Gerald Pisarzowski: Art and Alchemy

 

Please join us Saturday, March 24, from 6 – 8 p.m. for the opening of Gerald Pisarzowski: Art and Alchemy. The exhibition will run through Saturday, April 21, 2012. The artist will be in attendance for the opening reception.

Scott's Falls #1, ON

 

Canadian photographer Gerald Pisarzowski has made a career of working in the art and alchemy of platinum printing. As a photographic medium, platinum prints have long been admired for their rich and delicate tonal scale and unmatched archival quality, and Pisarzowski ultimately exploits these benefits to his advantage. Fascinated with the juxtaposition of hard and soft forms, movement and scale, light and darkness, he prefers to work in areas he knows best, returning over time to get beyond the obvious and explore the more intrinsic qualities of his subjects.

Stones and Surf, CA

 

In addition to his own work, Pisarzowski conducts workshops in both landscape photography and the art of platinum printing, as well as printing for a wide range of his photographic contemporaries. Though he received his education at the University of Toronto, his photographic training came through a myriad of self-taught practices and formal and informal venues, including courses at Humber College and Ryerson Institute of Technology; workshops with Fred Picker, Freeman Patterson and Elizabeth Siegfried; and private study with Paul Hoeffler.

Lobster Head Cove, NF

 

Gerald has had a number of solo and group exhibitions in galleries in Canada and in the United States. His award winning work is included in a number of corporate and private collections as well as in the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the City of Toronto Archives.

Special Event: In conjunction with the 2012 FotoFest Biennial, now underway in Houston, we are also please to announce a special book signing event with gallery photographers Frank Yamrus, Renate Aller, 21st Editions and others on Saturday, March 24 from 11 am to 1 pm.

Mitch Dobrowner Passes a YouTube Milestone / Price Increase Announcement

 

A big congratulations to Mitch Dobrowner for reaching over 1 MILLION views on his Google produced Epic Storms video!

 

 

Please Note: Due to their popularity, many of Mitch's images have sold into the next price tier and will be undergoing an increase effective April 1, 2012.

For more information, please contact us here at the gallery by email at info@johnclearygallery.com, by phone at 713.524.5070 or stop in the gallery to see Mitch's work in person!

Tickets and Schedule for The AIPAD Photography Show in New York

 

With the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) Photography Show in New York close on our heels, we here at the John Cleary Gallery wanted to give you the most up-to-date information regarding schedules and purchasing of tickets.

Catherine will be available at Booth 120 for the entirety of the fair, and please make sure to check out our Spotlight: AIPAD 2012 page for updated information.

 

AIPAD Opening Night Gala:
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 (from 5 to 9 in the evening)
The AIPAD Photography Show New York
Park Avenue Armory • Park Avenue at 67th Street
5 to 9 p.m. • 250 USD
Includes entry for one person, one four-day Show pass, and one copy of the AIPAD catalogue
7 to 9 p.m. • 100 USD
Includes entry for one person and one, one-day Show pass
To purchase tickets online, please visit gala.aipad.com

 

General Show Hours and Admission:

Thursday, March 29 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Friday, March 30 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Saturday, March 31 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Sunday, April 1 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

$40 for four-day pass
Includes exhibition access for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, plus one catalogue (as available).

$25 for one-day pass
Includes exhibition access for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.

$10 for one-day pass with valid student ID
Includes exhibition access for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Not applicable for faculty.

 

For a more detailed schedule, along with a host of panel discussion opportunities, please visit the AIPAD NY homepage here.  Hope to see you in New York!

Understanding Jewish Ceremonial Art: A Conversation with Dr. Vivian Mann

 

Though we often focus primarily on photography and goings-on here at the John Cleary Gallery, it is also of importance to us to celebrate and acknowledge other artistic conversations occurring in the Houston area.

This Sunday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m., The Mollie and Louis Kaplan Museum of Judaica will be featuring a lecture with internationally renowned Jewish art scholar Dr. Vivian Mann entitled Understanding Jewish Ceremonial Art.

According to artshound.com:

"She will include objects that are on display in The Mollie and Louis Kaplan Museum of Judaica and others that are not, adding commentary to explain them and put them in their appropriate artistic and historical context. The talk, which is free and open to the public, will be followed by a wine and cheese reception to allow the audience further interaction with the speaker."

 

For more information, please contact Lisa Unsell at lunsell@bethyeshurun.org or (713)-255-8066 or at the organization's website at www.bethyeshurun.org.

Jeri Eisenberg Price Increase

 

Effective May 1, 2012, the price for Jeri Eisenberg's A Sojourn in Seasons waxed Kozo series will be undergoing an across-the-board price increase.

 

Magnolia, No. 9

 

Friends of the John Cleary Gallery will remember Jeri's exhibition that opened our 2011-2012 season.  For a reminder of those works, please visit our Bokeh exhibition page here or her artist page here.

