Griffin Museum of Photography

S. Gayle Stevens, Disappearance

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S. Gayle Stevens has been concerned for sometime about CCD colony collapse disorder affecting hives.

Disappearance, a series of wet plate tintypes, is featured in the Atelier Gallery Under Glass at the Griffin Museum January 9 through March 2, 2014. An opening reception with the artist is January 23, 7-8:30 p.m.

Stevens’ installation will consist of a series of 200 2” x 2” square wet plate tintypes of dead bees accompanied by an actual array of 200 flower heads, each located within a 2” x 2” space.

“My intention is that in Disappearance the flowers heads will wither and die over the exhibition time period,” says Stevens. “As we lose our bee population we will lose pollination of plants and our food supply. The plates themselves are shadows of what once was; death masks of the bees. The vitrine case is like a coffin encasing what has passed.”

Ms. Stevens has worked in antiquarian photographic processes for over 15 years. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1999 and is an educator, juror, curator and active member of the photographic community. Stevens is represented by Tilt Gallery in Phoenix and is a resident of Downers Grove, Illinois.

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.

Purchase an individual tintype from Disappearance.

David Emitt Adams, Conversations with History

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Yuma resident, David Emitt Adams has been collecting discarded cans from the Arizona desert floor. Some cans are over forty years old. They are rusty and worn and speak to the passage of time.

Adams uses the reddish-brown tin can surface as a vehicle for his wet-plate collodion photographs. The deserts of the American West were once documented by Civil War photographer, Timothy O’Sullivan and the photographic process itself has its roots in the 19th century. Adams says that the objects he creates are like relics. They have a history and the images themselves are tied to the location.

“I use the [rusty cans] to speak of human involvement with the landscape,” says Adams. “The notion of land untouched by the hand of man is so foreign it might as well be make-believe. As long as people have been in the American West, we have found its barren desert landscape to be an environment perfect for dumping and forgetting.”

A series of Adams’ work, Conversations with History, is featured in the Griffin Gallery of the Griffin Museum January 9 through March 2, 2014. An opening reception is January 23, 7-8:30 p.m.

Nancy Grace Horton, Ms. Behavior

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Nancy Grace Horton intends her work to confront the viewer with their hidden preconceptions, in regard to women’s roles constructed within society.

A series of her images, Ms. Behavior, is featured at the Griffin Museum at Digital Silver Imaging, 9 Brighton St., Belmont, MA, January 9 through March 14, 2014. A reception and informal talk with the artist is January 9th from 6-8 p.m.

“My photographs are investigations of female gender roles as influenced by American culture and mass media,” says Horton. “This body of work is a 21st century extension of feminist concerns regarding the media’s portrayal of women. More specifically, I am interested in the explicit and implicit power relations that are constructed and maintained by mediatized systems of representation.”

“Horton visualizes the outcome of each of her photographs but the end result is not always as planned,” says Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum of Photography. “Horton unleashes her creative spirit to fashion very visual narratives that give the viewer much to think about and imagine,” says Tognarelli.

Kathy Ryan, Director of Photography for the “New York Times Magazine” says of Horton’s most recent series, Ms Behavior, “Horton has fun with domestic conventions by dressing up her feminist fictional scenes.”

Nancy Grace Horton holds an MFA in Visual Arts from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, and has been working as a freelance photographer and educator for over 20 years.

She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, most recently an Artists Entrepreneurial Grant from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, where she is also an “Arts in Education” artist.

Her work has been exhibited at The Danforth Museum, Worcester Art Museum, The Griffin Museum and the Marshall Store Gallery.

Ellen Feldman, The Dancer as the Invisible Girl

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Ellen Feldman has been photographing a modern dancer, Nicole Pierce for many years. In this exhibition Feldman places Pierce into frames of a Marvel Fantastic Four (FF) comic book as her alter ego Invisible Girl.

A series of Feldman’s photographs, the Dancer as the Invisible Girl, is featured in the Griffin Museum at the Stoneham Theatre in Stoneham, MA, January 16 through March 16, 2014. It runs parallel to the theater’s productions Seminar and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.

Feldman holds a Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from New York University. She is the Photography Editor of the Women’s Review of Books, a bi-monthly journal published by Wellesley College.

