On October 11, 2017, the Griffin Museum opens with “Gray Matters,” an exhibition of photographs by Marina Font, Francie Bishop Good, Sandra Klein, J. Fredric May, Liz Steketee and Colleen Woolpert. This exhibition is shown under the overarching title called “Gray Matters” and opens during FlashPoint Boston. Six solo exhibits will be featured in the Main Gallery, Atelier Gallery and the Griffin Gallery of the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA.

J. Fredric May, in the Atelier Gallery at the Griffin, will exhibit “Apparition: Postcards from Eye See You” and Liz Steketee, will exhibit “Sewn” in the Griffin Gallery. Francie Bishop Good exhibits “Comus,” Marina Font’s exhibit is called “Mental Maps, Colleen Woolpert exhibits pieces from her series “Persistence of Vision” and Sandra Klein exhibits photographs from her “Noisy Brain” series.

“Gray Matters” will showcase at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA from October 11 – December 3, 2017. An opening reception takes place on Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 7 – 8:30 p.m. There will be a gallery walk with the artists at 5:45 PM on October 11, 2017.  In SoWa Boston for FlashPoint Boston through January three 48″x48″ sidewalk color vinyls will be on view featuring Francie Bishop Good, Sandra Klein and Marina Font photographs.

“Assembling the “Gray Matters” exhibition came out of a personal realization that none of us escape the aging process,” says Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum of Photography. “As an aging female and as the daughter of a parent with dementia, I’ve had first hand experience of how our culture regards its elderly. I wanted an exhibition that started conversations on the value of elders coupled with a focus on how the brain influences a quality of life. Gray matter includes the regions of the brain that are the nuts and bolts of muscle control, memory, speech, perception, hearing and emotions.”

In “Noisy Brain,” Sandra Klein examines her 21^st century brain that is constantly analyzing the world around her. She also hopes to understand the universal mind. She says, “As I watch my mother experience dementia, I am stunned by the changes in the aging brain.  In creating a narrative that focuses on layers of thinking, I ponder the noises that are yet to come.”

Sandra Klein was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey and received a BFA from Tyler School of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, PA and an MA in printmaking from San Diego State University. After working as a teacher, her art focus moved from printmaking into mixed media and fine art photography. Her practice involves conceptual imagery that explores memory and personal narratives. Her layered, often three dimensional photographs have been shown across the United States in venues such as the Center of Fine Art Photography in Colorado, Candela Gallery in Virginia, A Smith Gallery in Texas, Tilt Gallery in Arizona, Southeast Center of Photography in North Carolina, and Building Bridges, Arena 1 Gallery and the Los Angeles Center of Photography in Los Angeles. Her work has been featured on Lenscratch, A Photo Editor, Musee Magazine, What Will You Remember, and in Diffusion magazine, and is held in public collections. She will be in a four-person show at the California Museum of Art, Thousand Oaks in September 2017. She lives and works in Los Angeles.

Marina Font couples exploration of the human mind with female identity. Using metaphoric means she considers the biologic, psychological and social aspects of the female body and the intersections of these planes. She says, “With this series, I aim to approach what lies beyond control and reason, exploring, through the act of drawing with thread, embroidery, fabric and appropriated crochet pieces onto the photographic surface, the intricate mysteries of the psyche. Through these works I intend to shed imaginary light on the female experience in order to build idealized and fantastical connections to the forces of the unconscious.”

Born and raised in Argentina, Marina Font studied design at the Escuela de Artes Visuales Martin Malharro, Mar del Plata, Argentina. In the summer of 1998 she studied photography at Speos Ecole de la Photogrphie in Paris, followed by completing her MFA in Photography at Barry University, Miami in 2009. For the past ten years she’s has been working on photo-based works that explore issues of identity, gender, territory, language and the forces of the unconscious. Her work is held in several collections including the MDC Museum of Art + Design, Miami, The Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami, The Boca Raton Museum of Art, The Girls’ Club Collection, Fort Lauderdale, The Bunnen Collection, Atlanta, FoLA, Fototeca Latinoamericana de Fotografia, Buenos Aires, Argentina and various important private collections around the world.

