LVA at Louisville Metro Hall

    527 West Jefferson Street
    Louisville, KY 40202
    Hours: Mon-Fri, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm (closed weekends)
    Altered Perception – Louisville Visual Art presents Mitch Eckert, C.J. Pressma, & Jenny Zeller
    Dates: July 17, 2017 – January 12, 2018

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    Show Statement
    When is a photograph not a photograph? We think of carefully composed art images printed with immaculate technical skill, but many artists have used the photographic image as a means to an end, cross-pollinating techniques and mediums with the ingenuity intrinsic to creativity. Is the result a photograph or a quilt or a painting? Even among traditionalists, what now constitutes a baseline for presentation has shifted, so that aluminum prints have become the norm. These three artists illustrate the range and facility with which photography can be employed outside of the traditional. C.J. Pressma’s credentials as a photographer are not in question, having founded the Center for Photographic Studies in Louisville in the 1970’s, but several years ago he took up the study of quilts, incorporating photographic images printed on fabric to produce modern textile work with eye-popping digital imagery. The scale and complexity of the dense motifs are reminiscent of an aesthetic found more often among printmakers. Jenny Zeller is a mixed media artist who uses photography as the foundation for her imagery. Using various media, she builds surface and texture onto the photographic element to a degree that blurs the distinction between what is captured digitally and what is created by hand. Zeller’s work has a sculptural physicality that is astonishing for images born as photographs. Mitch Eckert also approaches the use of the photographic image in di erent ways. In these pieces, from his Translations series, he staged still life compositions to initiate, “a dialogue with the rich tradition of the Dutch masters of still life painting.” On the verge of discarding work prints in frustration, he responded to the fold and creases in the crumpled surface and returned to the images. The photographs deliberately evoke the past and a pictorial tradition that echoes in memory.
    Louisville Visual Art is a visual arts education, community outreach, and artist support organization. They have been dedicated to encouraging artists and enriching the community through programming since 1909. Their current programs include MAP, Artebella, Open Studio Weekend, and weekly calls for artists.