Castell Photography Gallery hosts “NEXT: New Photographic Visions,” opening Nov. 7

From a press release:

Castell Photography Gallery hosts “NEXT: New Photographic Visions,” opening Nov. 7

Castell Photography Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of the gallery’s sixth annual juried exhibition, NEXT: New Photographic Visions on Friday, November 7th with a reception from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. This year’s competition was curated by the influential independent curator and writer, Elizabeth Avedon. Avedon will be in attendance at the opening reception event, and specialty cocktails will be served in celebration. Castell Photography is thrilled and honored to involve and bring to Asheville a juror of such caliber and relevance to contemporary photography as Elizabeth Avedon. This exhibition is not only a triumph for the gallery and the chosen artists, but also for the artistic community of Asheville and Western North Carolina.

As an international open call for photo-based works, the curator was looking to see images which are challenging and exciting, with a unique perspective and a cohesive look. Elizabeth Avedon, who has her finger on the pulse of contemporary photography, viewed more than 600 images which were submitted from across the globe to this year’s call for entries and selected 42 pieces from 32 artists to represent the vision of the show.

Awards will be announced at the opening reception, and will be online the following day. The selected artists are: Ben Altman, Bina Altera, Sheri Lynn Behr, Christopher Borrok, Debi Cornwall, Sharron Diedrichs, KK DePaul, Francisco Diaz, Deb Young, Nicholas Fedak, Fran Forman, Juno Gemes, Ray Grasse, Lavonne Hall, Jessica Hines, Bilo Hussein, Ellen Jantzen, Michael Jantzen, Sarah Jun, Won Kim,Karen Klinedinst,David Shannon-Lier, Ben Marcin, Jennifer Mcclure, Jim McKinniss,Ruben Natal-San Miguel, Jessica Owen, Randhy Rodriguez, Donna Rosser, Mark Roussel, Andi Schreiber, Magdalena Sole, and Kevin Wo.

Elizabeth Avedon is an independent curator and writer/contributor to “L’oeil de la Photographie,” profiling notable leaders in the world of photography. She has received awards and recognition for her photography exhibition design and publishing projects, including the retrospective exhibition and book: “Avedon: 1949-1979” for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts; and “Richard Avedon: In the American West” for the Amon Carter Museum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and The Art Institute of Chicago, among many others; and more recently curating several exhibitions at New York’s Leica Gallery. Former Director of Photo-Eye Gallery, Santa Fe and Creative Director for The Gere Foundation, Elizabeth wrote the introductory essay, “Self Portrait: My Impressions of Vivian Maier,” for John Maloof’s, “Vivian Maier: Self Portraits” published by PowerHouse Books. Elizabeth has been reviewing portfolios at national events including The NY Times Lens Blog Portfolio Review, Photolucida, Review Santa Fe, Filter Photo Festival, FlashForward Festival, ASMP-NY and others, and has served as a juror for numerous national and international exhibitions. She is listed as one of TIME Magazine’s 140 Best Twitter Feeds to follow in 2014. Elizabeth is always searching for new work to publish on her photojournalblog, now in it’s 6th year. Quoting Daniel Power, CEO PowerHouse Books and NYPH,”Elizabeth Avedon has one of the most authoritative blogs on Photography”.

The opening reception for Next: New Photographic Visions will be held on Friday, November 7th from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Elizabeth Avedon will be in attendance, and specialty cocktails will be served. The show will run through December 20th.