Griffin Main Gallery

From Lead into Gold: The World of Victor Raphael
Victor Raphael
Sept 22, 2011 – December 4, 2011
Opening reception September 22, 2011
Gallery talk with Victor Raphael
Friday, Sept 23rd 7 PM

Ernest C. Withers
Pictures Tell the Story
From the Decaneas Archive
January 5– March 1, 2012
Opening reception January 12, 2012
Members Gallery talk 6:15 Susan Berger
Public opening 7 PM – 8:30 PM

Photography Atelier 15 at the Griffin
March 7, 2012 to March 25, 2012
Opening reception March 8, 2012 7 PM – 8:30 PM
Person Persona talk March 18 3 PM

PhotoSynthesis VII
June 7 – July 8, 2012
Opening reception on Wednesday, June 13, 2012, 7 PM – 8:30 PM
Members Gallery talk 6:15 PM with Christopher Chadbourne

18th Juried Exhibition
Juror – Paul Kopeikin of Kopeikin Gallery, Culver City, CA
July 19, 2012 – September 2, 2012
Opening reception July 19, 2012 7 PM
Members Gallery Talk with Alysia Macaulay 6:15 PM

Lynn Goldsmith
The Looking Glass
September 27, 2012 – December 23, 2012
Opening reception September 27, 2012 7 PM – 8:30
Members talk with Jess T. Dugan Sept 27, 6:15 PM
Lynn Goldsmith talk Friday September 28 7 PM

On January 12, 2016, the Griffin Museum opens with “Beyond the Forest,” an exhibition of photographs by Loli Kantor. This exhibition is shown under the overarching idea of “Legacy. Migration. Memory.”. Two solo exhibits by Loli Kantor and Rosemarie Zens will be featured in the Main Gallery of the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA. Rosemarie Zens’ body of work is called “The Sea Remembers.”

Larry Volk, in the Atelier Gallery at the Griffin, will exhibit “A Story of Rose’s” and Priya Kambli, will exhibit “Kitchen Gods” in the Griffin Gallery. These two artists are also exhibiting work under the “Legacy, Migration. Memory.” umbrella.

“Beyond the Forest” and “The Sea Remembers” will showcase at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA from January 12 – March 5, 2017. An opening reception takes place on Saturday, January 14, 2017, 7 – 8:30 p.m.

Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum of Photography, says of the exhibitions, “The backdrop of family history and its memories inform identity. Through photographs the artists of “Legacy. Migration. Memory.” share familial resettlement stories. Customs, culture and the individual journeys vary but at heart, the passage to the present is all rooted in legacy.”

Berlin-based photographer, Rosemarie Zens was born in Bad Polzin in Pomerania in 1944, which now with Stalin redrawn borders is called Połczyn-Zdrój, Poland. The name Pomerania is derived from the Slavic word “po more” meaning “land at the sea.”

In March 1945 after World War II, due to a forced exile of all ethnic German inhabitants and the impending arrival of the Russian Army in Pomerania, Zens family zigzagged westward towards Berlin as refugees. Rosemarie’s mother carried her in her arms on horseback. Many succumbed to a frozen death or other dangers on this westerly trek towards their ethnic roots that wasn’t home.

After the Berlin wall fell in 1989, Zens’ mother wrote of her escape from Bad Polzin to Berlin. After translating the journal of her mother’s recollections, Rosemarie Zens decided to retrace those steps that she and her mother took many years ago. She made several journeys.

Zens had many questions about her journey. She asks, “What do images look like that stem from very early impressions, from memories that rise up from deep within, from that place that is at once forming and at the same time giving rise to the well of memories, that were long forgotten? In addition she asks, “Why do I avoid certain places or look beyond them, while other places call out to me?” Zens takes note that, “Images of longing push to the forefront, concealing something incomprehensible, trying to superimpose themselves over a mother’s grief, something the child has always experienced as a void, as a feeling occupied by something unspoken.”

