Shock. Outrage. Dread. If you’re feeling like me a mere twelve days into the new Presidency, perhaps you’d welcome a little distraction. Maybe even a lot of distraction. Not alternative facts or fake news, but some visually enriching, soul satisfying art. Ready? Here come my February 2017 photography exhibit picks!

Roger Farrington’s Celebrity in Boston at Panopticon Gallery
KENMORE SQUARE
Panopticon Gallery is showing Celebrity in Boston, fifty of Roger Farrington’s B&W photographs featuring luminaries visiting between 1976-1996, back in the pre-digital age. If you’re feeling gripped by nostalgia and want something wonderfully “real” and uplifting, this is the show for you. For more info, go to: http://www.panopticongallery.com/exhibitions/

From the series Yonkeros by Jaime Permuth at NESOP’s Garner Center(courtesy of the artist).
The Garner Center at New England School of Photography (NESOP) is showing Jaime Permuth’s gritty and poetic B&W junkyard series, Yonkeros, “an exploration of first world consumerism, waste, and obsolescence as they intersect with third world ingenuity and survivalist strategies in the no-man’s-land of Willets Point, Queens.” Refreshingly real-world. For more information, go to: http://www.nesop.edu/events/the-garner-center/jaime-permuth/
Photographic Resource Center (PRC) will be hosting 5×5: A Unique Exhibition of Affordable Photography, wherein each photograph costs $50! Real cool, real art from the forward-looking PRC, opening on First Friday, February 3rd, 2017. For info, go to: http://www.bu.edu/prc/schedule.htm#upcoming

From the series “Wild and Precious” by Jesse Burke (courtesy of the artist and ClampArt, NYC).
SOWA ARTS DISTRICT
Gallery Kayafas is showing one of my favorite recent bodies of work, Wild & Precious, by Jesse Burke, wherein the photographer and his young daughter actually spend time outside in the elements and develop a loving bond with the natural world and strengthen the one with each other. Powerful and restorative, just what we need now. There will be an artist’s reception on First Friday, February 3rd from 5:30 – 8:00pm. For more info, go to: http://www.gallerykayafas.com/home/exhibitions/current/

Sherry Karver at Lanoue Gallery in SoWa (courtesy of Lanoue Gallery, Boston).
Lanoue Gallery is showing the inventive photomontages of Sherry Karver, with their stream-of-consciousness quips that will make you laugh or sigh in recognition. For more info, go to: http://www.lanouefineart.com/

“Goose Pond” from the series Water/Reflections by Ellen Waitzkin at C7A (courtesy of the artist).
CAMBRIDGE
Cambridge Seven Associates (C7A) Gallery is presenting Ellen Waitzkin’s solo show Water/Reflections, a series of trippy, multiple-frame works that will alter your ideas about landscape photography forever, in a good way (above and Feature Image). There will be an artist’s reception and talk on Thursday, February 2nd, 2017 from 5:30 – 7:30pm. For more information, go to: https://c7a.com/about

“Liar’s Cloth” by Gwenneth Boelens at MIT List Visual Arts Center (courtesy of Klemm’s, Berlin and Grimm, Amsterdam).
MIT List Visual Arts Center is showing At Odds, Gwenneth Boelens’ inventive and enormous photograms in the Reference Gallery and Charlotte Moth’s Seeing While Moving, a mixed media exhibit sourced from her photographic series Travelogue in the Hayden Gallery. There will be a joint opening reception on February 16th, 2017. For info, go to: https://listart.mit.edu/exhibitions

“Shoals – Rocks and Water 35, 2015” by Alexandra de Steiguer at Pucker Gallery (courtesy of Pucker Gallery, Boston).
BACK BAY
Pucker Gallery is hosting A Debt To Nature Due, a solo exhibit of Alexandra deSteiguer’s breathtaking B&W photographs taken over the past 20 years on the deserted Isles of Shoals during the winter months of tumultuous storms and stark stillness. There will be an opening reception with the artist on Saturday, February 4th, 2017 from 3:00 – 6:00pm. For info, go to: http://www.puckergallery.com/upcoming.html

Eileen McCarney Muldoon at Leica Gallery Boston (courtesy of the artist).
Leica Gallery Boston is showing color photographs of Cuba by Eileen McCarney Muldoon and will be hosting her Artist Talk, A Step Beyond/ 26.5N,77.8W, on Saturday February 4th, from 2:00 – 4:00pm. For info, go to: http://leicagalleryboston.com/exhibitions/

