The Maude Kerns Art Center is proud to present two compelling photography exhibits, “Four Photographers in Search of Abstraction,” with work by Dan Lenore, Photax, Gary Tepfer, and Marc Thibaut, and “Sound Waves,” showcasing photographs by Todd Cooper. The exhibits open on Saturday, July 5, with a public reception on Friday, July 11, from 5 – 7 pm. Both exhibits are on view through Friday, July 25.
“Four Photographers in Search of Abstraction” features the striking images of four life-long friends who explore the subject of abstraction in photography. These artists, though sometimes expressing divergent attitudes towards abstraction, are linked by their “commitment to finding beauty through clarity of vision, recorded with a camera, and shared with minimal manipulation.” The exhibit presents a lively interaction of ideas with images that encourages the viewer to look at the photographic image in a new way.
Dan Lenore, who passed away in early 2024, was a New York and Connecticut photographer who concentrated on still life and portrait photography using large format and polaroid film cameras. Dan’s wife, Nan, who represents him for this exhibit, describes her husband as happiest when he found the unusual, especially a surprise image. “He was always looking for changes in light and atmosphere, color and texture combining to make something new and abstract.”
Photax (a pseudonym) is a life-long Oregon photographer who has experimented with abstraction since the 1960s, with a focus on randomness in art and new ways to stimulate thoughts and emotions in the viewer. For Photax, abstract photography does not involve an "aha" moment of recognition of the subject. Rather “the image itself must be so compelling that its forms and shapes take over and become something other than the subject, of a different beauty completely unrelated to the subject.”
Gary Tepfer is a well-known landscape photographer based in Oregon. In this exhibit he displays abstract photos from across the span of his career as well as more recent explorations of abstraction. Tepfer describes how he was influenced by the aesthetic and emotional power of the abstract image in the work of Dutch painter Piet Mondrian: “I gained an understanding of how [the abstract image] can be embedded in the patterns of real objects waiting to be drawn out by the artist.”
Marc Thibaut (one of several heteronyms used by the artist) was born and raised on the west coast of the US and lives in Paris. His work, which he rarely shows, is characterized by elegant images drawn from what he sees in his daily life. These images are collected in hand-made art books, several of which will be exhibited. Thibaut questions the idea of abstraction in photography, stating: “even the most abstract images unavoidably retain traces of the real, which may or may not be recognized by viewers.”
Local artist Todd Cooper shows his music entertainment photographs in “Sound Waves,” on view in the Salon Gallery. Enamored of music performances since a teenager, Cooper has spent the last 20 years shooting musical events. He says: “I really try to keep attuned to the energy in the room, whether it be on stage or in the audience…. there are these waves that happen where it all builds, syncs, and explodes into this series of memorable moments. I feel really lucky when I can … get a frame or two of that magic.”
Artist Photax
