Exhibition overview: Traces at PAAM

It's always wonderful when photographers are not only great artists, but great people too. I was delighted to show Dan Ranalli's work in the 2004 PRC exhibition, Concerning the Spiritual in Photography. Since I am also a huge fan of his other series, I was excited when Dan asked me to curate a solo show of his work for the Provincetown Art Association and Museum.

For this exhibition, I wanted to focus on Dan's wonderful environmental work and, in particular, feature work that was created on the Cape. The gallery itself became a site-specific offering (and for two pieces, Dan wrote the accompanying text directly on the walls). The result was Traces: Daniel Ranalli, Cape Work 1987-2007 (October 15, 2010 - January 16, 2011). All told, the exhibition took about a year to plan and also included the organizing and writing of a catalog to accompany the show. The experience was great and the exhibition was very well received. The show received excellent press: Cate McQuaid penned a super review for the Boston Globe and Dan was interviewed for BU Today as well as Art New England.

The opening weekend couldn't have been more perfect. Dan and Tabitha (also an amazing person and artist) graciously let us stay with them at their beautiful place in Wellfleet. The opening was well attended and I met many fascinating people. At an afterparty, the good conversations continued and we were able to celebrate Liz Unterman's birthday as well. The next day, we went for a hike and explored a gorgeous beach in the clear, bright October sun. The Cape is delightful in the fall!

Above and below are installation shots of the gallery. Overall, I am thrilled with the quiet, meditative space we created and how it all turned out!

Click on the above image, then click again, for a closer view

Off to repeat & return over the pond

I'm leaving on a jet plane...

I am honored to be giving a paper at the "Repeats and Returns in Photography" conference at the University of Plymouth. It is sponsored and organized by their amazing Land/Water & The Visual Arts department, where Liz Wells and Jem Southam teach. I will be speaking on two PRC exhibitions, New England Survey and Keeping Time.

See below or here for information. Wish me luck!

The Framing Time and Place conference will address a number of research issues relating to capacities of photography as systematically generating narratives of stasis and change in relation to land and environment.

Featured Speakers:

Mark Klett (Regents Professor of Photography and Director of the Third View project, Arizona State University. Publications include: Second View: the rephotographic survey project (with Ellen Manchester, 1984); Third Views, Second Sights (2004); Yosemite in Time (2005); After the Ruins, 1996 and 2006: rephotographing the San Francisco earthquake and fire (2006).

James Ryan (School of Geography, University of Exeter (Cornwall Campus), Publications include Picturing Empire: photography and the visualization of the British Empire (1997) and Picturing Place: photography and the geographical imagination (with Joan M. Schwartz, 2003).

Themes will include:

• Investigation of photographic methodologies central to re-photography
• Situation of re-photographic explorations within broader socio-historical, geographic, scientific and technological contexts
• Critical consideration of ‘space’ and ‘time’ as concepts informing photographic repeats and returns
• Analysis of the relation of photographic ways of seeing and processes to the construction of specificity and distinctiveness of place
• Interrogation of processes of interpretation, including address to histories implied, and to theories of the production of (photographic) meaning
• Critical appraisal of the limitations of photo-imagery in the construction of landscape fictions

PRC show Syntax in Boston Phoenix

Check out this great preview of the next show, Syntax, at the PRC! Click here or above to read the preview. Learn more about the art and artists here.

The gallery will be open March 26th and the reception will be Thursday, April 2nd, 5:30 - 7:30pm.

Keeping Time opens Thursday

I am not sure how many folks know what work goes into putting together an exhibition at a small place. With a staff of four, I am not only the curator, registrar, pr person, wall text and label designer, opening food getter, assistant installer, packer, but also the art transporter. This past Thursday, I did my roughly 4 times a year drive to New York City and back in a day in a brand new Enterprise van. The amazing intern Caleb Cole (hire and show this emerging artist!) helped me navigate and kept me company on his official last day.

After a late start filling up the huge tank, we got into NYC about 12:30 and had to made our way down to Michael Mazzeo Gallery. I've seen Michael several times now at portfolio review events and we always have a good time and he has a great stable of emerging artists. Michael is showing Chris McCaw's work, which I first saw at Photolucida in 2007. I was immediately transfixed (and should have bought one then!!). Michael kindly bought us sandwiches and we caught up. (FYI - it's easy to park in NYC with commercial plates, although I am still a nervous wreck driving and parking in the city.) Chris's work looks amazing in his solo show; he's now started working with a 16 x 20 camera and the results are stunning.

After that, we headed uptown to Bonni Benrubi to pick up Matthew Pillsbury's work. Picking up here is much more difficult than Chelsea, but luckily we found a commercial muni spot. Lou and Thom helped me once again and after tying everything down, we headed home, only to be stuck in traffic in CT for over an hour. I woke up at 5am and about 17 hours later, I was back at home. I am still exhausted.

The gallery is painted a beautiful Benjamin Moore historical color (Templeton Gray) and Vinnie and I install on Monday. I am very excited about this show and I think it will be beautiful. All of the artists are great and I am very proud of them and the show. Come on out Thursday, November 6th from 5:30-7:30pm to see the product of all of our labors. If you are not in town, you can poke around the online component. Click here or on the image above to read my essay, see all of the images and artist statements (just click on the individual images). I will post installation images later. Whew...now back to work.

