William Mortensen at Buckland Museum

William Mortensen’s manipulated photographs are on exhibit at the Buckland Museum in Cleveland. The exhibition, titled “Witches” is just in time for Halloween. Mortensen began his career as a glamor and film still photographer in the 1920s. He soon turned to darker themes influenced by horror films. But it was his pictorialist compositing techniques that caused the photography-purist Ansel Adams to call him the Anti-christ.

The exhibition and venue are featured on WCPN Ideastream. The Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick was founded in New York in 1966 and relocated to Cleveland in 2015. More about William Mortensen here. More details about the exhibition here.

With a Trace: Photographs of Absence in Akron

Akron Art Museum
Jul 27, 2013 – Jan 26, 2014

With a Trace: Photographs of Absence features photographers spanning several generations who have not just captured a scene but created a moment in time. Their images bear traces of human presence, the transmission of energy, atmospheric phenomena and experiments with light. Among the artists, Christopher Bucklow, Sophie Calle, Margaret De Patta, Adam Fuss, Alison Rossiter, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Daido Moriyama use a wide range of processes to render their enigmatic subjects. Primarily analog or even camera-less photographers, they highlight the versatility of non-digital photography in capturing what the eye may not see. All of the images—whether a picture of a place or thing or purely abstract—emanate a mystical timelessness that promotes meditation.

The Lens Rises in Stature (NYTimes)

Read about how major museums like The Met are embracing photography in the New York Times here.

 

 

Transformer Station Opening Weekend Extended Hours

CLEVELAND (January 11, 2013) – Transformer Station, Cleveland’s newest art museum owned and operated by the Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell Foundation, announces a weekend open house from noon to 9:00 p.m., Feb. 1 and 2 and noon to 5:00 p.m. on Feb. 3. Visitors will have the opportunity to tour the recently renovated space and be the first to view two premiere exhibitions of contemporary photography and photo-based art. Admission to the Transformer Station is free.

During the weekend open house, gallery tours will be held throughout the day and evening. Rising Star Coffee Roasters, a coffee shop located directly across the street in the Ohio City Firehouse, will remain open during Transformer Station’s inaugural weekend hours. Touch Supper Club will park their food truck outside the museum Friday and Saturday evening and visitors will be encouraged to explore the exciting Ohio City restaurant and bar scene.

Light of Day:  Photographs from the Collection of Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell 
February 1 – May 4, 2013
Light of Day is an overview of the state of photo-based art today. Bidwell Projects collection focuses on acquisitions of new work by living artists, so many works in this show will be seeing the “light of day” for the first time. Featured artists include internationally recognized photographers Hiroshi Sugimoto, Adam Fuss and Abelardo Morell as well as younger artists who are now gaining recognition for their work. Works on view include traditional photographic processes that are repurposed, large-scale digital images and conceptual work that challenges images’ relationship to reality. Light of Day examines the accelerating changes in the technology, uses and meanings of photography that are explored by leading contemporary artists.

Bridging Cleveland:  Photographs by Vaughn Wascovich 
February 1 – May 4, 2013
Dramatic, large-scale panoramic images of landmark Cleveland bridges by Vaughn Wascovich were commissioned by the Bidwell Foundation for the inaugural exhibition of the Transformer Station. These works recall both the grandeur of 19th-century American landscapes and the action painting of Abstract Expressionism. Wascovich used handmade pin-hole panoramic cameras to capture the images and then manipulated the large-format paper negatives through a variety of media and techniques as they developed in the darkroom. Bridging Cleveland intends to evoke the historic majesty of the physical infrastructure of Cleveland and suggest the importance of spans yet to be crossed in the city’s future.

Transformer Station
A recently renovated transit substation of the now defunct Cleveland Railway Company, Transformer Station is an 8,000 square foot museum in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood that provides an additional opportunity for exposure to contemporary art in Northeast Ohio. While owned and operated by the Bidwell Foundation, a private collection focused on contemporary photography and photo-based art, for six months each year Transformer Station will host events and exhibitions curated by the Cleveland Museum of Art. Both Bidwell Foundation and the Cleveland Museum of Art will feature internationally recognized contemporary artists in Transformer Station programming.

After the open house, Transformer Station will be free and open to the public on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 5:00 p.m. and Thursdays from noon to 9:00 p.m.

Visit the Transformer Station website.

Guggenheim Internships

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is currently accepting applications for 2012 internships, in particular for the spring semester (mid-January through mid-April). Guggenheim internships are available for-credit as well as open to students and recent graduates not receiving academic credit but wish to pursue practical training in a museum environment.

Click here to learn more: Guggenheim Internships 2012, and contact me for more information on arranging your course credit.