Penland School of Crafts hosts exhibition exploring photo processing March 22 – May 1

Press release:

For Immediate Release

Penland Gallery Presents Contemporary Chemical Photography

What does it mean to make photographic images with chemically-sensitized and processed materials in the digital era? What possibilities do historic photographic processes offer to contemporary artists? These are some of the questions raised by a fascinating exhibition at the newly renovated and expanded Penland Gallery at Penland School of Crafts. Titled “This Is a Photograph: Exploring Contemporary Applications of Photographic Chemistry,” the exhibition was curated by Brooklyn-based photographic artist and long-time Penland instructor Dan Estabrook. The exhibition not only reveals some of the arresting possibilities of these processes, it also brings to Western North Carolina work by a number of world-class image makers. The exhibition opens on March 22 with a reception on Saturday, March 26 from 4:30-6:30 p.m. The curator will be in attendance. The show will be on display through May 1.

The processes employed by the twenty-three artists represented in this show include tintype images made on found metal objects, an almost holographic daguerreotype, images created by painting directly onto photo paper with chemicals, and images made by igniting gunpowder that had been sprinkled directly onto photo paper. The show includes a multiple-image tintype by Sally Mann, who Time Magazine once called “the best photographer in America.” Penland resident artist Mercedes Jelinek is represented by a series of portraits printed through the platinum-palladium process, one of several antique printing methods that involve hand brushing a light-sensitive emulsion onto paper.

Chris McCaw creates strikingly graphic images by making exposures long enough for the sun to expose a path across the paper in the camera. Two of the artists, Richard Learoyd and Vera Lutter, make large-scale images in cameras the size of a small room. Adam Fuss’s remarkable silhouette of a baby floating in water was made by directly exposing color paper without the use of a camera.

In explaining the idea behind this show, Estabrook wrote: “The history of photography, like the history of technology in general, seems to suggest that every new system or process is an advancement on the last, making all older forms obsolete. And yet for every technique that has been pronounced dead, there seems to be an artist ready to explore its particular expressive qualities. After all, decades after the invention of mass-produced ceramics, people still want to throw beautiful pots. The artists in this exhibition are each exploring the possibilities of physical and chemical photography to pursue their own contemporary aims, very much in the here and now.” Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to see some beautiful contemporary photography made by artists who are finding new potential in old materials.

Other artists with work in the exhibition are David Emitt Adams, Christina Z. Anderson, John Brill, Christopher Colville, Bridget Conn, Danielle Ezzo, Jesseca Ferguson, Alida Fish, Sybylle Peretti, Andreas Renisch, Holly Roberts, Mariah Robertson, Alison Rossiter, Brea Souders, Jerry Spagnoli, Bettina Speckner, and Brian Taylor.

This is the first show in Penland’s beautiful new exhibition hall, which was built as part of an extensive renovation of Penland’s historic Horner Hall. In addition to this special exhibition, the gallery’s sales area includes work in many different craft media, and the Focus Gallery is presenting a small show of miniature paintings by Brooke Rothshank.

The Penland Gallery & Visitors Center is located on Conley Ridge Road, just off of Penland Road in Mitchell County (near the town of Spruce Pine). It is the first building on your right as you enter the Penland campus. Beginning on March 22, the gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and Sunday, Noon – 5:00 p.m.; closed on Mondays. For more information call (828) 765-6211 or visit penland.org/gallery.