Viewfind 8: A Group Photography Exhibition

VIEW FIND 8: A GROUP EXHIBITION FEATURING WORK BY PENNY ASHFORD, MARY ELLEN BARTLEY, DAVID DOUGLAS, JERI EISENBERG, PAM FOX, ELIJAH GOWIN, DAVID HALLIDAY, CYNTHIA HENEBRY, ROBERT LLEWELLYN, AMANDA MEANS, WAEL SABOUR, LEE SALOUTOS, GINEVRA SHAY, AND JON-PHILLIP SHERIDAN AT PAGE BOND GALLERY, JANUARY 18 TO FEBRUARY 16, 2019.

Page Bond Gallery is pleased to present View Find 8: A group exhibition featuring work by Penny Ashford, Mary Ellen Bartley, David Douglas, Jeri Eisenberg, Pam Fox, Elijah Gowin, David Halliday, Cynthia Henebry, Robert Llewellyn, Amanda Means, Wael Sabour, Lee Saloutos, Ginevra Shay, and Jon-Phillip Sheridan at the Page Bond Gallery. The exhibitions open Friday, January 18 from 6 to 8PM and is on view through February 16, 2019.

In this series, Elijah Gowin’s is drawn to the landscapes of self-taught artists. Specifically, he is fascinated with the landscapes that surround them. We are privileged to see self-taught Birmingham artist Lonnie Holley and his world through Gowin’s caring lens. These photographs were taken during the final days before Holley’s environment was lost to a bulldozer, making way for a new airport nearby.

Holley began making art in the late seventies, carving sculptures from a sandstone‐like material left as a by‐product of the steel industry. His early carvings were simple, but he was soon creating complex sculptures of historical figures and painting.

The mystery and ambiguity Gowin creates in these images is reminiscent of a walk through Lonnie Holley’s yard, yet they are Gowin’s work. Through his selection and his intervention, he has both documented and revealed truths of the special place.

Elijah Gowin received his MFA in Photography from the University of New Mexico. His photographs are in the collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Center for Creative Photography, among others. His awards include the John S. Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008 as well as grants from the Charlotte Street Foundation and the Puffin Foundation. He is currently a professor of art at the University of Missouri in Kansas.

In her new body of photographs, Trace, Pam Fox is interested in still life imagery that combines the fluidity of drawing and painting with the optical specificity and technical control offered by photography. In this series of images, she is photographing backlit glass and other still life items through printed linen. Lit from behind, the still life casts shadows forward onto the linen. These shadows and the objects behind the loosely woven fabric distort and fuse. Cubist-like, the shapes break down as foreground and background merge. The resulting images are ambiguous, yet “straight” and un-manipulated photographs.

In a recent interview, Fox told American Spark podcast, “What intrigues me most about photography is its compelling allusion to physical reality.”

Pam Fox is a Professor of Fine Arts at Hampden-Sydney College. She holds her B.F.A. and M.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University in Communications Arts and Photography respectively. She is the recipient of two Virginia Commission for the Arts Fellowship Grants, two Virginia Museum Fellowships, and the Theresa Pollack Prize in Photography. Her work is included in many corporate and museum collections, including the permanent collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.