BEST PHOTO PICKS SEPTEMBER 2020

What Makes It Great? / Featured / September 9, 2020

“Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable”

George Bernard Shaw

By Elin Spring and Suzanne Révy

We are struggling to come back. Back from the trauma of isolation, amidst anxiety over disease, a polarizing election season, and the continuing horror of senseless injustices. Our arts institutions have been hobbled and many artists have found creative energy tough to summon.

And yet.

Art is restorative. At a time like this, we need it more than ever. Various arts organizations have begun to re-open their doors in limited, mostly appointment-only ways. For the first time since March, we bring you a selection of photography experiences that are available to view in person around the greater Boston region. Organized geographically and updated throughout the month, please feel free to check back regularly and/or contact us if you know of additional exhibits.

SOWA – Boston’s Arts District in the South End

“Requiem for the Innocent #13,” 2019, from the series Requiem for the Innocent, El Paso and Beyond by John Willis, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

Gallery Kayafas – The new season kicks off with a gallery full of photography, featuring four projects by three artists revealing diverse perspectives on memory. In Requiem for the Innocent, John Willis evokes powerful emotions through his poignant images of gathered ephemera at impromptu memorials for victims of the senseless killings at an El Paso, Texas Walmart in August 2019. In his Mni Wiconi, Honoring the Water Protectors, Willis documents prayerful and peaceful efforts by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and their allies to resist the Dakota Access Pipeline from running beneath their water source and through their sacred lands. In The Fabric of Memory, Astrid Reischwitz creates intricate tapestries, arranging images of ancestral embroidered fabrics with new and old photographs taken in the small German farming village of her youth. Each unique piece connects past and present in allusive compositions that Reischwitz has stitched with embroidery, further suggesting the fleeting and fragmentary nature of recollection. In the gallery’s Alcove, Vanessa Leroy presents her handcrafted book of cyanotypes printed on cloth, there’s a place i want to take you. In the book and accompanying diptych prints on the wall, Leroy has assembled old family pictures, photographs she made recently and some of her 5th grade journal entries, along with illustrations, text and lyrics in a process that transforms a personal scrapbook of childhood memories into a flowing and remarkable narrative. All exhibits will be on view through October 17th, 2020 during gallery hours, Wednesday – Saturday from 11:00 am – 5:30 pm, by appointment. Contact the gallery at http://www.gallerykayafas.com/

“Water Protectors in prayer, Oceti Sakowin Camp”, 2016, from the series Mni Wiconi, Honoring the Water Protectors by John Willis, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

“Tapestry #8 (Shadow and Light),” 2019, from the series Spin Club Tapestry by Astrid Reischwitz, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

From the series and handmade cyanotype cloth book there’s a place I want to take you, 2019, by Vanessa Leroy, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

“Drawn to Film #7” 2020, Polaroid film & watercolor by Cree Bruins, courtesy of the artist and Kingston Gallery, Boston.

Kingston Gallery – In her solo show Drawn to Film, Cree Bruins reclaims elements of film photography and augments them with watercolor and graphite in iterative geometric and sculptural designs, celebrating analog photography and the tactile and cultural memories it evokes. On view through September 27th, 2020. For hours and information, go to: http://www.kingstongallery.com/

BOSTON PROPER & CAMBRIDGE

“Maasai walking to monthly market – Nainokanoka, Tanzania” from the panAFRICAproject by Lou Jones, courtesy of the artist.

Bridge Gallery, Cambridge, MA – In a continuation of their inventive gallery window shows, Bridge will be showcasing a rotating selection of the vibrant, dynamic color images from photographer Lou Jones’ panAFRICAproject through mid-September (book now available: https://panafricaproject.org/panafricaproject-store/) Following that, Mark Ostow’s expansive and compelling Pandemic Portrait Project will be hung in constantly changing grids in the windows throughout September and possibly beyond (https://www.ostow.com/pandemic-portrait-project-samples). View the Bridge Gallery windows at 5 Pemberton Street in Cambridge. For more information: https://www.bridge.photos/contact

“Sudhayl in Central Square, June 6, 2020” Pandemic Day 79 from the Pandemic Portrait Project by Mark Ostow, courtesy of the artist.

THE BURBS

Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA – In the Griffin Atelier Gallery, veteran street photographer Rick Ashley combines his longtime infatuation with the city of Rome and his love of dogs in Cani di Roma. Because they are welcomed everywhere, dogs have always found their way into Ashley’s photographs “but in the last few years (they) have become principle actors” highlighting the myriad ways their companionship and antics are interwoven into our lives. In the Griffin Gallery, Nancy Baron expands her ode to mid-century modern American design in Palm Springs Modern Dogs at Home, picturing the “desert pets that are as lovingly groomed and cared-for as their surroundings…and putting these precious pups in the spotlight, where they belong.” Both exhibits will be on view through October 23rd, 2020, by appointment only. Virtual Reception with the artists will be held on Sunday, October 4th, 2020 at 7:00 pm. https://griffinmuseum.org/exhibitions/

“Charlie” from the series and book Palm Springs Modern Dogs at Home (Schiffer Books, 2020) by Nancy Baron, courtesy of the artist.

