The results are in. Arnika Dawkins has selected the Griffin’s 27th Juried Exhibition.

The exhibitors are Karen Bell, Diane Bennett, Barry Berman, Meg Birnbaum, Joan Lobis Brown, Angela C. Brown, Diana Cheren Nygren, Tash Damjanovic, Steven Edson, Carol Eisenberg, Pippi Ellison, Jo Fields, Danielle Goldstein, Carol Isaak, Jane Ivory, Jeremy Janus, Leslie Jean-Bart, Robert Johnson, Marcy Juran, Robbie Kaye, Michael King, Carolyn Knorr, Teresa Kruszewski, Nadine Levin, Mark Levinson, Calli McCaw, Ralph Mercer, Olga Merrill, Janet Milhomme, Lisa Mossel Vietze, Lake Newton, Xuan-Hui Ng, Charlotte Niel, Dale Niles, Dorothy O’Connor, Angela Ramsey, Astrid Reischwitz, Eleonora Ronconi, Rosalie Rosenthal, Ellen Royalty, Rebecca Sexton Larson, Skip Smith, Leland Smith, Larry Smukler, Vicky Stromee, Neelakantan Sunder, Joshua Tann, Tokie Taylor, JP Terlizzi, Donna Tramontozzi, Julia Vandenoever, Nina Weinberg Doran, Sandra Chen Weinstein, Joyce Wilson, Torrance York and Dianne Yudelson.

© Aline Smithson, “Fugue State, Part 2, #12,” Director’s Prize

The Director’s Prize (chosen from full submissions) is awarded to Aline Smithson. Ms. Smithson will receive a solo exhibition and an exhibition catalog for her solo exhibition. The date of her exhibition is in the Fall of 2022. The Director’s Prize photograph will be included in the 27th Juried Exhibition along with juror Arnika Dawkins’ selections.

The Juror’s awards are:
Arthur Griffin Legacy Award – Tokie Taylor
Griffin Award – Ralph Mercer
Honorable Mentions – Meg Birnbaum, Steven Edson, Danielle Goldstein, Leslie Jean-Bart, Nadine Levin, Olga Merrill, Ellen Royalty, JP Terlizzi, Donna Tramontozzi and Nina Weinberg Doran

Exhibition awards: Donna Dangott, Olga Merrill and Gail Samuelson

Member in Focus: CE Morse

Purchase Prize: Mark Levinson

The digital exhibition on computer in gallery/virtual gallery from all submissions (minus work of those photographers in the  27th Juried Exhibition) can be viewed here.

Thank you to all for sharing your work with us. Below is Arnika’s Juror’s statement.

Beauty as Refuge/Arnika Dawkins

I wish to thank Executive Director Paula Tognarelli and the Griffin Museum for inviting me to participate in their annual 27th Juried Exhibition. It is a real honor. I also wish thank all of the artists that submitted their work for consideration.

It was hard to winnow down to a select few images; however, the select few in this exhibition are a grand statement of my personal aesthetic. I am interested in photography; in fact, I love it and have a passion for it. More specifically, I am interested in fine art photography. I am captivated to know what the artist’s work conveys to me, and I am curious to know how engaged I am in a visual dialogue. This exhibition, Beauty as Refuge, is a reflection of that. I believe that the works on view expose conceptual ideas that are transformative in significant and subtle ways. This exhibition evokes calm, peace, and serenity, and beauty.

I believe that artists are dialed to a different level of sensitivity, seeing the world in ways that astonish, capturing moments of contemplation, and interested in ideas that they wish to convey. I am interested in the intention behind their capture.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; serenity is in the chaotic landscape of culture. This country and many countries around the world are in a reckoning, going through an identity crisis, the antithesis of tranquility and harmony. I am interested in fine art photography that makes me feel something, a reason to pause and reflect. A visual refuge from the current volatile times we live in, the global pandemic, and suffering. This exhibition provides a chorus of images that come together to provide the respite that we need to reflect, to consume striking beauty amid the hectic and frenetic world.

The visual dialogue that we experience by viewing these images takes us along a journey. A journey of humanity, of our place in the world, of our environment, and microcosm. If we look, we can find beauty in the unexpected and find solace in our hope in the future. It is the human condition. Beauty, strength, and acknowledgment that we were here; how we fit in the world, in the environment, and with each other.

Pensive moments that provide an opportunity to pause for reflection are what I believe the world needs now, reflecting on where we have been, the present, and the future. Imagining what it could be full of beauty and compassion firmly rooted in our uniqueness. It’s our varied past and ever-present that creates the beautiful tapestry of life, knowing that there is tension but navigating our way through to the future. Beauty surrounds us if we take a moment to stop, reflect, and take it all in, reflections that reveal who we are and  who we can be.

Beauty as a Refuge  is a place where thoughts can be considered, minds can be opened, perspectives can be changed, and hearts can be warmed. The works in this exhibition revel in an appreciation for light, simplicity, abstraction, serenity and provide a feast for the eyes. A way to immerse the viewer into a total experience!

I hope you enjoy  the view.    – AD

Curator’s Viewpoint Arnika Dawkins by What Will You Remember.

Read the review by What Will You Remember.

Read the review by Mark Feeney of the Boston Globe.

Read the “Artscope” article.