She has exhibited in numerous one-person and group shows in galleries, cultural institutions and museums including The Boca Raton Museum of Art (with RPM Projects), The Consulate General of Argentina in New York, The Deering Estate at Cutler, Miami The Appleton Museum, The Museum of Florida Art, The Nova South Eastern University, The Baker Museum, The Art Center South Florida and the Andy Gato Gallery at Barry University to name a few. She just had her fourth solo show at the Dina Mitrani Gallery, Miami. She lives and works in Miami Beach, Florida since 1997 and is represented by the Dina Mitrani Gallery.

Francie Bishop Good uses “a staccato of media” to create “a hybrid form of portraiture.” She begins with images from her mother’s and her yearbooks. She and her mother went to the same high school in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The artist says, “I cross-pollinate painting, photography, drawing, and collage with digital layering. The source material of photographs from yearbooks is something very personal yet universal. I am transforming the imagined. “Comus” was and still is the title of the yearbooks from Allentown High School.”

Born in Bethlehem, PA, Good lives and works in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Her work has been exhibited throughout the US, Europe and Latin America and is included in public and private collections in the US. Her work has appeared in publications, including The Miami Herald, Art in America, and ARTnews, among others. She is represented by David Castillo Gallery in Miami, FL. Francie Bishop Good did her undergraduate work at Philadelphia College of Art, received her BFA at the University of Boulder and her Masters at Florida Atlantic College.

In 2012 J. Fredric May experienced an aortic aneurysm. His sight was irreversibly altered losing 46% of his vision rendering him legally blind. His limited vision did not stop him from producing artwork. Independent curator J. Sybylla Smith says that May’s photographs are “a hybrid of analog and digital processes that are the result of his explorations.” Additionally she says, “May begins with vintage portraits which he scans and puts through data corruption software. He then creates layered composites and prints these as cyanotypes. He bleaches and tones his cyanotypes with a mixture of photo chemicals and tea. Ultimately, he digitizes the altered cyanotypes and creates an archival pigment print.”

Fredric May is a former photojournalist and filmmaker who has traveled all over the world, telling visual stories with a signature style of bold color and confrontational composition. He resides in Palm Springs, CA with his wife.

Liz Steketee uses family photographs to speak on identity and truth telling. She deconstructs, cuts and rebuilds photographs into personas with newly conceived histories, narratives and characteristics. Memories and truth become distorted with her use of threads, everyday moments from her life, photomontage and juxtaposition. She says of her work, “I break the rules of traditional photography by mixing elements and materials that do not necessarily belong together. I allow subjects to express emotions or information long repressed, causing a shift in expectations. Finally, I explore the traditions of sewing and photography colliding and establishing new ground. This work carries subtexts for me such as, the notion of truth in photography, the connection between photographs and memories, and the visual history and impact of the tradition of portraiture.”

A resident of San Francisco, Stekette lives with her husband and two children. She maintains her own art practice and teaches at the San Francisco Art Institute where she graduated with an MFA and received the prestigious John Collier Award. In 2011, Nazraeli Press published Steketee’s work in a One Picture Book, Dystopia.

Colleen Woolpert’s “Persistence of Vision” includes photography, video, and interactive objects and installations that explore how we visualize the unseen and navigate the unknown. The Griffin Museum chose to highlight three artworks from this series.

Colleen Woolpert is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, photo educator, and stereograph specialist based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She creates still and moving images as well as interactive objects and installations that explore the nuances of vision—from visual perception itself to abstract concepts like imagination, wonder, and doubt.

Recipient of both an Individual Artist Grant and a Community Arts Grant from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), other recognition includes Juror’s Selection from Darren Ching (Klomching Gallery) in Same But Different at the New York Center for Photographic Art and a Top Knots Award from Photo District News. Her work has been curated into exhibitions at the Griffin Museum of Photography, Humble Arts Foundation, Dumbo Arts Center, and Light Work, among other venues, and her editorial photographs have appeared in many publications including The New York Times, Bicycling, Martha Stewart Weddings, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Colleen received her MFA from Syracuse University and BA from Western Michigan University, where she currently teaches in the Photography and Intermedia Department.