From the series and book (Harry N. Abrams, 2003) Women in Pants by Catherine Smith, courtesy of the artist.

Danforth Art, Framingham State University – To honor the one-hundredth anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment giving (white) women the right to vote, the Danforth presents Catherine Smith: A Cabinet of Curiosities, which includes her collection of nineteenth century photographs that were the basis of her book Women in Pants. The photographs will be presented in conversation with works from the museum’s permanent collection. The exhibition will be on view from September, 19th 2020 – February 28th, 2021. For more information go to: https://danforth.framingham.edu

Fitchburg Art, Fitchburg, MA – Fitchburg Art will be showcasing recent acquisitions in a two part exhibition called The Big Picture: Giant Photographs and Powerful Portfolios featuring large prints in the first part and a selection of portfolios in the second. Prints measuring up to six by eight feet will be a visually stimulating antidote to the small screen blues that have hampered our ability to really immerse ourselves in photography. This part of the exhibit will feature work by a global list of photographers alongside New England artists Laura McPhee and Brian Ulrich. In addition, the museum will be featuring a tantalizing selection of portfolios from the classic black and whites of André Kertesz to the quirky street pictures of Ruben Natal-San Miguel and Steve Locke’s penetrating portfolio, “Family Pictures” which addresses the history of racism. The museum now boasts over two-thousand photographs in its holdings which have doubled in the last five years under Nick Capasso’s leadership. The Big Picture: Giant Photographs and Powerful Portfolios will be on view from September 26th, 2020 to June 6th 2021; admission to the museum is free through October 2nd, 2020. For more information go to: https://fitchburgartmuseum.org

ROAD TRIP!

Andy Warhol Self-Portrait (Fright Wig), 1986, Silkscreen ink and acrylic paint on linen canvas, 12 x 12 inches. Collection, Robert Lococo, St. Louis. ©1986 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./ Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Newport Art Museum, Newport, R. I. – Andy Warhol: Big Shot focuses on the famous conceptual artist’s photography, specifically work made with Polaroid Big Shot and SX-70 cameras. Warhol’s masses of instant photographs served as a diary documenting friends and events, as inspiration for commercial and personal work and as experiments in self-portraiture that forecast the popularity of today’s ubiquitous “selfies” on social media. Additionally, the exhibit brings together a selection of Warhol’s Polaroids with the final works they generated, along with some photobooth portraits and his rare, stitched photographs. On view in the museum’s Cushing Building from September 19th – December 20th, 2020. https://newportartmuseum.org/exhibitions/warhol/

In a related exhibit at the Newport Art Museum is Private Moments: Photographs from Another Era by Bob Colacello. The writer, photographer and longtime friend and biographer of Andy Warhol often accompanied him to celebrity-studded parties, clubs and private events and recorded the behind-the-scenes happenings with a tiny Minox 35 EL camera. Colacello’s large B&W photographs are on view now through September 27th, 2020. https://newportartmuseum.org/exhibitions/private-moments/

“Residue” by Jess Voas, courtesy of the artist.

Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts (RICPA), Providence, RI – Two exhibits focusing on women in photography are on view through Friday, October 9th, 2020. Behind the Lens 2020 (https://www.riphotocenter.org/behind-the-lens-2020-women-in-photography/) was mounted in celebration of Women’s History Month (March) and extended, courtesy of Covid-19, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment (August), giving (white) women the right to vote. The exhibition features five photographers at different career stages: Grace Marie Dewitt, Deb Ehrens, Molly Lamb, Zena Tadmoury and Jess Voas (above). The show is presented in tandem with Visual Conversations (https://www.riphotocenter.org/visual-conversations-a-conversation-without-words/), a collaborative project featuring seven women photographers engaged in a visual game of “telephone,” communicating solely via the exchange of images: Karla Bernstein, Diane Collins, Estelle Disch, Deb Ehrens, Paula Laverty, Lisa Redburn and Jean Schnell. Both exhibits are open to the public by appointment, masks required, and can be made via email to gllery@riphotocenter.org

Installation view of Visual Conversations, an exchange of images between seven women photographers at RICPA. Photo courtesy of David DeMelim.

Feature Image: “Tapestry #5 (Four Did Not Return), 2019 from Spin Club Tapestry by Astrid Reischwitz, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.