Phantom Presence: Contemporary Photography in New Brunswick opens this week at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.
Fredericton, NB, June 18, 2015 — New exhibitions open June 25, launching the Beaverbrook Art Gallery’s summer season. The public is cordially invited to attend the opening reception at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Thursday, June 25, 2015 at 5 pm. Featured this season are contemporary New Brunswick photographers, emerging artists, and a retrospective of photographic works by a trailblazing twentieth-century photographer.
Phantom Presence: Contemporary Photography in New Brunswick explores photography through a diversity of approaches, photographic technologies, aesthetic viewpoints, and contemporary visions as represented by the work of photographic artists Jaret Belliveau, Amanda Dawn Christie, Carol Collicutt, Kyle Cunjak, Oliver Flecknell, Rachael Leigh Flett, Julie Forgues, Frédéric Gayer, Paul Griffin, Peter Gross, Mathieu Léger, Annie France Noël, Sophie Polanski and Vitaly Korneev, Evan Rensch, Neil Rough, Karen Ruet, Karen Stentaford, and Christina Thomson. Aimed at chronicling and heightening the profile of recent creative developments in contemporary photography in the province, it demonstrates photography as a disciplined way of seeing within an open field of possibilities for the exploration and expression of ideas.
According to co-curator Terry Graff, “photographs are the result of subjective choice, and tell us more about the perspective and biases of the photographer than about the reality of that which is recorded. At once familiar and strange, they are shadows or reflections of the past existing in the present, an uncanny medium or a kind of ‘phantom presence’.”
“What the photographers in Phantom Presence share is a passion for the process and magic of the photographic medium, its ability to communicate visually, and preserve indefinitely,” says Karen Ruet, co-curator of the exhibition. “Theirs is a story that often pauses to hear the whispers of those who have come before, and speaks of loss, of curiosity, of the state-of-the-world we live in today. The makers are, in most cases, the phantom artists whose personal, indelible mark is in the very fabric of the work they create, but rarely are the creators immediately visible to the viewer. They hover under and over and on the periphery of every piece they make and we are aware of them through their craft, their inquiry, and masterful story telling ability.”
Phantom Presence: Contemporary Photography in New Brunswick joins an ongoing exhibition of photographic works by pioneering photographer Harold Edgerton (1903-1990), whose work on high-speed and stroboscopic photography, helped advance photography in both aesthetic and scientific aspects. The exhibition, Freezing Time, presents eleven of these photographs from the permanent collection.
June 25 also marks the return of our Studio Watch: Emerging Artist Series – Painting exhibition. This year, the series’ eleventh, features two artists: Marie Fox and Stephanie Weirathmueller. These two figurative artists from the Fredericton area encapsulate the talent and professional development that this series seeks to present and support.
Phantom Presence: Contemporary Photography in New Brunswick, is curated by Karen Ruet and Terry Graff, and is supported by the Province of New Brunswick, the City of Fredericton, CI Institutional Asset Management (CI Investments), and the Scotiabank Artist Residency Program. Studio Watch: Emerging Artist Series – Painting is curated by Bernard Riordon, O.C., and made possible by Earl and Sandy Brewer. Both exhibitions run June 25 through August 30. Harold “Doc” Edgerton (1903-1990): Freezing Time is curated by Virgil Hammock, and is supported by the City of Fredericton and the Province of New Brunswick. It runs May 24 through August 30. Admission is FREE for Beaverbrook Art Gallery members and for children age six and under.
Video: Annie France Noel, whose work will be included as part of Phantom Presence: Contemporary Photography in New Brunswick
