The Virtual Gallery

We are pleased to be able to showcase the creativity of our Griffin Artist Community in this online exhibition. Earlier this year, over 2,000 images were submitted from over 200 artists, and our jurors Frances Jakubek and Iaritza Menjivar selected sixty to be on the walls of the Griffin’s Main Gallery in Winchester.

After review of the work that had been submitted, Executive Director Crista Dix selected an additional 60 artists to be part of an online exhibition. All 120 selected works for the museum and online exhibition are seen in the Members Exhibition Catalog.

Artists featured here –

Golnaz Abdoli, Eliot Allen, Linda Alschuler, Robert Avakian, Gary Beeber, Bremner Benedict, Adrien Bisson, Edward Boches, Sara Jane Boyers, Krystle Brown, Joy Bush, Ronald Butler, Jo Ann Chaus, Diana Cheren-Nygren, David Comora, Pamela Connolly, Ashley Craig, Sam Deaner, Adrienne Defendi, Susan DeLeo, Yvette Marie Dostatni, Dara Durost, Carol Eisenberg, Jennifer Erbe, Maureen Haldeman, Sandy Hill, Robert Johnson, Cynthia Katz, Constance Keller, Tira Khan, Sandra Klein, Ray Koh, Anne Kornfeld, Ana Leal, Randy Matusow, Joetta Maue, Ralph Mercer, Sue Michlovitz, Xuan Yui Ng, Dale Niles, Catherine Panebianco, Hank Paper, Abby Raeder, Jason Reblando, Susan Rosenberg Jones, Stephen Sheffield, Sara Silks, Larry Smukler, Vera Sprunt, Sandra Sugawara, Tokie Taylor, JP Terlizzi, Vaune Trachtman, Donna Tramontozzi, Jacqueline Walters, Suzanne White, Jeff Wiles, Jenn Wood, Mitsu Yoshikawa

 Statement
A wonderful mentor once told me: “It is better to aim for the stars and drag your feet in the treetops than to aim for the treetops and drag your feet in the mud.” 

Aiming high and dreaming big is something I learned early on in life. 

I grew up in the midst of Communism and the Cold War. We were a tight family that lived on dreams of freedom and not much else. 

I never knew my grandfather Peter, a prominent newspaperman at the end of World War II who refused to publish propaganda for the Communists when they came into power. Shortly thereafter, he was taken from his wife and seven children by a couple of men in a black car and imprisoned for a period of years in a concentration camp for his convictions. Our family was blacklisted from that point on. 

My father was a talented artist and painter in his own right, but without party favor he could never gain admittance to the university to pursue a career, so he did autobody work and drove a taxi to keep us fed. He also painted a mural of the Beatles across the entire kitchen wall of our small studio apartment as a reminder of the West and the freedom we longed for. 

In the midst of all that poverty, oppression, and darkness, I learned that the light is always there if you learn to look for it. At times it would show up in small details like a flower growing through a crack in the cement. At times it was an ability to belly laugh at the ludicrousness of the world around us. And at those most difficult moments, it was the light from a dream for a better future. 

Following those dreams and by God’s grace, I made a number of wonderful friends throughout the world, and came to study film and photography in the USA. So many of my deepest hopes and dreams have been realized; still, I’ve learned that one cannot afford to go through life dreamless. 

Looking back on missions accomplished brings gratitude, but it is heeding the calls to face fears, overcome failure, and truly stretch ourselves and our capacities that makes life a wonderful and fulfilling adventure. 

This is the notion that inspired this project in the midst of a worldwide crisis. I believe we are most awake when immersed in our dreams. So I’ve taken a fanciful dive into the symbols and emotions of a visionary life: reaching and dancing, flying and falling, fleeing and facing, seeing and imagining, wishing and pleading. 

It’s a message that feels particularly pertinent as so much of the status quo is upended and things seem so upside-down. People the world over are sincerely looking for light and the beacon of daring dreamers. Such dramatic change also has the power to pique our senses and readies our souls to make, create, and do the kinds of things that light up our small corner of the world. 

May you awake to your dreams!  -ET

Bio
To Come

Eva Timothy’s Website.

Statement
In Nepal, and according to Hinduism, the entry into adulthood is tied to a loss of purity.  In some rural areas, menstrual women are exiled for a week, a practice known as Chhaupadi Partha. When they are on their period they are not allowed to enter their houses, visit the temples, attend festivities, cook, touch specific fruits and trees, or eat with their own family. Sometimes, they are not even allowed to look or talk to any male relative.

Every year, women die from following this tradition, bitten by animals or choked from the fumes in the small, non-ventilated huts they stay in during their periods. Although Chhaupadi Partha has existed for decades, Nepali society is trying to change. In August 2017, for the first time in history, the country criminalized the isolation of the menstrual women with a three-month jail sentence or a 3,000 rupee fine ($30), or both, for anyone that forces a woman to follow the custom.

