The Maude Kerns Art Center is proud to present “Shifting Focus: Photography at Oregon Invitational,” opening with a free public reception from 5 – 7 pm on Friday, May 10. The exhibit is on view through Friday, June 7.
“Shifting Focus” showcases a variety of digital and analog photography processes, including the collodion wet plate process, cyanotype, infrared, and pinhole photography. The subject matter touches upon time, technology, culture, and environmentalism. Eight artists from across the country exhibit work in this Photography at Oregon Invitational. “Shifting Focus” features Barbora Bakalarova (Eugene, OR), Tracy Barbutes (Groveland, CA), Sarah Grew (Eugene, OR), Rob Hammer (Raleigh, NC), Eric Kunsman (Rochester, NY), Willie Osterman (Canandaigua, NY), Osceola Refetoff (Los Angeles, CA), and Nolan Streitberger (Albany, OR).
Barbora Bakalarova shows work from her series titled “Mythos,” featuring manipulated photos that are often layered, colored, torn, and rephotographed.
Tracy Barbutes, known for her wildfire photography, shows images reflecting her relationship with California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, its wild inhabitants, and fire.
Sarah Grew uses historic printing techniques to highlight the current fragility of a planet threatened by climate change in her installation of cyanotype images of plankton.
Rob Hammer documents the daily lives of real working cowboys/cowgirls to reveal details of cowboy culture in the American West.
Eric Kunsman, in a series called “Life-Lines,” explores a technological relic, the payphone, and analyses its role in society.
Willie Osterman exposes the power and universality of the concept of “Masking” in his portraits of masks from private collections from around the world.
Osceola Refetoff documents humanity’s relationship to the physical world using infrared and pinhole photography to create hyper-realistic, often surreal images.
Nolan Streitberger documents Oregon’s “Trail of Tears” using an antique wooden view camera and a wet plate collodion photo process from the 1850s.
