GRIFFIN MUSEUM ATELIER 17 @ THE CULTURAL CENTER

The Cultural Center at Rocky Neck Presents Selections from the Griffin Museum’s Photography Atelier 17

June 20 - July 7, 2013

Secret Life of Birds
Judy Robinson-Cox
photography
Mindscapes Series

The Cultural Center at Rocky Neck, 6 Wonson Street, Gloucester MA, is pleased to partner with the Griffin Museum of Photography to present a selection of superb photographs from the Griffin Museum’s recent Photography Atelier 17 exhibition.

The public is invited to meet the artists at a reception at the Cultural Center at Rocky Neck on Sunday, June 23 from 2 - 4 PM and during regular gallery hours: Thursday - Sunday, 11 AM - 6 PM.

According to Karen Ristuben, president of the Rocky Neck Art Colony, "Bringing a show of this caliber to Rocky Neck is made possible in part, by the designation of Gloucester's Cultural District at Rocky Neck, by the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the dedication of a strong team of committed volunteers."

A unique portfolio building course for emerging to advanced photographers, Photography Atelier is offered through the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester MA.  Now in its 18th year, the course is taught by Karen Davis with Meg Birnbaum assisting.  In addition to guidance and support in the creation of a body of work, the class helps prepare artists to market, exhibit and present their work to industry professionals.  In this course the students can choose to photograph with any form of image capture i.e from pinhole to digital camera and use any option to present the images.  Instruction in the Atelier includes slide presentations and discussions that consider contemporary trends as well as the history of photography.

The class attendees include 15 accomplished photographers and along with the instructor and assistant all will be participating in this exhibit:

Bob Avakian, Edgartown, MA

Betsy Constantine, Carlisle, MA

Jorge Galvez, Winchester, MA

Trelawney Goodell, Lexington, MA

Vicki McKenna, Newton, MA

Jane Paradise, San Francisco, CA & East Orleans, MA

Amy Rindskopf, Winchester, MA

Judy Robinson-Cox, Gloucester, MA

Linda Rogers, Westport, MA

Gail Samuelson, Sherborn, MA

Dianne Schaefer, Arlington, MA

Alice Shafer, Acton, MA

Dick Simon, Newton, MA

Ellen Slotnick, Newton Centre, MA

Christy Stadelmaier, Boston, MA

Instructor Karen Davis, Hudson, NY

Assistant Meg Birnbaum, Somerville, MA

Below are highlights of some of the exhibiting artists:

Instructor Karen Davis’s photographs are featured at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), the Boston Drawing Project/Carroll and Sons Gallery, the Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA and in the collections of the Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, Lishui Museum of Photography (China) and the Houghton Rare Books Library, Harvard University.  Davis is the recipient of the 2009 Artists Fellowship Award from the CPW, and a 2011 New York Foundation for the Arts’ (NYFA) MARK artist.

Frieda B. Fabulous Prepares to Hit the Streets to Raise Money for the Red Cross
Meg Birbaum

Assistant Meg Birnbaum’s photographs are featured at Gallery Tanto Tempo, Kobe, Japan and Photo-Eye Gallery, Photographer’s Showcase, Santa Fe, NM with selected images on view at Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, WA; Davis-Orton Gallery, Hudson, NY; and Wall-Space, Seattle, WA. An image from her “Sisters of Perceptual Indulgence” series will be shown in this exhibition.

Pyongyang Metro, North Korea
Dick Simon

Dick Simon’s photographs portray the untold human stories behind the headlines in regions of conflict around the world.  Sharing his experiences, Simon bridges the gap between “us” and “them”. His photographs and personal accounts from Syria, Jordan, Israel and Palestine have appeared in the Huffington Post, NPR/PBS, the Boston Globe, and other major media. Exhibitions include Danforth Museum of Art, Griffin Museum of Photography, Minneapolis Photo Center, PhotoPlace Gallery, The Art Institute of New York and The New England Institute of Art.  Simon is co-Founder and Chair of the YPO Peace Action Network (PAN), engaging over 19,000 business leaders in 110 countries, utilizing their unique expertise, relationships and resources to make a difference globally.  A serial entrepreneur and real estate developer, Dick is an active social enterprise philanthropist and committed change-maker.  Selections from his “North Korea: Pyongyang Metro” series will be shown in here.

Jane Paradise is a San Francisco and Cape Cod based photographer.  Her work is featured in the collection of the Southeast Museum of Photography and Gallery Ehva in Provincetown.  She shows regularly at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, the Cape Cod Art Association and the Griffin Museum of Photography.  Jane has won numerous awards including those from the Cambridge Art Association’s National Prize, the Pacific Art League National show and the Cape Cod Art Association.  She also received gold and honorable mention awards in the Worldwide Gala Awards and received three honorable mentions in the Lucie International Photography Awards.  Selections from her series “Dune Shacks at Provincetown” will be shown at this exhibit.

Bob Avakian was recently awarded a one-person Gallery Artist Prize show at the Dillon Gallery.  Juror William Baczek , of William Baczek Fine Arts Gallery in Northampton, chose Avakian, because he felt his Night photographs successfully revealed his surroundings with new eyes.  Baczek said “Night photography does this because it shows us something that we know exists but in a way that is impossible to view with our own eyes. The camera can ‘see’ things that our eyes cannot. Avakian allows the camera to use the ‘real’ world to present us something that doesn’t really exist so that a new world becomes revealed.” Images from this series will be shown at The Cultural Center.

JesseKo Windwalker 3rd Great Grandson of Samuel Duncan Patterson
Linda Rogers

Linda Rogers is a finalist in the Worldwide Photography Gala Awards with images from her body of work called “The Quandary of Legacies” that shows the path of objects through generations to the present day.  Selections from this series will be in this show.

Deconstructing Turning 60
Gail Samuelson

Gail Samuelson photographs intimate moments in the life of her family.  Her work includes studies of her father’s Alzheimer’s Disease (Down Hill All the Way,) her breast surgery (My New Bra,) her 26-year-old daughter’s return home (Jessie,) and an on-going series of self-portraits.  Samuelson was recently selected by juror Caleb Cole for the 2013 Self Portrait exhibition at the PhotoPlace Gallery in Middlebury, VT.  Her work has been exhibited at the Blue Competition, curated by Joe Thompson, at the Cambridge Art Association, the Griffin Museum of Photography, the New England School of Photography and published on corporate websites and as author portraits.  Images from her “Self Portrait at Sixty” will be shown here.

Judy Robinson-Cox of Gloucester, MA, creates and photographs temporary tabletop dioramas that capture humorous human events and the inner workings of the mind. She was recently invited to show a selection of her Lilliputian Landscapes series at Johnson and Wales Culinary Arts Museum in Providence RI and at the Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport MA. A selection of her new series, “Mindscapes” that examines the relationship between the conscious and unconscious mind, will be shown at the Griffin/Cultural Center exhibition.

Artists' Reception on Sunday, June 23, from 2 - 4 PM