ABOVE IMAGE: Sharon Harper (Cambridge, MA), Moon Studies and Star Scratches, No. 9, June 4 – 30, 2005, Clearmont, Wyoming, 15, 30, 20, 8, 5, 1, 5, 2, 1 minute exposures; 15, 8, 10, 14 second exposures, Digital C-print from 4x5 transparency, 50 x 40 inches, Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Roepke, Cologne

New England Survey exhibition now on display at Fruitlands Museum

Last week, I traveled out beautiful Route 2 to Harvard, MA and the Fruitlands Museum to lay out the PRC's warmly received landscape exhibition, New England Survey.

The exhibition will run August 23 – December 21, 2008 with an opening reception on Sunday, September 14, 4 – 6pm. I am proud as a peach, as it's the first show that I curated that has traveled.

As you can see above, it is right at home in their Picture Gallery. Take a sneak peek at the installation and their beautiful grounds in this flickr set!

I am thrilled at how it turned out, as are they. The work is in their Picture Gallery, right next to Hudson River School paintings and right outside are incredible views and nature trails. The juxtapositions created are stunning. Re-experience work by Barbara Bosworth, Tanja Alexia Hollander, Janet Pritchard, Thad Russell, Jonathan Sharlin, and Paul Taylor.

A little history - This past spring, we were approached by the Fruitlands Museum to show a version of the PRC exhibition New England Survey in fall 2008. Fruitlands, a former Transcendentalist, Utopian center founded by Bronson Alcott, is increasingly considering exhibitions that complement their interpretive themes (Inhabiting Nature, Encounters on a Changing Landscape, and Traditions that Bind) as well as intersect with their mission. New England Survey was a perfect fit and joins a special exhibition of Joe Wheelwright’s trees sculptures currently on their grounds.

I am thrilled that Fruitlands loved the exhibition so much and that it will live on and be shown at such a beautiful location during New England’s peak fall season. I invite you to see it again in this unique setting, or for the first time. Take a whole day, have lunch, walk the trails, and explore their collections, it's that amazing!

Visit www.fruitlands.org for more information and directions. See you at the opening!

ABOUT FRUITLANDS: Fruitlands Museum is one of the first outdoor museums in America and boasts over 200+ acres of pastoral landscape and several period buildings. This national landmark shares the unique ideas, stories, objects, and landscape of New England’s most original thinkers, movers, and reformers. Enjoy nature trails and four unique galleries of Native American, Shaker, and American art collections, including Hudson River School landscapes and nineteenth-century vernacular portraits.

Bruce Myren featured on Teachingphoto.com

I mention my partner Bruce Myren occasionally in my posts, but usually it's in reference to our adventures and not his work (save a grad school update). Currently, he is featured on Teachingphoto.com, which deserves a special mention!

For those who don't know know about this wonderful Web site, it is the effort of the great Henry Horenstein and includes insightful and useful articles from photographers, teachers, and industry leaders. Henry asked Bruce to meditate on his experiences as an older student deciding to go to graduate school and then enrolling in an MFA program. Click here or above to read it. He starts his second, and last, year in a few weeks at UConn. I will miss him a lot, but he is almost done!

Bruce also has a busy schedule of upcoming exhibitions in 2008/2009, see below. Hope to see you there!

Danforth Museum of Art
"New England Currents series
Markers: Memory, Solo exhibition
October 22 – December 7, 2008
Framingham, MA
Artist Reception, November 22, 2008

Gallery Kayafas
The View Home, Solo exhibition
October 16 – November 22, 2008
450 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA
Opening Reception, First Friday, November 7, 2008

Hallmark Museum of Contemporary Photography
The Fortieth Parallel and Other Adventures, Solo exhibition
July 2 – September 20, 2009
Turner's Falls, MA
Artist Reception and Talk, September 19, 2009

New England Survey in the Globe! (written by their Pulitzer Prize winning reviewer)

Tuesday was an important newspaper day in Boston. Gracing the front page of the Boston Globe was the Red Sox's opening day at Fenway and the announcement that their own Mark Feeney won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, as noted in the last post.

Humbly for us, Mark Feeney's review of the current PRC landscape exhibition, New England Survey, also ran in the very same Globe. (And super luckily for us, he liked it!) I am thrilled at the confluence of events. I wrote to congratulate Mark, and he modestly replied that it's a win for the paper and different than organizing an exhibition. To his and their credit, we had several people visit today because of his review and lots of calls. Here's to the power of well-crafted words and the media!

You can read Mark Feeney's review of the PRC exhibition New England Survey here.

You can read the official Globe story on Mark Feeney's Pulitzer Prize in Criticism here.

You can read some of his nominated stories here.

Off to NYC...

I wish NYC was closer to Boston. It is the closest I've ever lived, but makes for a long day if you go and come back in one day (about 3 1/2-4 hours each way). We're off to make a quick trip to see some art, namely Jeff Wall at MoMA and all of the goodies at the Whitney (Taryn Simon, Lorna Simpson, etc.). We'll have to go again soon and just do galleries!

I have to have a blog day, but it has just been so beautiful out (finally). Here are the posts I owe:

• One on our Picture Show closing film night with Zampano's Playhouse and the films and amazing artwork of Joseph Cornell at the Peabody Essex


• The 5 things meme, yes Jeremias I promise I'll do it! It's in my drafts I swear.

Jeff Wall, "A Sudden Gust of Wind (After Hokusai)" (1993), MoMA, From: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/02/24/arts/design/20070224_WALL_SLIDESHOW_3.html