“Glimpse of the Ether” from the series Optical Shards by Donna Tramontozzi at Griffin Museum Stoneham Theater (courtesy of the artist).
BOSTON METRO REGION
Griffin Museum at the Stoneham Theater will host a closing reception for Donna Tramontozzi’s solo show Optical Shards which celebrates and muses upon the beauty that changing light creates, on Wednesday, February 1st, 2017 from 6:30 – 8:30pm. For info, go to: http://griffinmuseum.org/show/optical-shards-photographs-by-donna-tramontozzi/

“Abandoned Michigan Central Depot, Detroit, 2014” from the series Dark City by Lynn Saville at Griffin Museum Stoneham Theater (courtesy of Gallery Kayafas, Boston).
On February 7th, 2017 at the Stoneham Theatre, the Griffin Museum presents the solo show Dark City by Lynn Saville, an enthralling exploration of the mysterious and serene transformation cities make at night. Saville will offer a “Twilight Photography Workshop” and there will be an opening reception later in March. For info, go to: http://griffinmuseum.org/show/lynn-saville-dark-city/

“Jewish Cemetery Cameo Portraits, Bershad, Ukraine, 2007” from the series Beyond The Forest by Loli Kantor at Griffin Museum in Winchester (courtesy of the artist).
Griffin Museum in Winchester, MA is devoting all four galleries to the timely exhibit Legacy. Migration. Memory., featuring solo shows by Loli Kantor (above), Rosemarie Zens, Larry Volk and Priya Kambli, whose work all addresses the urgently relevant and sticky issue of immigration with profound compassion. This must-see show will stoke your sense of patriotism, among other things, and is on view through March 5th, 2017. Stay tuned for my review tomorrow! For more info, go to: http://griffinmuseum.org/exhibitions/

“February Is Dental Month, 2008” from the series Other People’s Clothes by Caleb Cole (courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas).
Montserrat College of Art Gallery in Beverly, MA is presenting Observance: As I See You, You See Me, a group show curated by Leonie Bradbury featuring Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Caleb Cole (above), DEAD ART STAR, Ervin A. Johnson, and Juan Jose Barboza-Gubo & Andrew Mroczek. Each photographer explores how identity is constructed through the lens of the cultural, political, and personal circumstances of their subject. For info, go to: http://www.montserrat.edu/portfolio-item/observance-as-i-see-you-you-see-mejanuary-17-april-8-2017/

The All-Too-Human Condition group show at Colson Gallery (courtesy of the artists).
Colson Gallery in Easthampton, MA is presenting The All-Too-Human Condition, a group show with a sweeping “Family of Man” feeling that features 50 photographs by 20 photographers from around the world. Opening reception is on Friday, February 17th, 2017 from 6:00 – 8:00pm. For info, go to: http://www.colsongallery.com/about.html

“Lisa’s glasses, 2009” platinum print from the series Inventory by Ron Cowie at the Newport Art Museum (courtesy of the artist).
RHODE ISLAND
Newport Art Museum presents New Light Through Old Windows curated by Francine Weiss, featuring magnificent alternative processes photographic work by Lindsey Beal and Ron Cowie (above) on view through April 16th, 2017. If you ever needed an excuse for a day trip to Newport, this is it (I’m going). Plus, the Museum will open its Newport Annual Members’ Juried Exhibition on February 4th, 2017. Curated by Sarah Kennel from the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA, the show features many photographs. There will be an opening reception for all winter exhibits on Friday, February 3rd, 2017 at 5:00pm. For info, go to: http://www.newportartmuseum.org/Exhibitions/Now-on-View

“Engagement” by Leslie Jean-Bart at Providence Center for Photographic Arts 3rd Juried Show (courtesy of the artist).
Providence Center for Photographic Arts (PCPA) is hosting its 3rd Open Call Photography Exhibition, curated by the keen eye of Paula Tognarelli, Director of the Griffin Museum of Photography. Featuring about 60 photographs, the show will open with an artists’ reception on Thursday, February 16th from 5:00 – 9:00pm and run through March 11th, 2017. For info, go to: http://www.petermillerfineart.com/call-for-entries-2nd-open-call/3rd-open-call-accepted-artists/
Feature Image: From the series Water/Reflections (detail) by Ellen Waitzkin at Cambridge Seven Associates (courtesy of the artist).

“Vestiges of a Flood from Glacial River, Iceland” by Lynne Buchanan at Providence Center for Photographic Arts 3rd Juried Show (courtesy of the artist).
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