"Through the comic form I explore how movement is limited and fragmented by the frame,” says Feldman. “The primacy of the frame links comics to photography. Comic artists and photographers love cramming things into a frame, cutting the body off
mid-limb, or keeping lots of space around the figure."

"It’s a paradox that invisibility, generally a mark of powerlessness, is the super-human quality for the only female of the Fantastic Four," says Feldman. "As a street photographer, I well understand the paradox of power that derives from invisibility."

Feldman will informally talk about her work at the gallery opening on January 16, 2014 and her comic book will be available for sale.

Barbara Ford Doyle, Peaches and Penumbras

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Barbara Ford Doyle was inspired by her husband’s attempt to save his garden crops from freezing. Out of cutting peppers in half to make relish came the idea for “Peaches and Penumbras.”

"For my photographs in this series, I interpret the word penumbras to insinuate the secrets that nature hides within," says Barbara Ford Doyle..

All of Doyle’s photographs are photo transfers onto DASS Stone Paper, a heavy limestone and resin, waterproof substrate. Doyle applies gel solution directly to inked DASS film, similar to Polaroid emulsion transfers. The "skin" can be stretched and pushed while it is still fluid.

"Just as each of my subjects is unique by nature, each of my transfers has a peculiar characteristic," Doyle says.

Ms. Doyle is a resident of Chatham, MA. She attended the University of Massachusetts and Southern Connecticut University majoring in Art Education. A former art teacher in the Massachusetts public schools, Doyle gives workshops on contemporary photographic imaging processes. She is a member of ArtSynergies, Arts Foundation of Cape Cod, Provincetown Arts Association and Museum, Printmakers of Cape Cod, and Cotuit Center for the Arts.

Barbara Ford Doyle will be giving a workshop and talk at the Griffin Museum in February 2014.

Denyse Murphy will give a members’ talk at 6:15 PM before the exhibit opening on January 23, 2014 at 7 PM.

Denyse Murphy, Confluence

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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.

David Prifti, Drawn by Light

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In an artist statement Concord resident, David Prifti once wrote that is was his desire to explore his life through the things that shaped his life. These formative elements were his relationships, his memories, his sense of family, rites of passage, aging and death. The creative process that led to all of his photographs was indirectly a very personal journey for him.

Two years ago, David Prifti died at age fifty of pancreatic cancer. He was a dedicated and inspirational photography teacher at Concord-Carlisle High School for twenty-five years. Monika Andersson, Prifti’s widow, recalls that one of David’s famous sayings was “Do something for your art every day!” Andersson recalled Prifti as “vivacious and compassionate”, as “an irrepressible jokester”, “a crazy boisterous guru” and “always busy, and always on the move.” He also had “a quiet depth, and a deep love for life and the people in it.”

An exhibition, culled from a collection of Prifti’s photographic assemblages and wet plate collodion images, Prifti: Drawn by Light, is featured in the Main Gallery of the Griffin Museum January 9 through March 2, 2014. An opening reception is January 23, 7-8:30 p.m.

Of his photographic assemblages Prifti said, “Through the juxtaposition of images, found objects and ephemera, I create autobiographical associations that become symbolic, conveying a sense of personal history and the passage of time.” He also said, “The reusing of old materials allows me to resurrect them into a new form.”

For his wet plate collodion images, some of his first projects were of nature. “He had long been fascinated by trees, and especially those with exposed roots, showing how tenuous life’s hold on survival is,” said Monika Andersson. “He built a darkroom that he could load onto a skiff, and, wearing a set of waders I had bought him at a garage sale, would walk and canoe the river, tugging along the skiff with the darkroom, getting water’s edge access to the many trees along the Assabet river. Some of the trees were fallen; others were with their roots exposed, and gripping onto the edge of the world."

Prifti used wet plate collodion as a vehicle for portraits of his friends, students and acquaintances. He also photographed a community of people who alter their bodies.

Born in Worcester, MA. Prifti received an M.F.A. from Yale University School of Art, New
Haven, CT, and a B.F.A. from Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA. He resided and worked in Concord with his wife and two children.

A gallery talk for museum members by Denyse Murphy – whose exhibit Confluence is featured in the Atelier Gallery – is at 6:15 p.m. January 23, prior to the opening reception for all exhibits.

All photographs courtesy of the Prifti Family Estate, Gallery Naga, Boston, MA and Rice Polak Gallery, Provincetown, MA.

