Location: United States
COLLECTIONS, EXHIBITIONS, AWARDS, REPRESENTATION
Photographs In Museum Collections
Houston Museum of Fine Art
Museum of Modern Art, New York City
National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Chicago Center for Contemporary Photography
Daum Museum of Art, Sedalia, MO
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Arts (SECCA)
Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, N.C.
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France
Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art, Amsterdam
Photographs In Private Collections
Agnes Gund
Melva Bucksbaum & Ray Learsy
Photographs In Corporate Collections
American Telephone and Telegraph
R.J. Reynolds Industries
Security Pacific National Bank
Shriner's Children Hospital
Wachovia Bank
Wells Fargo Bank
World Savings Bank
Fellowships:
National Endowment To The Arts - Visiting Artist Workshop stipend
awarded by the Light Factory Gallery in Charlotte, N.C. — 1978
National Endowment To the Arts - Photographers Fellowship — 1979
juried by: Leland Rice, Eve Sonnabend, Bart Parker, Evon Streetman and Carol Kismaric
Awards:
Px3 Prix de la Photographie, Paris
International Juried Group show - Honorable Mention — 2007
Missouri 50 State Fair Exhibition
Juried group show – Ist Place — $1,000 cash award — 2006
Spectra 04 National Photography Triennial –Silvermine Gallery
New Canaan, CT Group show - 2nd place - 2004
Juror - Barbara Hitchcock – Collection Committee – Harvard University Art Museum
North Carolina Museum Of Art – 39th Annual Artist’s Exhibition
Juried group show – Purchase award ; curated by:
John Bullard, director, New Orleans Museum ;
Gudmond Vigtel, Director High Museum of Art ;
Tracy Atkinson, Director Milwaukee Art Center
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Arts (SECCA)
46th Annual Southeastern Artists Competition
Juried group show – Purchase Award ; curated by:
Gene Thornton, photographic editor, New York Times
R.J. Reynolds Industries, Photography Competition
Juried group show – Purchase Award - $1,000 cash award – curated by:
John Szarkowski, Director of Photography – MoMA- NYC
James Alinder, Director – Friends of Photography Gallery, Carmel, Ca.
Robert Doherty, Director – George Eastman House, Rochester, N.Y.
Gallery Representation:
White Gallery — Lakeville, CT
Sherry Leedy Fine Art — Kansas City, MO
Atrium Gallery — St Louis , MO
Donna Rogers Fine Art – Houston, TX
Selected Exhibitions:
2015
"The Gate To Hell" Photographs from the Derweza Gas Crater in Turkmenistan
The Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT
One Person Show - April.2015
"Seeking Permanence" selections from The Harlem Valley / Wingdale Project
Sherry Leedy Fine Arts – Kansas City, MO
One person show – June 2015
"Seeking Permanence" selections from The Harlem Valley / Wingdale Project
5 Points Gallery – Torrington, CT
One person show – Nov. 2015
2014
"The Gate To Hell" Photographs from the Derweza Gas Crater in Turkmenistan
The White Gallery, Lakeville, CT
One Person Show - Nov.2014
2013
“Harlem Valley / Wingdale Project — One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”
Tremaine Gallery – The Hotchkiss School, Lakeville CT —
One Person Show – May 2013
2012
"Seeking Permanence" selections from The Harlem Valley / Wingdale Project
The White Gallery, Lakeville, CT
One Person Show — Nov. 2012
“Harlem Valley / Wingdale Project”, Angkor Wat International Photography Festival, Cambodia - juried group show – Nov. 2012
“Transformations - Harlem Valley / Wingdale Project” Atrium Gallery, St Louis, MO,
One Person Show – June 2012
“PHOTOWORKS 2012” (Harlem Valley / Wingdale Project) - Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie-NY - Juried group show – May 2012
Susan Thompson – Guggenheim Museum, curator
2011
“Lucha Spirit – The Photographs of Mil Mascaras”, Angkor Wat International Photography Festival, Cambodia juried group show – Nov. 2011
“Washington Art Association Faculty Exhibition”, Washington Depot, CT
group show – Nov. 2011
“The Value of Water”, The Cathedral Church of St John the Devine, New York City
juried group show – Sept. 2011 - March 2012
2010
"A 24th Anniversary Exhibition," Atrium Gallery, St. Louis, MO
"Art Chicago 2010," Atrium Gallery, Chicago, IL
2009
"Art Chicago 2009," Atrium Gallery, Chicago, IL
