When is a rock more than a rock? Or a machine greater than the sum of its parts? When artists have a strong vision, their work can alter the way we perceive the world. When 555 Gallery director Susan Nalband was growing up in Minneapolis, Naives and Visionaries, the 1974 exhibit of contemporary art curated by the legendary director of the Walker Art Center, Martin Friedman, changed her life. Following Friedman’s death this May, Nalband is mounting the show Visionaries as a tribute to the spirit of that transformational show. It features the photography of Walter Crump, Smith Eliot and Cynthia Katz, along with sculptures by Joe Caruso, at 555 Gallery in South Boston through October 22, 2016.
“Machine Without A Purpose VII” archival pigment photograph from pinhole paper negative by Walter Crump (courtesy of the artist and 555 Gallery, Boston).
Walter Crump’s penchant for experimentation infuses his dreamlike photographs. Still-lifes he constructs from found objects that strike his fancy – and he especially fancies machine parts – are photographed, disassembled, and digitally merged with translucent textures to create other-worldly images that defy time. Are we looking at the past or future? At once colorfully whimsical and darkly dystopic, Crump’s photographs draw viewers into an excursion of the imagination.
“She Plays Hummingbirds Like Pianos” encaustic on wooden panel by Smith Eliot (courtesy of the artist and 555 Gallery, Boston).
Smith Eliot explores the inner sanctum of the psyche in compositions that unite the corporeal with the natural world. Utilizing a variety of analog cameras, her photographs of women, wildlife and gardens are rife with the symbolism of fertility and mortality. “Alternative processes” such as wet plate collodian tintypes and encaustic on organic surfaces like wood produce lush, sensual images. Some of the unique works on display are encased in antique dry plate frames, adding to the earthy spirituality of Smith’s imagery.
“Secret Garden” original tintype in antique dry plate frame by Smith Eliot (courtesy of the artist and 555 Gallery, Boston).
“Celestial Mooring #42” cyanotype on paper by Cynthia Katz (courtesy of the artist and 555 Gallery, Boston).
Cynthia Katz celebrates the resilience and frailty of nature in her handmade cyanotypes and collages. Arranging the bounty from her summer garden onto light-sensitive papers (creating camera-less photograms), she develops rich blue cyanotypes using rudimentary chemicals in a method that dates back to the origins of photography. Although straightforward, these techniques produce highly variable outcomes, resulting a delightful array of effects that Katz further manipulates into multi-image frames and sewn collages in abstract expressions of imaginative joy.
“Seeking a Balance #8” cyanotype on paper by Cynthia Katz (courtesy of the artist and 555 Gallery, Boston).
Photographers Crump, Eliot and Katz, as well as the sculptor Caruso, all revel in objects they find, either in nature or discarded by others, in their inventive artistic combinations and re-combinations of distinctive work, a fitting tribute to the transformative power of creative vision.
For hours, directions and more information about this exhibit, go to: http://www.555gallery.com/exhibitions/#/current-exhibition-visionaries/
Feature Image: “Rock Icon” by Walter Crump (courtesy of the artist and 555 Gallery, Boston).
“7 Rocks” encaustic on wooden panel by Smith Eliot (courtesy of the artist and 555 Gallery, Boston).
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