Jon Horvath: Stalking Michael Stipe: Another Prop to Occupy My Time

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Artist Statement

Commonly adapting systems-based strategies, my work embraces chance outcomes and sits at the intersection of new media, photography, and a performance act. Stalking Michael Stipe: Another Prop to Occupy My Time is an interactive multimedia installation detailing the accounts of a 36-hour photographic road trip through the Georgia landscape in pursuit of my one-time Rock n’ Roll idol. The project parameters were simple. When Michael emerged from his house the project began. When I lost his trail the project ended. All spaces I was led to in between became my photographic territory.

Stalking Michael Stipe is experienced in 3 parts: 30” x 35” color photographs, an interactive 35mm slide box experience referencing the research and events that brought me to Michael’s door in Athens, GA, and a performed lecture detailing the many moments of coincidence that happened along the way. This online gallery is an abbreviated reinterpretation of the original installation, integrating both research slides and the final photographic outcome into a new self-contained and nonlinear sequence. An expanded version of this project can be seen on my personal website.

Many have inquired about why I chose Michael Stipe as my subject. In short, for me, he was worth it.

Artists Bio

Jon Horvath is an artist and educator residing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He received his MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2008. Horvath’s work has been exhibited nationally in galleries including: The Print Center (Philadelphia), Macy Gallery at Columbia University (New York), Newspace Center for Photography (Portland), and The Detroit Center for Contemporary Photography. His work is currently held in the permanent collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Haggerty Museum of Art, and is included in the Midwest Photographers Project at MoCP . Horvath was a finalist for the The Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s 2009 and 2010 Mary L. Nohl Emerging Artist Fellowship. In 2011, he was named a US Flash Forward winner by The Magenta Foundation. Horvath currently teaches at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

www.jonhorvath.net

Critic’s Bio

Greer Muldowney is an artist, photography professor and independent curator based in Boston, Massachusetts. She received an undergraduate degree in Political Science and Studio Art from Clark University, and an MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She has acted as the Curator for the Desotorow Gallery in Savannah, GA and is the Regional Coordinator for the Flash Forward Festival on behalf of the Magenta Foundation. Muldowney also serves as an active member of the Board for the Griffin Museum of Photography, and currently teaches at Boston College and the New England Institute of Art.

Her work has been exhibited and published in North America, Hong Kong, Malaysia and France, and is a 2013 recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship.

Winter Solstice Member Show

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Tired of just hanging mistletoe and wreaths for the holidays? Well, come see something special on our gallery walls. The Griffin has added a members open exhibition for all its members.

All members are invited to exhibit a framed photograph at the Griffin Museum of Photography. It should be 16″ x 20″ and under in size. 2D and 3D photo based art accepted.

Sales encouraged and there is an option to donate all proceeds to the Griffin Museum!

Julia Beck Vandenoever – Sidelined

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The current economic crisis knocked on our door on October 28th, 2011. In one 24-hour period, life as we knew it came to a screeching halt when my husband and I were laid-off within hours of each other on the same day. In the morning, when I was told my longtime position in publishing had been eliminated, I froze. But when my husband texted me two hours later say he had also been cut loose, I went numb. It was on my drive home, with my personal possessions stuffed in a cardboard box beside me, that something broke. I had to pull the car over and absorb the shock. For three years, I’d been half-listening to the unemployment stories on NPR during my morning commute. And now, with one grand gesture of bad timing, I found myself with my own story of a husband and a wife who have become a part of the 13.3 million unemployed Americans.

We are a typical middle class American family: one mom, one dad, one girl, one boy, and one day. The five of us live in a one-story 1,100 square foot blue brick ranch in the foothills of Colorado. By nature an optimist, I’ve always endeavored to show the shimmer just below the surface of everything, but now I see that shimmer as a fragile illusion. Since October 28th, I have been photographing ordinary moments of family life, partly to remember, but also to document life living with the burden of worry and the struggle of two unemployed parents raising a family, while trying to remain hopeful. I’ve discovered that life does not stop with unemployment –or with children. Birthdays and holidays continue, breakfasts need to be made, laundry needs to be done, and each day we put on a brave face and try to find meaning in this experience.

In many ways, being unemployed has given me the ability to see the world differently and given me the power to bring voice to the ordinary.

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