Tonight I got to spend a little time taking in a pair of nifty photo exhibits currently on display in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward. The first was a 4-person show at the Portrait Gallery in the Marshall Building and the second was the COPA Members’ Show, just a block north at the Mayer Building.
The Portrait Gallery is showing 4 artists: Erik Ljung, Kevin Miyazaki, a project by Jim Brozek, and Judy and Martin Drinka. Each artist is showing a rather unique body of work. This exhibit is hanging until July 10, 2011.
- Erik Ljung’s grouping is called “Pilgrimage to Parsons, Kansas” and is a series of images made during a road-trip to Parsons, to visit the last photo-lab processing Kodachrome slides. His work is comprised of images shot on film and printed digitally. They’re great looking prints!
- Kevin Miyazaki has a number of portraits made during the protests at Madison, WI, during the late winter of 2011. These portraits do a great job of showing the diversity of people concerned about the policies Governor Walker was/is trying to enact.
- Judy and Martin Drinka’s photos, as curated by Julia Taylor, are of the Drinka’s honeymoon. In Cuba. In 1957. That country has a charm that’s apparent in every photograph I’ve ever seen from that country.
- Jim Brozek’s project is actually focused on photographs made by a woman named Livija in the 1950s. She would make various flower arrangements and then photograph them. Brozek came across these images, years ago when an apartment manger gave them to him when clearing out an elderly resident’s apartment.
The COPA (Coalition Of Photographic Arts) show is massive…nearly 400 images! This exhibit is on display until MAY 21, 2011.
The COPA show standouts, for me, were:
- Judith Pannozo’s image from Italy of a couple’s unique method of riding a bicycle together. It’s nicely printed and a lovely European moment.
- Rikki Thompson’s panoramic image of clouds clearing from some mountaintops is breath-taking.
- Some of Paul Matzner’s street photos are shot from elevated perspectives, resulting in a “flattening” of the visual field, reducing common objects into new shapes and angles.
- Tim Holte’s winter-lakeside images show the serenity that can be found during winter, and juxtapose that with an image showing the raw power created in the combination of a winter storm and a large water mass.
- Byron Becker has some very well-done large format landscape images. Real nice B+W work.
- Bernard Spinelli demonstrates skill in the realm of “straight” street photography–they look like classics.
- The only complaint I have for the show is the poor display of Tim Holte’s photo of a rainbow caught between Lake Michigan’s waves below and thunder clouds above…this amazing image is placed in a corner next to a lamp. An image like this needs much more “respect” in its showing.
While at the COPA show, I got to chat with Robb Quinn, current COPA president, and to add my likeness to his current portrait project! Look to see it here, with all the other portraits he’s been making! 🙂 Thanks, Robb!
Milwaukee continues to demonstrate that it is home to a wealth of Creativity! I hope you can get out and see these exhibits!
