Past Exhibits
Susan kae Grant - Night Journeys
January 19 - March 16, 2008
Photographic visualizations based on personal dream researches.
About Night Journeys & Susan kae Grant
Night Journeys embodies the collaboration of artistic creativity and sleep laboratory methodology in the exploration of REM sleep, memory, and the unconscious. The work is composed of a series of intriguingly haunting large-scale images that recreate the fragmented and multi sensorial experience of dreaming. The inspiration for the project came from the artist's desire to conduct an inquiry into the subconscious, which led to her experiences sleeping as a subject in a sleep laboratory.
To produce the work, Grant collaborated with John Herman, PhD, at the sleep research laboratory of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. To access unconscious visual memory, Grant used herself as subject and was digitally monitored and awakened from REM sleep and then interrogated by trained technicians. Grant used the tapes of these narrative interviews as inspiration to create the imagery for the series.
The shadow gestures depicted in the images suggest a fragmented narrative as they shift in and out of focus signifying the impermanent quality of the dream-state. To create the gestures and narratives inspired by the dream recordings, Grant photographs shadows of models and props in her studio.
The Night Journeys series examines the perceptual and psychological aspects of the dream-state and provides a pictorial access to the unconscious. It raises universal questions among viewers and re-creates an unexplainable experience all humans share.
Susan kae Grant resides and maintains her studio in Dallas, Texas. She was awarded an MFA in Photography and Book Arts from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and has been a Professor in the Department of Visual Arts at Texas Woman's University for many years.
Ms. Grant has also lectured internationally at museums and galleries, as well as teaching at the International Center for Photography, New York. The Society for Photographic Education has twice presented her with awards for teaching excellence, as has The Santa Fe Center for Photography.
Susan has exhibited her photographic work in Canada, Europe, Australia, Africa and Japan, in addition to many venues in the U.S. She was recently honored with a thirty-year retrospective exhibition in Dallas, Texas. Her work may be found in many collections including: J. Paul Getty Museum, New York Public Library, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, George Eastman House and The Victoria and Albert Museum National Library.
Night Journeys will be the Inaugural Exhibition in Hallmark Museum's new gallery facilities at 52/56 Avenue A at the corner of 2nd Street.
Paul Taylor - Themes and Variations
January 19 - March 16, 2008
Creative work utilizing arcane, historic, & contemporary photographic processes.
About Themes and Variations & Paul Taylor
Themes and Variations is an exhibition of work selected from several of the diverse photographic series that Mr. Taylor has executed over the past twenty years. Running through these projects can be found a sometimes dark, foreboding and enigmatic vision, while at other times he provides the viewer with an almost childlike visual simplicity of joyous discovery and revelation.
Paul has written, "I create images that reflect the history, culture, and mystery of the places and objects that I photograph. The work is about beauty, the beauty of light, the beauty of the landscape, and the beauty of the photographic process."
Among the Themes in this, his first single-person museum exhibition, are: "Cappadocia", "The Sun", "Pigeons" and "Byzantine Marks". All of these projects were executed since 2002; the original camera exposures made while working under the patronage of an American living in Turkey. Silver-gelatin and photogravure prints were later made at his studio in Ashuelot, NH.
Of these four projects, Paul says: "The first body of work I photographed in Turkey consisted of landscapes created using the wet plate collodian process. The intense physicality of hauling large format equipment and a portable darkroom through the countryside, combined with the mystical and often surreal landscape, provided an intimacy and understanding of place that I have attempted to convey in these images. Repeat visits to Turkey gave birth to the images of the sun, pigeons and the soot-charred interiors of Byzantine monasteries."
"Intentionally, my images often give no clues as to the locality in which they are photographed but are unique to the history and culture of the region. As important as the act of photographing was, the insights gained through interactions with the local inhabitants, and the study of Turkish history, culture and local customs, became a critical component of the work."
Paul Taylor received his MFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 1986. He has returned there as a teacher and lecturer in the Print Making Department frequently.
