Griffin Atelier Gallery

Brian Alterio’s successful photojournalism career was put on hold due to the advent of digital technology. As a digital pioneer Alterio helped shaped the imaging technology that we know today. After thirty years, in late 2011, Alterio roused his creative interest in photography and began again shooting botanicals in black and white in parallel to the human figure.

Alterio’s series, Human Nature, is featured in the Atelier Gallery at the Griffin Museum April 10 through June 8, 2014. An opening reception with the artist is April 10, 7-8:30 p.m.

"I observed the slow, magnificent blooming of an Amaryllis and it inspired me," says Alterio. "I was entranced by the flower’s organic beauty, but even more taken by the powerful push/pull of its form against an accidentally dark background. This fascinating journey with floral images seemed strikingly evocative of the humbling studies of the human figure by our esteemed photographic predecessors. In response, I began also to study of the human figure in conjunction with my ongo­ing studies of floral images, finding the coincidences of the human form and lines in space played against the floral images infinitely compelling."

"One could say that Alterio’s studies of the flower and human form speak to his realization of the inevitability of life’s cyclic twists and turns," says Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum of Photography. "We all look back to canvass our experiences and accomplishments. What Alterio’s photographs say to me is that eventually, women and men alike, seek out respite and sanctuary from a success-oriented life style."

Denyse Murphy utilizes light sensitized paper, plastic sheeting, cloth, string and her and her family’s bodies to produce her photographs. The interaction of all these elements yield life–sized Cyanotypes that explore the self as both a tangible and intangible presence.

This series, Confluence, is featured in the Atelier Gallery at the Griffin Museum January 9 through March 2, 2014. An opening reception with the artist is January 23, 7-8:30 p.m.

Murphy’s creative spirit and handling of the medium help her create the idea for each image. She is never really sure where the creative process will take her. The image evolves with the meeting of medium and subject.

"The bodies themselves become a ground for a kind of energetic manifestation which is echoed by the string," says Murphy. "Conversely, the work also seems to evoke feelings of loss and absence."

Murphy received her BFA in painting from Florida Atlantic University. She received her MFA from Maine College of Art. She completed the Artist’s Professional Toolbox at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA and is a resident of West Newbury, MA.

A gallery talk for museum members by Denyse Murphy will take place at 6:15 p.m. January 23, 2014, prior to the opening reception for all exhibits.

This exhibition is a direct result of a workshop for the Griffin Museum led by photographer and educator Harvey Stein. The 3-day workshop took place in June 2013 on the streets of Boston. It focused on providing each student knowledge of and experience in photographing people in a variety of ways, including on the street, indoor locations, and in the subject’s environment. The workshop also focused on creating inventive portraits that are personally based and meaningful. Stein juried the images for this exhibition from photographs submitted by workshop participants.

The Griffin Museum will be offering Harvey Stein’s 3-day Photographing People workshop again in June 2014. Watch for details on our website.

Exhibitors include: Anne Brooks, Charlotte Donaldson, Danielle Goldstein, Nancy Hurley, Margarita Mavromichalis, Trish Neumeyer, Judy Panagotopulos, Elizabeth Scully, Karen Shulman, Cynthia Tokos, Joseph Turner, and Minglun Wang.

"The elements of the burn—the mysterious luminosity, the smoke that both obscures and reveals—suggest a liminal space, a zone of ambiguity where destruction merges with renewal."

Jane Fulton Alt photographs controlled prairie burns."A controlled burn is deliberately set; its violent, destructive force reduces invasive vegetation so that native plants can continue to prosper," says Alt.

Her series of photographs, The Burn, is featured in the Atelier Gallery of the Griffin Museum October 3, 2013 through December 8, 2013. A reception with the artist is October 10, 2013 at 7pm.

In 2007, Fulton Alt began this series after witnessing her first controlled burn. She says, "I was immediately struck by the burn’s visual and expressive potential, as well as the way it evoked themes that are at the core of my photographic work."

She continues, "These images of regenerative destruction have a personal significance—I photographed my first burn at the same time my sister began a course of chemotherapy—yet they constitute a universal metaphor: the moment when life and death are not contradictory but are perceived as a single process to be embraced as a whole."

Jane Fulton Alt is a fine art photographer based in the Chicago area. Numerous awards include Photolucida’s Critical Mass Award and the Humble Arts 31 Women in Art Photography.

She has published Look and Leave: Photographs and Stories of New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward about the aftermath of Katrina in 2009. Alt’s work is in numerous permanent collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Smithsonian National Museum of American History, New Orleans Museum of Art, De Paul; Center for Photography, Woodstock.

