|
|
|
|
 Matt Siber, Untitled #35 |
Matt Siber: Pervasive Nature Exhibited
in Safety-Kleen Gallery One, Matt Siber’s photographs are deceptively simple with profound cultural implications. In The Untitled Project, Siber photographs familiar urban scenes, ranging from department store makeup counters to bustling expressways, and digitally removes all of the textual elements from signs and advertisements. The removed textual elements are then presented on a second panel, paired directly next to the photographic image that has been stripped of text. Each resulting artwork is a single photograph neatly divided into two components – text and image. |
 |
American
Excess: Exhibited
at the Aurora Public Art Commission, Aurora, Illinois In the world of Ellen Vartanian-Maher, there is nothing unusual about a Jesus figure directing a massive rhinoceros, a giant chicken atop a striped Cadillac, or a tiny dinosaur emerging from an immense tipi. Vartanian-Maher has sought out the odd and unusual from American roadways since 1985, constructing striking black & white infrared images with universal visual appeal. Her photographs tap into a peculiar sort of American ethos, one of the roadside curiosity and carnivalesque aesthetic. The photographs function as a document of sorts, but the primary intellectual drive is one of construction, molding the medium to create intricate and strange new worlds. She uses these odd situational displays as a vehicle to playfully illuminate the culture that generated them. |
 Anthony Thompson, Characterizing Legacy Residues in Plutonium Buillding 771 Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant, 2001 |
Culture of Fear: Joan Barker & Anthony Thompson Exhibited
in the John R. Grady Gallery of Photographic Art, |
 Rhona Shand, Untitled (Transplant) |
Rhona Shand Exhibited
in the John R. Grady Gallery of Photographic Art, Rhona Shand’s artwork utilizes the digital medium to create a hybrid of photographic representation with impressionistic technique. The work speaks to the fragility of the human condition, exploring ideas of self-image, phobias, conflict, anxiety, confinement, relationships, and escape. Each image is intricately layered with photographic, textured, and drawn elements, with each piece containing up to ten different layers. The layering of images and texture in the pieces functions as a visual metaphor for experience, and inside each piece it is almost as if time has collapsed with impressions, sensations, and emotions flooding in all at once. |
 Jen Davis, Seconds |
Soliloquies: Jen Davis & Shawn Scully Exhibited
in the John R. Grady Gallery of Photographic Art, The word Soliloquies refers to a dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or herself, revealing their thoughts to the audience in the process. In the Woody Allen film Annie Hall, the lead character (portrayed by Allen himself) frequently turns from the unfolding scene and addresses and engages the audience directly, breaking from the traditional notion of the film as a one-way observation of an illusionary space. These asides implicate the viewer as an active participant rather than a passive observer and engage the viewer in a direct relationship with the character as well as offering additional insight.The photographs of Jen Davis and Shawn Scully reflect and expand this idea. |