“Photo / Faculty” opened this weekend at The VanDernoot Gallery in Porter Square, the twist on this group show being that every artist on view also teaches at a New England college or university.
The theme makes you look more closely and wonder what each artist’s teaching style is like. Does Tony Luong – whose playful photo of a Barcelona man feeding birds with one hand and smoking a cigarette with the other – lead a jokey critique session? What fun props might Brian Ulrich bring to the classroom, since his lively untitled still life holds trinkets and curiosities galore?
The show is eclectic, like many group exhibitions, with many highlights. Amy Lovera’s ghostly black and white “18 wishes” is right at home next to Jessina Lynn Leonard’s “Abeceda (L is for Light),” a circular image of a blue candle on grid paper.
In the corner, Joetta Maue has a gem of an installation called “Layers of light,” in which photos on silk hang ever so delicately from the ceiling. A set of glass prisms, also hanging, cast tiny shadows onto the wall.
“Photo / Faculty” gives viewer an excuse to look closely and think more deeply about the people behind the pieces. Artists tend to need day jobs, it’s true, and often teaching jobs at that. But those aren’t just for a paycheck, the show seems to say. They are part of an ongoing exchange between student and teacher – one whose ripple effect changes the art practice of both for the better. The show shines a light on the intertwined nature of education and art making.
“Photo / Faculty” was curated by Catherine LeComte Lecce, the Photographic Resource Center’s program manager and an artist in her own right.
“Photo / Faculty” through May 17 at The VanDernoot Gallery, 1815 Massachusetts Ave., Porter Square, Cambridge. Free.
Share your own 150-word appreciation for a piece of visual art or art happening with photo to editor@cambridgeday.com with the subject line “Behold.”
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