In Kathmandu, a new generation of young people is reinventing traditions, making them their own. Some people from rural areas have started to question these practices and became activists, and a growing number of them lead organizations and are empowering young girls in rural areas and teaching them about hygiene. Some villages are already liberated from the practice. Last May 2018, Menstrual Hygiene Day was celebrated the first time in Kathmandu with the theme ‘Education about menstruation changes everything’. “Since I was a kid I have it clear, I was not going to go to the hut to sleep as my mother and sisters,” says Radha Paudel, a Menstrual Activist of Nepal and an author. “I’m sure the solution is in the education and in the younger minds, and that step by step we’re going to achieve what we are dreaming of”.

Bio
Maria Contreras Coll is a documentary photographer based in Barcelona, Spain.

View Maria Contreras Coll’s website.

Statement
The preface to Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray is a series of aphorisms about art and beauty, including the declaration that “all art is at once surface and symbol.” If all art is at once surface and symbol, I create symbolic surfaces. Through the use of photo-collage, still life, and re-photography, my pictures collapse figure and ground into surface. Drawing from a range of references – my personal life, literature, art, pop culture – and cultural signifiers, these surfaces are loaded with symbols. The viewer is invited to decode these symbols, or at least to try. The symbols in my images often function as homages to the people and things that I love or admire: LGBTQ-identified creative figures, gay icons, and personal relationships. In one instance, this manifests as a room constructed of cyanotypes inspired by John Dugdale; in another, a grisaille room winks to George Platt Lynes’ black-and-white male nudes that remained hidden until after his death; rose wallpaper hints at the titular setting of James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. This series of homages is held together by an aesthetic that strips away any sense of hierarchy among cultural signifiers. In my fabricated spaces, there is no distinction between highbrow and lowbrow, personal or famous, historical or contemporary. The resulting photographs are layered, symbolic works that simultaneously speak to contemporary art and culture, while questioning classic ideas of taste, sensuality, and beauty.

Project Statement
As this project has progressed, my studio constructions have grown more elaborate: I have been creating photographic “rooms.” This began with Blue Room (2019), constructed from re-photographed cyanotypes in homage to John Dugdale. Another photograph, titled Rose Room (2019), was loosely inspired by the haunting descriptions of the titular setting of James Baldwin’s novel Giovanni’s Room. Yet another (Grey Room [2019]) winks to George Platt Lynes’ black-and-white male nudes, which remained largely hidden until after his death. These rooms play with classic tropes of beauty and decor while also layering in various personal and cultural references.

Bio
b. 1994   —   Dylan Everett (b. 1994 in New Jersey) is an artist/photographer working with still life and photo collage. He received an MFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2019, and a BA in Visual Art from Brown University in 2016. In 2020 he was a recipient of the West Collection LIFTS Grant and Acquisition Award; he was previously awarded the Digital Silver Imaging Portfolio Prize in 2018, and was named second place for the 2019 Lenscratch Student Prize.

CV
Education
2019 MFA, Photography, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

2016 BA, Visual Art, Brown University, Providence, RI

Exhibitions
2021 Photography is Dead – Candela Gallery, Richmond, VA

2020 Fear Environmental Mayhem Ahead – The Icebox Project Space, Philadelphia, PA

2019 The Curated Fridge Autumn 2019 Show – The Curated Fridge, Somerville, MA

In Close Range – ClampArt, New York, NY

Graduate Thesis Exhibition – Rhode Island Convention Center, Providence, RI

2018 New Photography – Sol Koffler Gallery, Providence, RI

2017 Photography Triennial – Woods Gerry Gallery, Providence, RI

2016 2nd PULP Showcase – FotoFilmic, Bowen Island, BC, Canada

Vanitas – LoosenArt LAB-A, Cagliari, Italy

Performing Decay – The Open Aperture Gallery, Newport, RI

Spring Arts Festival – Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, Providence, RI

36th Annual Juried Student Exhibition – David Winton Bell Gallery, Providence, RI

2015 Accretion/Avulsion (solo) – Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, Providence, RI

35th Annual Juried Student Exhibition – David Winton Bell Gallery, Providence, RI

