VoxPhotographs Weblog

Two Point Gallery is new on the scene and now exhibiting its second show which features the work of 20 members of the Bakery Photographic Collective based in Westbrook now. The show is open until July 12.

There are some standouts and we all know their names: Scott Peterman, Justin Van Soest and Tonee Harbert. And oddly enough, the other four artists I made notes on, because I was impressed with their work, are all women.

Tara 3 © Rachel Schwartz

Strong images from Rachel Schwartz are included: Tara I, II and III. How does anyone sell framed fine art photographs for $125? But here they are. These approx. 7″x10″ black and white beauties are clever and confident and I almost felt there was something going on here I couldn’t see. The artist’s explanation made no sense to me with respect to the pictures, but I’m not big on artists’ statements, so I shouldn’t have read it to begin with!

——-

Self-Portrait © Brittany Marcoux

Brittany Marcoux, a student at MECA, has some cool, fresh 10″x10″ portraits, but her self-portrait is the best – less self-conscious than the other three posers! It’s a good picture.

——-

Peter, under the streetlight with a headache © Natalie Conn

Speaking of portraits, Natalie Conn has four 3″x5″ pictures in the show and her two portraits are funky and successful. Here are the titles – and these alone should get you in to see the show: “Molly, at the restaurant that no one goes to.” and “Peter, under the streetlight with a headache.”

——-

Betty’s Mother and the Pink Pillow, 2008 © Elizabeth Atterbury

I’m wracking my brain to think of who Elizabeth Atterbury’s work reminds me of (Eggleston?). Her two 10″x10″ portraits in the show are terrific. Clean and engaging work, to say the least. The the portrait of a portrait (painted and framed, hanging over the bed) in “Betty’s Mother and the Pink Pillow, 2008″, together with the subject’s bed, adds a rewarding complexity to the whole idea of a portrait. The subject is missing, but – is she really? These may be “portraits” but they go much further if you take the time to “read” them.

Looks like portraits are a strong part of this show.

——-

Washington County © Tonee Harbert

Well, on to the big guys. Tonee Harbert has three large soft focus inkjet prints in this show that demand your time and attention. I love them all, but especially the “Washington County, Maine” image. It  reminds me of the “Pie” image I saw last year at the plastic camera show curated by Bruce Brown in Rockland. It was my favorite image in the show.

——-

Bridge Study 2 © 2009 Justin Van Soest

Justin Van Soest is a seasoned photographer and, as usual, it shows. I’d seen the “Bridge Study 2″ somewhere recently, but enjoyed it thoroughly again. Look at “Bridge Study 1″ and “Bridge Study 3″ on his website home page. What a set of images! There are two more of Justin’s images in the window of the gallery – I totally missed them! One of them is another of the “Bridge Study” series.

—-

Loved Keith Lane’s small “Red Jam” underneath Justin’s photograph. I’ll let you go and see what that’s all about!

—-

Bonneville 7 © Scott Peterman

A couple of photographers had already told me about Scott Peterman’s smaller images in this show – they said they were amazing. They weren’t wrong. In keeping with his often minimalist approach, “California” and “Bonneville 7″ are so abstract when you’re 10 feet away, but give you more and more for each step closer you get to the images. You just have to wonder how he gets those exquisite tones. Go and study them for a while. Have you ever seen a boring or bad Peterman image? I haven’t, truly.  The man knows how to cull – something many photographers need to learn how to do. Just because you took it, doesn’t mean the picture is any good.

And to Chris Shaw and Melissa Smith – the two owners of the brand new Two Point Gallery?  Good luck to you both – although we all know luck doesn’t have much to do with success.

By the way, Susan Maasch Fine Art has moved her gallery from Forest Avenue directly across from Two Point Gallery and shows some stunning fine art photographers based in Maine. Check it out. And Ed Pollack is moving his print gallery, A Fine Thing, two doors down on Forest Avenue to Susan’s former gallery space. And… Maine violin maker Jonathan Cooper’s new shop and gallery Acoustic Artisans at 1 Forest Ave. close to the corner of Forest and Congress and shared with two other instrument makers, opened this spring. Cool area to spend an afternoon soaking up the arts, including, of course, a visit to the Portland Museum of Art a few feet away.  Soooo many galleries gathering on and around Congress Street! What a city…

This entry was posted on June 25, 2009 at 1:30 am and is filed under EXHIBITS/SHOWS, Maine . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.