“Let’s dance, for fear your grace should fall
Let’s dance, for fear tonight is all
Let’s sway, you could look into my eyes
Let’s sway, under the moonlight, the serious moonlight.”
~ from ”Let’s Dance” by David Bowie
By Elin Spring
I do not know what I was expecting when I wandered into the Griffin Museum’s 30th Annual Juried Members Exhibition, but it wasn’t this. The gallery is suspended in a palpable sense of repose, whispering with unanticipated moments of transcendence. Culled from over 1300 submissions, the exhibit features the visions of sixty-one photographers whose unique journeys and perspectives sway with the mysteries of our human commonality. Juror Mazie Harris, Assistant Curator of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum, has achieved a sublime, cohesive selection, further elevated by the stellar installation by Crista Dix, Executive Director of the Griffin Museum with Curatorial Associate Yana Nosenko. This exhibit is on view through July 28th, 2024, while concurrent solo shows by Suzanne Theodora White and Lynne Breitfeller, along with the 14th Annual Photobook Exhibition, are on view through September 1st, 2024.
“Bluff” by Amy Montali, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA.
The airy installation of photographs in 30th Annual Juried Exhibition feels at once capacious and introspective. The ample room to breathe and internalize is one of the strongest cases for experiencing the work in person, but if you cannot, I will attempt to convey the ambient sense of stillness, space and reflection. It starts at the entry, with Amy Montali’s summery image of a supine woman in the grass at the edge of a parking lot, oblivious to all.
“Cai and Claire” by Barbara Peacock, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA. Winner, Arthur Griffin Legacy Award.
The relaxed entanglement of bodies in Barbara Peacock’s “Cai and Claire” and the mesmerizing, muted illusion of Elizabeth Stone’s “Negative/Positive NS44” each possess a similarly calming allure, a trait evident throughout the exhibit.
Feature Image: “Negative/Positive NS44” by Elizabeth Stone, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA. Winner, Griffin Prize.
“Diced” by Francisco Gonzalez Camacho, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA. Honorable Mention and Winner, Exhibition Award.
Another remarkable aspect of this show is the way every piece seems ripe for viewer-supplied metaphor. The linear, curvaceous patterns in Francisco Gonzalez Camacho’s platinum-printed “Diced” and the arterial branching of blood-red stitching across a vast B&W mesa in Alina Saranti’s “Far From #5” are elegantly suggestive of human anatomy.
“Far From #5” by Alina Saranti, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA. Winner, Director’s Prize.
“Perspective” by Jennifer Bilodeau, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA. Honorable Mention.
Isolation is a recurrent theme, poignantly expressed in dramatically composed perspectives that contrast the scale of a figure against its backdrop. Jennifer Bilodeau’s formidable “Perspective” and Susan Moldenhauer’s arresting “Implosion, June 23, 2023” utilize the visceral power of representational imagery.
“Implosion, June 23, 2023” by Susan Moldenhauer, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA. Honorable Mention.
“Stellaluna” by Linda Plaisted, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA.
Nonetheless, images such as Linda Plaisted’s eerie, futuristic fantasy “Stellaluna” or Lisa Tyson Ennis’ historical wet-plate portrait of a stalwart “Dontavius Williams, Public Historian” at the foot of an ancient tree, cast similar contrasts between subject and field, while also inviting comparisons of fantasy versus reality and past versus present.
“Dontavius Williams, Public Historian” by Lisa Tyson Ennis, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA. Honorable Mention.
Across every wall – occasionally even jumping from one wall to another – there is a lyrical confluence of line and figure. In a hushed assemblage that broaches concepts of presence and mortality, Mari Saxon’s luminous “Centaur’s Dream” sweeps the glimmer of hope in Patricia McElroy’s “Kevin Is that You?” into conversation with Yorgos Efthymiadis’ pensive “Yorgos Z.”
“Centaur’s Dream” by Mari Saxon, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA.
“Kevin Is that You?” by Patricia McElroy, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA.
“Yorgos Z.” by Yorgos Efthymiadis, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA.
In a ruminating ensemble of images along another wall, Anastasia Sierra, Fran Forman and JoAnn Chaus choreograph figures reflecting internal struggles with isolation, anxiety and identity. Each moody grappling plays into the next, multiplying their emotional resonance.
“Crossroads” by Anastasia Sierra, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA.
“A Woman’s Shadow” by Fran Forman, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA.
“Daisy’s Grill” from the series Conversations with Myself by JoAnn Chaus, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA.
“Wave” photographic sculpture by Sally Chapman, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA. Honorable Mention.
“Ground Nest View at The Land With No Name, Arizona” by Holly Worthington, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA.
Juror selections from open-call competitions are rarely this unified in emotional tone. There are so many more affecting images I wish I could share, but I will close by pointing out a few examples of exquisite craftsmanship on display. Merging heart and hand, Sally Chapman’s swirling cerulean photographic sculpture “Wave” and Holly Worthington’s one-week pinhole camera solargraph, along with portraits like William Betcher’s absorbing, ghostly Civil War soldier and Donna Bassin’s heartrending “My Own Witness: Rupture and Repair, Aya,” materially align method and message.
“If I Should Live” by William Betcher, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA.
“My Own Witness: Rupture and Repair, Aya” by Donna Bassin, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA.
Sixty-one individual instruments converge to create this exhibit’s orchestration in a mellifluous co-mingling of genre, style and technique. Regardless of how they are crafted, their diverse narratives gently harmonize, dancing and swaying under the moonlight, the serious moonlight.
“Rock Around Water” from the series Dry Stone No Sound of Water by Suzanne Theodora White, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA.
But wait, there’s more. Two prizewinners from last year’s Annual Juried Exhibition have solo shows in the museum’s smaller galleries. In her series Dry Stone No Sound of Water, Suzanne Theodora White composes iridescent studio photographs, combining manipulated imagery with objects from her natural surroundings to ponder the past and future of our environment as we traverse the Anthropocene era.
From the series After the Fire: Water Damage by Lynne Breitfeller, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester MA.
Lynne Breitfeller’s haunting series After the Fire: Water Damaged uses the serendipitous alterations to her water-damaged negatives as a metaphorical exploration of memory, loss, and restoration.
Dancing With Art by Elliot Schildkrout is on view at the Griffin Museum’s 14th Annual Photobook Exhibition.
When visiting, don’t miss an opportunity to explore the museum’s 14th Annual Photobook Exhibition, curated by Karen Davis, Director of Davis Orton Gallery, and the Griffin’s Executive Director Crista Dix. It is a rare treat to page through this selection of 50 captivating and beautifully produced photo objects.
For more information about each of the Griffin’s exhibits and their extensive associated programming, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org/current-exhibitions/
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