'Important Incidentals' Photography Exhibit at Silvermine Arts Center

New Canaan, CT – Ready for something a little different from Silvermine Arts Center?  Fairfield County’s preeminent visual arts center will host an exciting photography exhibit through December 20, 2012 with an opening reception to be held Sunday, November 11 from 2- 4pm.  ‘Important Incidentals’  a Guild Group Photography Show features works by graphic artist/photographer Miggs Burroughs, fine art photographers Leigh Leibel and Torrance York, commercial and fine art photographer Jeremy Saladyga as well as photographers Alan Shulik and Majorie Gilette Wolfe.

“Photography does not initially come to mind when one thinks of Silvermine Guild of Artists,” says Jeremy Saladyga, whose studio isbased out of New Fairfield, CT.  “But the exhibitors applied for a show two years ago after we realized there had not been a guild member photography show since any of us we were juried into the guild.”  

The title: ‘Important Incidentals’ can refer to fleeting but significant moments, observations made in passing, or interruptions to an expected norm.  “The phrase can also relate to a detail whose presence changes the meaning of a whole or to a pointed juxtaposition,” says York.   With this concept as a base the exhibiting photographers branch out and connect their aesthetic interests. 

For Westport, CT artist Miggs Burroughs, his “Newd” series of lenticular images allow the viewer to share the experience of the person depicted, who becomes nude while viewing paintings of nudes in a museum setting.

“My images capture an assortment of women in a gallery, admiring various nude masterpieces by Matisse, Miro and others,” he says.  “Through the “magic” of lenticular imagery, we can see the women’s clothes vanish as they yearn to become one with the women in the paintings. The show is called “Important Incidentals”, and here, this very common gallery experience, for us, and for the women in the photos, takes on unexpected significance, as we witness the profound impact these masterpieces are having on those who view them.”

In her large-scale photograph, Self Portrait #9, New Canaan artist Leigh Liebel shows the figure of the artist as a metaphorical Odysseus intersecting the peaceful horizon of a rooftop infinity pool and the city skyline in the distance.

“In “Self-Portrait #9”, I am a metaphorical Odysseus; an important incidental dissecting an horizon of illusion.  Informed by the early twentieth century poem “Ithaka” by Constantine Cavafy, my photograph references the familiar story of The Odyssey as metaphor for the journey of life and the discovery of many new harbors.”

Torrance York’s images from the series ‘Refractions,’ reveal the child subject as seen through a reflection or otherwise mediated element such as a glass of water on the dining table; an optically challenging perspective that asks us to create our own understanding of what we are shown.

“On the surface photography realistically captures what we see, but what is the effect of an obstacle between the camera and subject?”  she asks.  “In this case, photography can capture what we cannot see with our own eyes in a single glance.”

For Marjorie Gilette Wolfe, a simple visual incident becomes her subject and is abstracted as a series of variations are presented side by side.  Alan Shulik offers a remarkable landscape showing mesquite trees on the edge of a field of sand dunes, made exceptional by a ray of white light peeking through the storm clouds overhead and illuminating the scene.

Finally, Jeremy Saladyga, using an unexpected perspective from ground level, captures a moment in the chaos of everyday life—a pedestrian filled street intersection in New York City or a rural carnival scene-- and within that environment we draw relationships among the participants in the scene imposing our own meaning on the story.

“The two photographs included in the show are from an ongoing series titled: ‘Balance,’ which deals with the landscape and the human presence,” he explains.  “Both images’ main characters are children of different ages involved in a real life moment that must have the most important significant meaning to them at the split second, yet in the grand scheme of their life these moments are only fleeting.”

For more information visit www.silvermineart.org or call 203.966.9700

Leigh Leibel is a fine art photographer specializing in portraiture and documentary photography.  Originally from New Canaan, CT she now works in NYC.  Leigh is a former executive producer at CNN.  She has exhibited at Katonah Museum and Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and was an Aldrich "Radius" emerging artist. www.leighliebel.com

Torrance York’s landscape projects include Road Works shot in Connecticut and the Hudson Valley, and Functional Ground.  The new series included in the group show, Important Incidentals, is titled Refractions.  In 2010 York was awarded a Connecticut Artist Fellowship grant from the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism.  She has exhibited in solos shows at Silvermine Guild Galleries in New Canaan, Connecticut, the New Canaan Library, and Thos. Moser in New York City.  She was one of twelve artists included in the regional Radius: Emerging Artists 2007 exhibition co-organized by the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and the Ridgefield Guild of Artists.  She has exhibited in additional group shows locally and nationally.  York has won numerous awards for her artwork including First Place from New York Times art critic Benjamin Genocchio in the 2008 Ridgefield Guild Annual Juried show, and Second Place from gallerist Peter MacGill in the Silvermine Galleries’ SPECTRA 2007 National Photography Triennial.   She has been published twice in The Photo Review, and in January 2010 was featured in the Silver Eye Center for Photography New Works Gallery Online.  In 1994 she was a resident artist at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, Colorado.  York serves on the Board of the Educational Video Center in NYC where she formerly taught documentary video.  She is an Artist Member of Silvermine Guild Arts Center and teaches photography through a Carver Center after school program at Norwalk High School.  Her photography is represented in New York City by Littlejohn Contemporary.  York earned an MFA in photography from Rhode Island School of Design and a BA from Yale.  www.torranceyorkstudio.com

Miggs Burroughs is a lifelong resident of Westport, and full time graphic artist since 1972.  Miggs has designed hundreds of logos, ads, brochures and websites for commercial and non-profit clients throughout Fairfield County. He has created award-winning posters for Save The Children, The American Red Cross and Baskin-Robbins, several covers for TIME magazine, a U.S. Postage Stamp, an Easter Egg for the White House, and the Westport Town Flag, are among his more celebrated designs, some of which hang in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. His early Pop Art style paintings and prints were shown in galleries in Boston and New York, as well as part of an installation at 77 Water Street in New York City, which, after almost 30 years, appeared on the front page of the Wall Street Journal as the centerpiece of a controversy over art and censorship. As a member of the Westport Arts Center and the Silvermine Guild in New Canaan, he has recently won much acclaim for his work with lenticular imagery, which has also been exhibited in several one-man shows throughout Fairfield County since 2003 - winning several “Best in Show” awards.  Miggs is a 1967 graduate of the Carnegie Tech Drama Dept. in Pittsburgh (now Carnegie Mellon University). www.miggsb.com

Jeremy Saladyga has been a professional location photographer since graduating in 1995 with a BFA from Parsons School of Design/Parsons Paris and a minor in Art Education. His specialties include Portraits, Interiors and Events, and his work has appeared in many publications including People, In-Style, Martha Stewart and Time Out New York. His photographs have also recently been published in the book, Knoll: A Modernist Universe.  Jeremy’s personal photography work is influenced by the modern masters but incorporates non-traditional cameras and lens such as pinhole and macro lenses to produce his abstract work. His photographs have been exhibited in the Museum of the City of New York, Foley Gallery in NYC and the Kehler Liddell Gallery in New Haven. www.jeremysaladyga.com