Prior to the public reception, at 6:15 p.m., Jane Fulton Alt will give a informal gallery talk to members about her series, The Burn, featured in the Atelier Gallery of the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Kathleen Volp says exploring materials is an essential part of her art making.

It is “something I inherited from my father, a contractor who loved to incorporate unusual materials into ordinary projects and elevate ordinary materials through imaginative techniques,” she explains.

In this case, the material is a cantaloupe.

A collection of her photographs, The Melon Series, is featured in the Atelier Gallery at the Griffin Museum July 18 through September 1. An opening reception with the artist is July 18, 7-8:30 p.m.

“The physical process of splitting, binding, and healing the melons; photographing them; transferring and reworking the image allows me to explore feelings of otherness and vulnerability, but also to eventually evolve out of the introspective self and into a greater context with others,” Volp says. She often prints the photograph directly onto metal, fabric, and acrylic paint skins. Other times, the photograph is transferred by decal onto a surface such as PVC or wood. It is further altered by sewing, nailing, and taping, and worked with oil paints, graphite, and other media.

“Through this additive/subtractive process, I create a visual history of the transformation of the image and self, a dialogue between the storyline and physical elements,” Volp says.

Originally from Minneapolis, she received a bachelor’s degree from SUNY/Empire State College in New York City. She also studied with Cork Marcheschi, a kinetic and neon artist, and Siah Armajani, a conceptual artist.

Volp gives a gallery talk about her exhibit, The Melon Series, for museum members at 6:15 p.m. July 18, prior to the opening reception for all exhibits.

The catalog accompanying this  exhibition is  available for  purchase.

During a visit to the New England Aquarium in Boston several years ago, photographer John Tunney was inspired by the jellyfish exhibit.

“It was mesmerizing,” he says. “They project such a strong sense of being. It was like watching an otherworldly ballet.”

Returning to the aquarium many times, Tunney has taken hundreds of pictures of the jellyfish.

A series of his photographs, Jellyfish, is featured in the Atelier Gallery at the Griffin Museum June 13 through July 10. An opening reception with the artist is June 13, 7-8:30 p.m.

Tunney says taking the photographs is just the beginning of the process. Each image undergoes extensive editing. In some, he removes all colors, stripping the image down to black lines and gray shadings, and then selectively re-introduces color, altering the hue and saturation as needed.

The images are printed with pigment ink on 100 percent cotton rag.

“Far from traditional nature photography, the resulting pictures are expressive abstractions that not only capture the exotic beauty of these ethereal creatures, but also convey the sense of wonder that comes from observing them,” Tunney explains.

A resident of Cape Cod, he is a freelance photographer and frequent exhibitor in New England art shows. He also teaches photography classes and workshops.

Tunney gives a gallery talk about his exhibit, Jellyfish, for museum members at 6:15 p.m. June 13, prior to the opening reception for all exhibits.

When Norwegian photographer Elin Hoyland heard about two reclusive, elderly brothers living together in rural Norway she knew she wanted to collaborate with them on a project about their lives.

A series of her photographs, The Brothers, is featured in the Atelier Gallery at the Griffin Museum April 9 through June 2. An opening reception is April 11, 7-8:30 p.m.

Harald, then 75, and Mathias Ramen, 80, had always shared a house on the small farm where they were born. Neither married.

In addition to running their own farm, they had worked as loggers and carpenters on other local farms.

Harald spent one night in a hotel in Lillehammer, which he called the worst night of his life. Mathias tried working in Oslo for two months, but didn’t like it.

The brothers’ days on the farm provided a predictable and comforting routine. They cut, carried, and burned wood to heat their house. They fed wild birds in some 20 birdhouses. They listened to the radio and read the newspaper.

Harald died from as asthma attack while shoveling snow in frigid temperatures. Mathias continued to live in the house until moving to a home for the elderly.

Hoyland then went back and photographed the empty house. Mathias died in 2007.

"The brothers’ way of life has now almost entirely disappeared in modern Norway," she says.

A book of Hoyland’s work, The Brothers, was published by Dewi Lewis Publishing in the United Kingdom.

Hoyland has freelanced as a photographer for several major newspapers and her work has been exhibited in the UK, Scandinavia, France, and China.

A gallery talk for museum members by Stephan Sagmiller – whose exhibit The Clouds: Experiments in Perception is featured in the Griffin Gallery – is at 6:15 p.m. April 11, prior to the opening reception for all exhibits.

A book The Brothers by Elin Hoyland, published by www.dewilewispublishing.com with an essay by Gerry Badger will be distributed to each attendee to the exhibition reception courtesy of Statoil.

June 1, 2012 (Winchester, MA)__Christopher Chadbourne is a Boston-based photographer and storyteller intrigued with “accidental communities” comprised of strangers who momentarily and randomly occupy a common physical space.