2013 Rising Waters 2.0: More Photographs of Sandy – Museum of the City of New York, NY

Grants/Awards
2020 LIFTS Grant and Acquisition Award – West Collection

2019 Lenscratch Student Prize, Second Place

2018 DSI Portfolio Award – Digital Silver Imaging

Graduate Student Project Grant – Rhode Island School of Design

Graduate Fellowship – Rhode Island School of Design

2017 Graduate Fellowship – Rhode Island School of Design

2016 Seventh Annual Manifest Prize Semi-Finalist – Manifest Gallery

Minnie Helen Hicks Award for Excellence in Visual Arts – Brown University

Round 4 Juried Showcase Winner – ArtSlant

Acquisition Award Shortlist – The Annex Collection

Marlene Malik Award – Brown University

Julie Sloane Memorial Fund Award – Brown University

Creative Arts Council Grant – Brown University

2015 Creative Arts Council Grant – Brown University

Publications and Press
2021 Photography is Dead, Candela Gallery

“LIFTS Recipient: Dylan Everett,” West Collection

“Portfolio Feature: Dylan Everett,” Float Magazine

“Dylan Everett,” Yolanda Josef  Projects

2019 “2019 Lenscratch Student Prize: Second Place,” Lenscratch

2018 Manifest Exhibition Annual, Season 13 – Manifest Gallery, v.1 – Rhode Island School of Design

View Dylan Everett’s Website

Bio
Logan Bellew is a photographer and installation-focused artist based between Brooklyn, New York and Nicosia, Cyprus. The practice of conserving artifacts, stories, and histories form the conceptual core of his work and uses investigative ideologies and autobiographical experiences to develop the deep personal narrative that concerns his work to this day. He is also an active volunteer with the AIDS Solidarity Movement of Cyprus where he was a representative for AIDS Action Europe and helps facilitate island-wide HIV education, public speaking, testing, and outreach campaigns. Logan is currently working to document the experience of volunteering in medical research before and in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Project Statement
During this past summer I was feeling a bit detached from photographing myself. This was a result of social unrest and the pandemic. In June, I went back home to Alabama for a couple of months to be with family. I spent a lot of time between my Grandmother and my Mom’s home, both of whom I am very close with. We went through photo albums together and loose images hanging around in tubs. It took weeks to go through hundreds of photos from the late 19th century to present. By the time I finished, I winded up scanning over 800 images. I had become very attached to the language of the archive and what it could say about the people in the images. I found it beautiful to see how my family depicted themselves. I enjoyed the conversations with my Nanny and Mom about them all. Yet, this moment was the catalyst to me questioning the stakes when we do not have the power to speak for ourselves.

Statement
While in the throes of grief I sought to visually express what was so difficult for others to hear. I had suffered a traumatic loss.  In addition to grief, I was experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which resulted in severe brain disfunction. My brain simply could not make sense of my new reality, I was unable to make cognitive connections or problem solve at even a base level. Feeling trapped and in a continual state of transition, I was caught between the life I once had and the one I hoped to live. ‘Between Two Worlds’ was created to visually express this experience, the devastating effects of grief and trauma. 

I wanted a way to depict that ambiguous void, the space that lacks clarity or form. As I worked through my creative process with limited abilities, I discovered a minimal color palette and layers of reflected light would illustrate the language of the subconscious. I developed a specific method of intertwining elements digitally to portray the depth of the emotional experience.

Grief and trauma affect nearly everyone, yet collectively we haven’t learned to tell the truth about our pain. My personal experience brought about a keen awareness. There is an acute lack of understanding, of how to support and help those in crisis in our society. ’Between Two Worlds’ is intended to act as a catalyst for conversation, a prompt to tell our stories, to foster the courage to do so in the face of what cannot be transformed.

Bio
Karen Olson is an artist working in photography, a graphic designer, and a writer. Her work illustrates the language of the subconscious; human emotion with all its intricacies and complexities. She feels strongly that it is our strength to express the deepest part of ourselves, to validate and honor the pain we carry in our hearts. She has been featured in many galleries and shows throughout the US such as the Torpedo Art Center – Target Gallery, the Rhode Island Center for Photography, and the Griffin Museum of Photography. She won honorable mention in the 2020 Maine Photography Show for her image, ‘Grit.’ Karen has also been featured in several online and print magazines including The Hand, Artful Blogging, and Bella Grace.

Karen Olson has been a working Maine artist for over 30 years and has studied with both local and visiting artists and photographers at Maine Media Workshops and College and other venues both in the US and abroad. She is an active part of the Midcoast Maine art scene having worked as executive director and instructor for the Art Loft, a community arts center in Rockland, Maine. She created and wrote two arts-related blogs over five years, one for Bangor Daily News, the other a blog discussing the creative process. She is an avid student of creativity, specifically working to understand the neuropsychology behind the creative process and how it benefits our mental and emotional health.

Recent projects include ‘Between Two Worlds,’ which exists as a series and book of poetry, text, and imagery designed to act as a companion for those who suffer grief and trauma. Another project, “Wildheart,’ is a series of images depicting the multisensory experience and healing properties of forest bathing. Karen is currently working on a project entitled ‘Empathy,’ which employs both photography and photo-based mixed media. The project centers around the concept of attentive self-empathy and cognitive empathy for others. 

CV

View Karen Olson’s Website.