By Elin Spring
Are you in the mood for some bright surprises? Then, EXPOSURE 2022: The 26th Annual PRC Juried Members Exhibition is sure to gratify. The point of EXPOSURE is to showcase a brief portfolio of new work by emerging and mid-career photographers, juried by an esteemed leader in the photographic community. This deeper dive affords viewers a perspective absent in the traditional one-piece-per-artist show. We have an opportunity to make fresh discoveries and exhibiting artists gain exposure to new audiences. This year Catherine Edelman, the eminent Chicago-based gallerist known for her stable of cutting-edge photographers, has selected the work of twelve artists from across the United States. Her choices are distinguished by a robust display of alternative approaches, materials and processes in this engaging exhibit, on view through September 15th, 2022 at the Fort Point Arts Community (FPAC) Gallery in Boston.
“Ifugao Belle” 2022, photocollage, acrylic, from the series Field Notes by Jason Reblando, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.
Jason Reblando won the PRC Juror’s Choice Award with captivating images that visually disrupt archival photographs made in the Philippines by 19th and 20th century colonizers from the United States. The Filipino-American photographer elucidates, “By weaving historical photographs into my own contemporary art practice, I hope to contribute to efforts to decolonize and recontextualize photographic archives that codified these power dynamics.”
“Boy in Front of Admiral Dewey’s Car” 2022, photocollage, acrylic, from the series Field Notes by Jason Reblando, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.
In addition to his inventive physical and digital manipulation of archival prints, Reblando’s collages incorporate existing euro-centric scales of color, tone and measurement. The lively colors and geometric shapes contrast with the vintage B&W photographs, further accentuating their cultural appropriation. Visually dynamic and psychologically engrossing, Reblando’s imagery resonates in a modern world where the subjugation of cultures sadly persists.
Feature Image: “Manila Sunset” 2022, photocollage, acrylic, from the series Field Notes by Jason Reblando, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.
“After Monnoyer and Anonymous” 2020, archival digital print by Pamela Hawkes, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.
Pamela Hawkes and Fritz Goeckner also employ digital manipulation in their interpretative imagery. Pamela Hawkes alters floral still-lifes derived from those by famous painters, while Fritz Goeckner deletes black from his post-surgical self-portraits, leaving color shadows of his former self.
“Self After 4th Surgery,” 2022, free-color photograph by Fritz Goeckner, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.
“Working Man” 2021, toned cyanotype by Melanie Walker, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.
Melanie Walker and Judyta Grudzien create complex, layered imagery through a mixture of experimental techniques. Melanie Walker crafts textural B&W photographs by combining processes like toned cyanotype with materials such as Kozo paper and encaustic wax, while Judyta Grudzien uses chemically altered color film negatives and photograms of body parts to explore and question reality.
“5 hours 27 minutes (#4),” 2019-2021, inkjet print from chemically altered color film negative by Judyta Grudzien, courtesy of the artist and PEC, Boston.
“Untitled (2)” 2019, archival inkjet print from the series Embodiment-Salvaging A Self by Sue Palmer Stone, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.
Connecticut-based photographer Sue Palmer Stone won a PRC Choice Award for still-life images from her series Embodiment-Salvaging A Self. In photographed sculptures of scavenged objects from locations like construction sites and scrap metal yards, she either works in situ or choreographs assemblages back in her studio. Objects destined for abandonment are brought into lucid harmonies of shape, color, texture, and even scale in Stone’s playful and sophisticated compositions. At the same time, they are allegorical, “vulnerable and alone, standing up tall, already collapsed, or somewhere in between, embodying what I was going through, at a time when I didn’t know if I would lose the use of my limbs.” Stone’s concurrent expressions of loneliness and joy are a nuanced ode to our human frailty and resilience.
“Untitled (1)” 2018, archival inkjet print from the series Embodiment-Salvaging A Self by Sue Palmer Stone, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.
“Untitled Color 3219” 2019, unique collaged darkroom prints by April Friges, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.
April Friges, Bryan Florentin and David Sokosh also feature an unusual use of materials and objects in their work. April Friges’ unique geometric collages of wet-darkroom papers radiate vibrant, three-dimensional exuberance. Bryan Florentin creates conceptual puzzles by packing objects of differing sizes, shapes and textures into ”prepared shelves” in an anthropologic study of the things artists collect.
“Prepared Shelves 2.3.2022” Ultrachrome inkjet print by Bryan Florentin, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.
Installation view of accordion book “Things That Look Like the MOON” cyanotype on Hahnemuhle Sumi-e by David Sokosh, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.
David Sokosh’s cyanotype accordion book of “Things That Look Like the MOON” is a handsome art object and an inventive flight of free-association that explores photographic perception versus reality and, ultimately, “what we decide to believe.”
“The Church Piano” 2016, archival inkjet print from the series Abandonment by Joni Lohr, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.
Boston-based photographer Joni Lohr won a PRC Choice Award for documentary images from her series Abandonment. Although photorealistic, Lohr asks us to contemplate what is missing from her graceful compositions. In each, we are invited to imagine the former inhabitants of desolate, dilapidated interiors, as a tribute to their memories. Lohr’s natural tones and ambient light meditate on our ”fleeting presence in the universe,“ an especially timely sentiment as we continue to reel from the effects of a global pandemic.
“On the Dresser” 2020, photograph from the series Abandonment by Joni Lohr, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.
“Tattered Billboard with Face” 2020, archival inkjet print by Julie Mihaly, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.
Julie Mihaly and McCormick Brubaker also use realistic representations to infer internal states of consciousness. Julie Mihaly’s B&W landscapes are poignant expressions of the loneliness and disorientation suffered during long months of the Covid-19 shutdown. McCormick Brubaker’s dusk to dawn images of beachside parking lots and buildings are studies in isolation, with his apt spectrum of blue hues making them all the more sublime and desolate.
“Dominating Blue” 2019 by McCormick Brubaker, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.
Individually and collectively, the photographers selected by juror Catherine Edelman for EXPOSURE 2022 present remarkable bodies of work that unite materials and meaning, process and poetry. And I think something else bears mentioning. I got my first glimpse of this exhibit online and, to be honest, I was underwhelmed. But in person, this show is impressive and I recommend a visit before it closes on September 15th, 2022 to more fully appreciate the work of exhibiting artists McCormick Brubaker, Bryan Florentin, April Friges, Fritz Goeckner, Judyta Grudzien, Pamela Hawkes, Joni Lohr, Julie Mihaly, Jason Reblando, David Sokosh, Sue Palmer Stone, Melanie Walker.
For more information about this exhibit, go to: https://www.prcboston.org/exposure-2022-the-26th-annual-prc-juried-members-exhibition/nggallery/page/1
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