Resonances
Drawn from 150 years of photographic works, this exhibition groups images that have a sympathetic relationship, sometimes as simple as subject matter or formal issues, which amplify, reveal, and resonate with each other, enriching the experience and, perhaps, offering insight.
Resonances includes photographs by Aaron Siskind, Harry Callahan, Nicholas Nixon, Andrew Young, Martin Schoeller, Greg Kahn, James Nasmyth, Wendy Snyder MacNeil, Harold Edgerton, Susan Derges, and others.
Brett Angell
Vengeance
Brett Angell is a Boston area-based artist who has lived on the East Coast for the last seventeen years. He received his MFA in Painting from the University of Wisconsin where he was able to study with the noted landscape painter Tom Uttech. Uttech's moody settings, sly humor and exquisite composition are continued inspirations in Angell's current series of collage works.
My current work continues in the world of mermaids, sailing ships and the sea. I am intentionally looking back to a time when it was easier for people to believe in the unknown, magic and myth. It is on this stage that I set the mermaid character and her life. While the characters may be fanciful they also touch on many of the characteristics that make us human: humor, sadness, power, failure, elegance, flaws and vulnerability. There are also implied story lines left intentionally vague so that there is room for a viewer's personal involvement.
My love of Dutch painting, composition and Vermeer are all celebrated in this body of work. By altering Vermeer's famous interiors I hope to challenge perceptions of what is remembered, what is original and what is fabricated. I am also very interested in how images are designed, how the viewer's looking can be influenced. Like a director I influence how an image unfolds and how it's meaning is revealed through the composition.
Elements of collage, painting and design are combined to make a cohesive image. The paint mimics Vermeer, Ingres or photographs from fashion magazines. The paint becomes the altering and unifying factor bridging the gap between the materials. It is this centuries old art that transmits the message; everything is meticulously handmade and constructed including the outfitting of antique boxes that house the paintings. There is no Photoshop or computer aided techniques in the work, only hand painting and construction. - Brett Angell.
While he started his career focusing on painting, Angell has dedicated the past several years to developing and innovating his approach to collage work. Angell's nautical cigar and vintage box collages and witty cigarette box collages are manifestations of his observations of human nature and relationships.
Angell's work is in the collections of the Sioux City Art Center and the Springfield Art Museum as well as many private collections and most notably in the collections of many artists. Angell has worked in art museums for his entire adult life and this special access to museum collections has influenced his body of work.
S. Gayle Stevens
Wideness
S. Gayle Stevens has worked in antiquarian photographic processes for over fifteen years. Her chosen medium is wet plate collodion for its fluidity and individuality. She exhibits extensively across the United States, United Kingdom, the Netherlands and China. Ms. Stevens received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1999. She is an educator, speaker, juror, curator and an active member of the photographic community.
Named one of the Critical Mass Top Fifty Photographers for 2010, she received second place in the Lens Culture International Exposure Awards in 2011 and was named a finalist for the Clarence John Laughlin Award in 2012. Her work has been featured in Fraction, Square, Shots, Diffusion, B + W Photography, South by Southeast and Fuzion magazines and in the recently published book Inventing Reality, New Orleans Visionary Photography. North Light Press published a book of Stevens' work, Calligraphy, in their 11 + 1 Signature series. Christopher James will feature her work in the third edition of The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes.
Stevens' work is widely collected and is part of the permanent collection of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Rockford Museum of Art and the Center for Fine Art Photography and recently the University of New Mexico Art Museum, New Orleans Museum of Art, among others. A member of the Posse photo collective, she divides her time shooting in Pass Christian, Mississippi and Downers Grove, Illinois, where she resides.