 

Quaking Ash, No. 2

 

The current price structure is as follows, along with the updated price as of May 1:

Single Panel (36 x 22.5 inches): $1,600  / $2,000

Diptychs (36 x 22.5 inches):     $1,800  /  $2,100

Triptychs (36 x 34 inches):       $2,600  /  $3,000

Quadtypchs (36 x 45.5 inches): $3,500  /  $4,000

Additionally, please note that the last three of each run of editions will be priced based on a tiered system and do not reflect the general numbers above. 

 

Forsythia, No. 3

 

As always, inquire with the John Cleary Gallery to get the most up to date information on any of our fine art photographers!

David Fokos featured in Rangefinder and Natural Landscape Photography

 

Recent exhibitioner, David Fokos, has been featured in this month's edition of Rangefinder:

"When David Fokos takes a photo, his goal is to create the feeling he wants the viewer to experience; the objects in his images are simply devices to stir up specific emotions. 'With my work, I am not trying to show the viewer what these places look like, but rather what they fell like.  It is my hope that, looking at my work, you may viscerally share with me the experience of these places,' he says."

– Paul Slaughter (click here for the full article)

Foggy Night, Stafford, Texas

 

Concomitantly, Natural Landscape Photography Blog also has an extensive interview with David, focusing on process, the edition conundrum, early influences and a range of other topics.

Our skin reacts to sunlight, another stimulus, but how long does it take for us to get a tan or sunburn?  The point is that the world exists as a continuum, not just the artificial, frozen, slice of time the camera presents to us in a snapshot.  Our bodies respond to the world in a cumulative way, averaging our experience as we pass through time.  Using my camera to capture the passage of time through long exposures, I can reveal what our world “looks” like based on a longer time scale.  My photographic process acts as a translator – translating from the “invisible” world of non-instantaneous events, into the visible world of a photographic print.

(Click here for the full interview)

Jetty, Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts

 

Though David's show here at the John Cleary Gallery has unfortunately passed, we still have a large selection of his works on display (and those that aren't are easily accessible).  Stop in and see what all the fuss is about!

Oxford American's "The Visual South" 100 Under 100: The New Superstars of Southern Art

 

Hitting newsstands today is Oxford American's The Visual South issue, featuring "100 Under 100: The New Superstars of Southern Art." 

The John Cleary Gallery is pleased to congratulate photographers Keliy Anderson-Staley and Blake Fitch, as well as fellow Houstonian and friend of the gallery, Shelley Calton, for their inclusion on such a prestigious list!

Here's a sneak peak at the selected pieces and the comments featured in the magazine, with an appearance from our very own John Cleary Gallery owner and director, Catherine Couturier!

 

#39 – Keliy Anderson-Staley (Russeville, Arkansas)

Melaena and Mikael #2, 2009

In “[hyphen] Americans” (2008–present), Keliy Anderson-Staley’s portraits of contemporary Americans, each image is made as a unique and un-reproducible tintype image using a technology and a technique from the middle of the nineteenth century. These subjects appear as if they have been transported from an earlier and more serious time when the making of a portrait was a slow, difficult, and rare event: when the image was a landmark in the sitter’s life.

In our modern society, the ubiquity of images, camera phones, and the digital availability of innumerable images has inured most of us to the potential “presence” that an image of others, or even of ourselves, might possess. Such an idea also runs the gamut of her work, including a color series about families living “Off the Grid” (2010), or free of a life encumbered by electricity. Now, she teaches those ideas near her home in Russellville, Arkansas.

—Kevin Miller, Director, Southeast Museum of Photography

#76 – Blake Fitch (Boston, via Greensboro, NC)

Robin, 2011

In her project “Expectations of Adolescence,” Blake Fitch explores the transition from childhood to womanhood. Through photographs of her cousin and younger sister over a period of ten years, Fitch captures the simple moments in a girl’s search for identity. The series is powerful yet innocent, romantic yet strong, and its pensive nature encourages one to consider his or her own evolution from a time that was to the time that is.
           

—Catherine Couturier, Owner, John Cleary Gallery

 

#91 – Shelley Calton (Houston, TX)

I’ve had the fortune of watching Shelley Calton evolve as a photographer. One of her early projects, “Hard Knocks: Rolling with the Derby Girls,” presented a gorgeous series of silver-gelatin prints of “empowered women,” as the artist says, who “transform themselves from moms, teachers, and business women into competitive athletes.” Two other bodies of work,  “Invisible Thread” and “Necessaire,” offer tantalizing glimpses of feminine accoutrements—silky underthings, a powder puff, an old-fashioned cigarette case. She is currently working on a new project, “Licensed to Carry: Ladies of Caliber,” that focuses on women who own guns. In all of her photographs, Calton embraces and captures distinctive facets of feminine energy and strength.

—Debbie Fleming Caffery, photographer

 

Congratulations to all!