For the past twenty-plus years, Paul has operated Renaissance Press, a fine art atelier concentrating on photogravure print making and maintained his own studio in Ashuelot, NH. His gravure clients have included numerous publishers, photographers and visual artists of international note. Among them: Kenro Izu, Linda Conner, Aaron Siskind, Tom Baril, Duane Michaels, Joel Peter Witkin, Carrie May Weems, Debbie Fleming Caffrey and John Dugdale. More recently, he has launched a digital print-making studio, in Brattleboro, Vermont, under the name of Renaissance Press Digital.
Mr. Taylor has most recently exhibited his photographs at Spheris Gallery, Hanover, NH, and Dianich Gallery, Brattleboro, VT. Following his HMCP exhibition, he will hold a spring exhibition at Reeves Contemporary Gallery, New York, NY.
Michael Yamashita - The Silk Road & Great Wall of China
September 25 - December 16, 2007
The magnificent color prints depict contemporary scenes from Mr. Yamashita's many years of travel retracing the routes of Marco Polo along the Silk Road, the daring and innovative early Chinese maritime explorer Zheng He's seven grand voyages, and 4,000 miles of the Great Wall of China.
Portraits, architectural wonders, marine activity, landscapes, agricultural practices, scenes of daily life and religious rituals from Italy, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Oman, Yemen, Zanzibar, Bali, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand and Mongolia reward the museum visitor with a rich sense of history and geography, a heightened awareness of the world's ethnic, cultural and religious diversity, and appreciation for the struggles and accomplishments of humankind.
The prints were made specifically for this exhibition from original film images. Mr. Yamashita acknowledges his gratitude for equipment and material support provided by Hewlett-Packard Development Company (HP), and the technical and aesthetic contributions of Renaissance Press Digital, Brattleboro, Vermont.
About Michael Yamashita
For over twenty-five years Michael Yamashita has combined dual passions for world travel and photography in his role as a National Geographic photographer. He is noted for his expertise in documenting Asia but he's also worked closer to home; his most recent book is a stunning selection of aerial photographs, "New York Flying High".
Michael has published numerous books in addition to his National Geographic Magazine work. They include: In the Japanese Garden; The Mekong: Mother of Waters; Marco Polo: A Photographer's Journey; Zheng He: Tracing Epic Voyages of China's Greatest Explorer. His next book, The Great Wall of China, is scheduled to be released in September, 2007, to coincide with his HMCP exhibition.
Mr. Yamashita has received awards from The National Press Photographer's Association, New York Art Directors Club and the Asian-American Journalists Association. He is a frequent lecturer and teacher at schools and workshops worldwide. And, his work has been exhibited in China, Japan, Italy, Singapore, Korea, Epcot Center and Los Angeles. A National Geographic Channel documentary film following Mike on one of his photographic expeditions through much of the Middle and Far East recently aired on international television.
Michael resides with his wife and daughter in Chester, New Jersey, where he also maintains a studio and extensive stock image licensing library. When he's not traveling or photographing, Michael serves as a volunteer firefighter in his hometown.
Ron Rosenstock - Hymn To The Earth
July 5 - September 23, 2007
Tom Young / John Willis - Recycled Realities & Other Stories
March 22 - June 17, 2007
John Willis earned his M.F.A. from Rhode Island School of Design. He is a professor at Marlboro College and is co-founder of the In-Sight Photography Project (Brattleboro, Vermont), and the Exposures cross-cultural youth photography programs.
Douglas Kirkland - FACE to FACE: Portraits from Fifty Years
January 3 - March 2, 2007
John Paul Caponigro - REFLECTIONS
September 25 - December 17, 2006
Kevin Bubriski - Bridging People/Bridging Cultures
July 6 - September 24, 2006
Jay Maisel - Retrospective
April 6 - June 18, 2006
Inaugural Exhibition: Barbara Bordnick
January 28 - April 2, 2006