canton CT “Along the Waterline”

2016

Gallery on the Green, Canton CT “Objectives of Desire: Vignettes”

SOWA First Friday Morse Editions

Galatea Gallery, Boston “Objectives of Desire”

2015

SOWA First Friday Morse Editions

2014

SOWA First Friday Morse Editions

Two-Person Juried Show

2017

“Waterlines”. Westport Free Library, sponsored by the Westport (MA) Art Group, Awarded by Karen Davis of Davis-Orton Gallery, Hudson, NY.

Five-Person Juried Shows

2018

Panopticon Gallery, Boston. First Look 2018. Six “Waterline” images selected by gallery director, Kat Kiernan.

Sohn Gallery, Lenox MA. 7th Annual Juried Show, Jurors: Ann Jon, Wayne Alpern, Jonas Dovydenas, and Susan Wissler. 4 selected images, Waterlines-3 and -11, Overboard-1 and-3.

Group Juried Shows

2018

Plymouth Center for the Arts, 8th Annual Fine Art of Photography Open Juried Exhibition, Jurors: Mark Chester, Suzanne Revy, Bob Singer, Selected Image: “Overboard-3”.

New England Collective IX juried exhibition, Juror: Marni Elyse Katz. Selected image: “Passage-Black Spruce Bog”

Griffin Museum of Photography: Photographic Abstractions, Lafayette City Gallery juried exhibition, Juror: Paula Tognarelli. Selected image: “Agave Night Vision-9”.

Gallery on the Green, 31st Annual Open Juried Exhibition, Juror: Melanie Carr. Selected image: “Passage-Sumac”

Fotofoto Gallery, Huntington, NY, 14th National Juried Competition, Juror: Charles Riley. Selected image: Waterline-11. 

2017

Gallery on the Green, Canton, CT, Artists Association, 50th Annual Open Juried Exhibition, Juror, Lisa Hayes Williams, New Britain (CT) Museum of American Art, Selected image: “Waterline-15”.

Ashton Gallery, San Diego, CA, Orange is the New Black, Juror: Jenna S. Jacobs, San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, Selected image: “Psyche”.

Griffin Museum of Photography: “The Visual Metric”, Juror, Paula Tognarelli, Lafayette Center Gallery, Selected image: “Finale”

Westport Art Group: “Treasure”, Juror, Karen Davis, 3 selected images from “Objectives of Desire: Vignettes”, awarded two-person show.

Davis-Orton Gallery: 3rd Annual Group Show, Juror, Paula Tognarelli, Selected image: “Bilge drain”.

2016

Griffin Museum of Photography: “Space” exhibition, Lafayette Center Gallery, Juror, Paula Tognarelli, Selected image: “Psyche”

Gallery on the Green, Canton, CT, Artists Association, 44th Annual Open Juried Exhibition, Selected image: “Snail Pool”

Robert Lincoln Levy Gallery, Portsmouth NH, New Hampshire Artists Association, Open Juried Exhibition, Selected image: “Frames”, Juror’s honorable mention

2015

Atelier 21 at The Rockport Art Association, Griffin Museum of Photography

2014

Atelier 21: Griffin Museum of Photography

Media coverage

2017

Don’t Take Pictures: Rule Breakers, featured Waterlines, curated by Kat Kiernan, August 30, 2017, https://goo.gl/LdmvaU

2015

aPhotoEditor, featured Ambiguity of Cityspace, curated by Jonathan Blaustein, November 6, 2015, https://goo.gl/a2xEQ3

Awards

2018

Griffin Museum of Photography: 24th Annual Juried Exhibition, Director’s Award: Paula Tognarelli, Griffin Museum Solo Show awarded June/July 2019.

International Fine Art Photography Awards, Nominee, Abstract Category: Overboard

2017

Neutral Density Awards, Honorable mention (Conceptual category): Alien Portraits

Neutral Density Awards, Honorable mention (Conceptual category): Waterlines

Neutral Density Awards, Honorable mention (Conceptual category): Overboard

2016

Neutral Density Awards, Honorable mention (Conceptual category): Objectives of Desire: Ginza

Neutral Density Awards, Honorable mention (Conceptual category): Objectives of Desire: Vignettes

2015

Neutral Density Awards, Honorable mention (Conceptual Category): Ambiguity of Cityspace,

Neutral Density Awards, Honorable mention (Conceptual Category): What the Dummies Can Tell Us

Education

Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine: Graduation with Art Minor, 1972.

Photoshop and printing training, William Morse, 2013-2017.

Atelier 21 with Meg Birnbaum at Griffin Museum of Photography, 2014.

D65 Creativity workshop with John Paul Caponigro and Seth Resnick, Cushing Maine, 2016.

Juried Memberships

Galatea Gallery, Boston. MA  2015-2017

Gallery on the Green, Canton, CT 2016-

Gallery Representation

Kingman Gallery, Deer Isle, Maine. Gallerist: Anne Page

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