In his review on the book, George Slade, a writer on photography, associated a quote by author W.G. Sebald with Zens’ “The Sea Remembers”. The quote begins, “Going home is not necessarily a wonderful experience. It always comes with a sense of loss, and makes you so conscious of the inexorable passage of time. If you’re based in two places, on a bad day you see only the disadvantages everywhere. On a bad day, returning to Germany brings back all kinds of spectres from the past.”
Photographer Rosemarie Zens is also a poet and essayist. She received her PhD in Modern German Literature at the University of Munich and pursued additional psychoanalytic training in Zurich. She attended the Neue Schule für Fotografie in Berlin. Her work has been represented in photo magazines, at several exhibitions, and in photo books. Her poetry, essays as well as scientific writings have been published in literary magazines, individual volumes and audio-CDs. She has produced five books. Her book “The Sea Remembers: Landscape and History“ was printed in English and German by Kehrer Verlag (Heidelberg) in 2015. It is available in our gift shop and online.

For the fourth year, The Griffin Museum has invited all of its current members to exhibit in the Winter Solstice Exhibition. From across the world, artists entered one piece to be on display for December 2016. Over 140 photographs are represented in the Main Gallery of the Griffin and display a spectrum of genres and processes. The opening reception is Thursday, December 8, 2016 from 6-8pm. Sales are encouraged and many artists have donated the proceeds back to the Griffin.

On October 6, 2016, the Griffin Museum opens with “Zindagi,” which in its essence is shown under the overarching idea of a celebration of daily life in India and its legacy. The exhibit will feature solo exhibits and 3 videos by five photographers in the Main Gallery of the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA.
The artists are Manjari Sharma, Priya Kambli, Dan Eckstein, Quintavius Oliver and Raj Mayukh Dam.

“Zindagi” will showcase in the Main Gallery of the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA from October 6 – November 27, 2016. An opening reception takes place on October 6, 2016, 7 – 8:30 p.m. From 3 – 7 PM on October 6 there will be artists’ talks.

Octavius Oliver gallery talk/walk at 3 PM
Dan Eckstein gallery talk/walk at 4 PM
Priya Kambli gallery talk/walk at 5 PM
Manjari Sharma gallery talk/walk at 6 PM

Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum of Photography, says “We do not promise that we will cover all aspects of daily life in India in this exhibition, but we hope that these 5 artists will whet the public’s curiosity for cultural legacy and future exploration.”

Manjari Sharma will be exhibiting 9 large pieces from her “Darshan” series. Ms. Sharma is represented by ClampArt Gallery in New York City. New York based Sharma says of her work that, “Darshan is a series consisting of photographically recreated, classical images of Hindu Gods and Goddesses that are pivotal to mythological stories in Hinduism.” She goes on to say that, “having left a ritual-driven community in India, my move to the U.S. precipitated an enormous cultural shift. It was this cultural paralysis that motivated me to use my one medium of worship–the camera–to study, construct and deconstruct the mythologies of my land.”

Priya Kambli will be exhibiting from her “Color Falls Down” series. Missouri artist, Ms. Kambli is represented by Wallspace Gallery in Santa Barbara California. Says Kambli, “My photographs, which are rooted in my fascination with my parents, visually express the notion of transience and split cultural identity caused by the act of migration. In Color Falls Down these issues are seen through the lens of my own personal history and cultural identity.”

Excerpts from Dan Eckstein’s “Horn Please” will be on view. “Horn Please,” says California artist Eckstein, “could be considered the mantra of the Indian highway, and some version of the phrase is written on the back of practically every truck on the road in India today.” Eckstein’s exhibit features the brightly decorated trucks that ply India’s country’s roads and the men who drive them.

Photographer Quintavius Oliver is exhibiting pieces from his “Love Made Me Do It” series. This project began from a deep desire to leave his Atlanta neighborhood where he felt he was going nowhere. This series is an example of what it meant for him to throw himself head first from home and into the unknown of India.

In addition Raj Mayukh Dam will be exhibiting 3 videos on daily life in India. The three videos feature the people of Sundarban, the last ritual of “Antyesti “and the Festival of Color of Life called “Holi.”