Current In-Person Exhibit

A Simple Circle
Photographs by James Gehrt

Gem Tactics—Practicing Sands—
by Michael Medeiros

On display in the gallery: December 2023
Public reception: Sunday, December 10th, 1 to 4pm

A Simple Circle — Photographs by James Gehrt

ARTIST STATEMENT

A Simple Circle is inspired by the original Kodak camera, a wooden box that revolutionized photography in 1888. The kodak produced 100 small round images that captured the everyday moments of life in the late 1800s. They were intimate, spontaneous, and personal.

I collect and study these early photographs, looking for compositions that resonate with me. I then use a large format camera and silver gelatin prints to make my own circular photographs. I round and gild the edges like the originals, but mount them on 11x14 boards, enlarging the scale and impact of the image.

My work celebrates photography as a medium of expression, communication, and connection. It is a homage to the evolution from analog to digital images, and a reflection of my own identity and perspective. It is a collection of circular images that compare my photographs with the past, creating a visual dialogue across 135 years.

Website: www.jamesgehrtphoto.com

Gem Tactics—Practicing Sands— by Michael Medeiros

An exhibit of photography, ceramics and printmaking inspired by the poet Emily Dickinson, Gem Tactics—Practicing Sands— explores notions of physical and creative space. For five years Michael Medeiros was the public relations coordinator at the Emily Dickinson Museum in downtown Amherst, where he experienced the homes and gardens that were so essential to Dickinson's writings and life. These artworks are grounded in his time there.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Michael Medeiros works at the intersection of words and artistic imagery, with a deep questioning of the ways in which people perceive and conceptualize the world around them. Primarily a poet and ceramist, he also connects photography, printmaking, fiction and narrative non-fiction in a multidisciplinary personal practice and community collaborations. Mindfulness and the exploration of the ways in which each of us uniquely experiences the world are essential aspects of his artmaking and teaching.