Main Gallery: SITUATION REPORT
Erin Dvorak, Lynn Cazabon, Heather Schulte,
Elizabeth Morisette, Armando Geneyro, Nolan Septer
MAR 11, 2021 – APR 4, 2021
Opening Reception – Friday, MAR 12 [6:30-9 PM]
Situation Report presents a capsule of artists’ responses to three concerns facing us as we look back on recent events. The state of our environment and our relationship to it, viewed through large-format land studies by Erin Dvorak, images from Boulder County Rangers documenting the CalWood fire, and Lynn Cazabon’s photograms on expired photographic vellum, alongside documentation of protests for social justice in Denver by Armando Geneyro and Nolan Septer. Heather Schulte’s titular stitched ribbon of Covid-19 case counts winds through the space, and along with Elizabeth Morisette’s sculptural treatment of mask-making remnants, bring a structure and tactility to the process of using art as a means to record the pas- sage of time.
In a packed exhibit reflecting the push and pull of 2020’s news cycles, we can use the gallery space to view each work in relationship to the others, evaluating and informing our responses.
FEATURING IMAGES PROVIDED BY
BOULDER COUNTY PARKS AND OPEN SPACE
In preparing an exhibit for Month of Photography that would attempt to encapsulate the events of 2020, Curator Brandy Coons adopted a flexible approach: fine art and journalistic photography has its limits, photographers are not allowed everywhere, so documentation and presentation meet the concerns of privacy, access, and emotional response.
Rangers in Boulder County documented the reach and effects of 2020’s CalWood fire and have made those images available to the public. The images were made with an eye to the damage suffered by wildlife and park structures, and serve as historical documentation, presenting views otherwise unavailable to us, as access to the parks and lands affected by the fire was restricted from professional photographers and visitors. In presenting these im- ages in concert with the work of professional artists, we can meditate on their similarities and differences in message and intent, celebrating photography’s uniquely voyeuristic effect, as we look at the fires from an otherwise unavailable perspective.
HEATHER SCHULTE – heatherdschulte.com
“Situation Report” is a community project documenting daily cases of COVID-19 through individual stitches, from the start of the pandemic through Spring 2020. Though she began the work on her own, when faced with overwhelming numbers Schulte quickly opened the project to in-person and remote contributors, integrating a larger collaborative response, in the historical tradition of community stitching and sewing events. Schulte writes: “It is my hope that this piece will serve as a safe space to share our experiences of these difficult and devastating times, and find ways to build anew, one stitch at a time, together.”
ERIN DVORAK – erindvorak.com
Presenting large-format photographs from her South Platte River Studies, Dvorak meditates on our relationship to land and water management. “From where the snow melts, east of the Continental Divide, the South Platte River cascades over mountain ridges, fills basins, carves canyons, and meanders through grasslands. The delicate alpine beginnings of the river nourish a robust amount of people as it flows north toward the metropolitan of Denver, Colorado, and creates the South Platte River Basin. Its course through Colorado runs 380 miles, and its history is an interconnected journey of water appropriators. Ephemeral, yet seemingly immortal, the South Platte River represents irony, indulgence, and sublimity in contemporary society.”
NOLAN SEPTER – septerphoto.com
Nolan Septer studied photography at the Isaacson School for Communication, Arts & Media at Colorado Mountain College. He has exhibited his work in numerous group shows in Colorado, Minnesota, and New York. Nolan has completed several abstract bodies of work in landscape and portraiture. This year he documented the Black Lives Matter protests that ensued after the death of George Floyd. An image from that series was displayed at the International Center of Photography in New York City in their show ICP Concerned: Global Images for Global Crisis.
ARMANDO GENEYRO – armandogeneyro.com
Presenting two images from his Street Journal series documenting social action and protests in Denver in 2020. Geneyro is a co-founder of Theyshootn, a collective of photographers and videographers. As a group, Theyshootn has hosted several visual-based events, including Winter in America – an exhibit series that brings photography and philanthropy together to speak on topics such as homelessness, drug abuse, and domestic violence from the viewpoint of new up-and-coming artists.
LYNN CAZABON – lynncazabon.com
Using expired black and white photographic paper and lengthy solar exposures, these unique cameraless, contact prints feature shadowy images of discarded electronics, which persist in the environment long after their obsolescence, juxtaposed with organic materials, highlighting their vastly different rates of decay. Cazabon is based in Baltimore, MD and is a Professor of Art at University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
ELIZABETH MORISETTE – elmorisette.com
Fiber and textile artist Elizabeth Morisette has long used remnants in her work, and has created 100 “anti-bodies” from the scraps of her own mask-making. With these quilted sculptures she presents a meditative series regarding the power of the objects and the craft process. Her creative repurposing calls to mind the labor, care, and volume of production and waste with a material soft- ness that allows us to consider the vast, unintelligible reach of the pandemic with empathy and a personal touch.
