Curated by Peggy Shaw
Monday, November 12, 2012 – Saturday, February 2, 2013
Reception: Thursday, November 15, 6–8pm; Curatorial Talk at 7pm
Music by the Parkland Guitar Ensemble

Closed: 5pm November 21-25 Thanksgiving Break; December 22– January 6 for Holiday Break; and January 21 for Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Photographers from across the country will participate in an exhibition entitled “Shift: Contemporary Photography Exhibition” opening Monday, November 14 at the Parkland Art Gallery.

Accomplished photographers from across the country will participate in the exhibition Shift: Contemporary Photography Exhibition, curated by Parkland’s Art and Design faculty member Peggy Shaw. The exhibition will run from Monday, November 12 through Saturday, February 2, 2013. An opening reception honoring the photographers is scheduled for Thursday, November 15 from 6-8pm.

Serving as curator for this group exhibition is Peggy Shaw, an associate professor in photography/video at Parkland College writes in her essay, “Photographers have always had to integrate creativity, technology, and process - responding to light, adjusting lens, translating pixels to paper. As photography evolves photographers must also, but what’s truly revealing are the ways they respond: open to both contemporary and historical processes now considered alternative - subject and process is twisted to reveal new ideas.”

This exhibition provides viewers with the opportunity to examine the work of photographers who work with a variety of lens-based equipment and each artist has their own viewpoint on either our natural world, structured worlds, and/or the body. Shaw continues, “Using digital cameras, webcams, video cameras, microscopes and scanners - these works are not only captured - but created. New technology and processes do not replace the old but add to the options for artists to interpret, and then express their ideas”.

Shaw received her Master of Fine Arts degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her photography has been shown nationally and has won numerous awards in both photography and video, including fellowships from both the Illinois Arts Council and Arts Midwest/NEA Regional.

Participating artists include a mix of studio artists and faculty at educational institutions across the country: Bruce Checefsky (Director of the Reinberger Galleries at the Cleveland Institute of Art and Adjunct Professor in Liberal Arts, Cleveland, OH), Dana Fritz (Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE), Richard Gray (Associate Professor of Photography and Chairperson of the Department of Art, Art History & Design at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN), Christa Kreeger Bowden (Associate Professor of Art at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA), Joyce Lopez (Studio Photographer, Chicago, IL), Michael Sherwin (Assistant Professor in Photography and Intermedia at West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV), S. Gayle Stevens (Part-Time Instructor of Photography, College of Dupage, Glen Ellyn, IL) and Sonja Thomsen (Studio Photographer, Milwaukee, WI).

This exhibition is a wonderful opportunity for art students who have a desire to learn more about the various options available to them as photographers. It is also an educational experience for the community to learn more about the different processes as well, all the while taking a look at the diverse viewpoints on our complex and multi-layered world.

Parkland Art Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday; and noon to 2 p.m. Saturday. The gallery will be closed from 5 p.m. on November 21 through November 25 for Thanksgiving Break; December 22 through January 6 for Winter Break; and January 21 for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

To find the gallery when classes are in session, we suggest using the M6 parking lot on the north corner of the campus. Enter through any door and follow the ramps uphill to the highest point of the first floor, where the gallery is located. The gallery windows overlook the outdoor fountain area.

Programs at the gallery are partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. Parkland College is a section 504/ADA-compliant institution; for accommodation, call 217/351-2505.

For more information on the invitational, please call the gallery office at 217/351-2485 or visit www.parkland.edu/gallery.

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