"Photography Installation," Atrium Gallery, St. Louis, MO
2008
"People and Places," Atrium Gallery, St. Louis, MO
2007
2007 Px3 Prix de la Photographie, Paris
International Juried Group show-Honorable Mention
Museo Francisco Cossio – World Exposition of Surrealism, San Luis Potosi, Mexico
One person show – Nov. 2007
Sherry Leedy Fine Arts – Kansas City, MO
One person show – Nov. 2007
Missouri 50 State Fair Exhibition
juried group show – Aug. 2007
Photo Spiva 2007 – SPIVA Center for the Arts, Sedalia, MO
Group juried show – Honorable Mention — April 2007
Atrium Gallery - St. Louis MO
One person show — April 2007
2006
Missouri 50 State Fair Exhibition
juried group show — Cash Award $1000 – Aug. 2006
Daum Museum Of Art – Sedalia, MO
One person show — Feb. 2006
2005
Atrium Gallery - St. Louis MO
One person show - Oct. 2005
Dallas Cultural Center - Dallas, Texas
juried group show - Aug. 2005
Museum Of Contemporary Art — Washington, DC
juried group show - July 20052004
Spectra 04 Triennial - Silvermine Galleries - New Canaan, CT
juried Group show - Cash Award (2nd place) - Nov. 2004
Stevens College, Davis Gallery - Columbia, Missouri
One person show – 30 year retrospective - Sept. 2004
FotoFest — H20 2004, Houston, Texas
One person show – March 2004
2000
Clan Destino gallery - San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
One person show – Feb. 2000
1998
Duo Duo Gallery - San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
One person show - Sept. 1998
1994
Casa de Cultura, Centro de Bellas Artes - San Luis Potosi, Mexico
One person show - Sept. 1994
1988
Braunstein / Quay Gallery, San Francisco
"Dog Days" - juried group show - August 1988
1984
Museum of Modern Art, New York City, N.Y.
"Color Photographs: Recent Acquisitions" - group show - Sept. 1984
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, Ca.
Olympic Arts Festival Exhibition - group show - Aug. 1984
1983
Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico
One person show - Sept. 1983
Arco Center for the Visual Arts, Los Angeles, Ca.
One person show - March 1983
Seibu Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
"20th Century Contemporary Photography"
from the permanent collection of MoMA, N.Y.C. - group show - Jan. 1983
1982
The Photographer's Gallery, London, England
"Floods Of Light," group show - Dec. 1982
International Museum of Photography, Rochester, N.Y.
"Color as Form: A History of Color Photography," - group show - July 1982
Friends of Photography gallery, Carmel, Ca.
four person show - April, 1982
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
"Color as Form," group show - April 1982
1981
The Photographer's Gallery, London, England
"Californian Colour," group show - July, 1981
Il Diaframma/Canon gallery, Milan, Italy
one person show - April 1981
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
"New Acquisitions," group show - Feb. 1981
HARLEM VALLEY / WINGDALE
PHOTOGRAPHS BY AVERY DANZIGER
I remembered when I got my first camera at age 8, a Kodak Brownie. I tried to
"sneak-a-peak" at my first roll of film before taking it to be developed, and was disappointed (and suspicious of being tricked!) when there was nothing there to see! After the film was developed and came out black, I was interrogated by my father who was a former
chemist, and he tried to explain the concept of a "latent image". I found it wondrously intriguing that there could be something essentially invisible, and yet recorded on the film, and it couldn't be seen unless acted upon.
At the time, it seemed as magic....
Since that time, I have loved visual paradox (making visible what's there but hidden somehow) and that theme seems to be one of the common threads throughout my work.
The Harlem Valley /Wingdale Project is no exception. I am drawn to the incredibly paradoxical beauty as expressed in the slow transformation from man-made order into the beauty of natural chaos. The buildings at Harlem Valley have been abandoned since it's its closing in 1994, having been in operation since opening in 1924. All the buildings are in a very deteriorated state; most have been vandalized and covered with graffiti.
The interiors of the entire complex are totally toxic. The air is filled with mold
(from standing water), PCBs (from the electrical transformers and leaking equipment),
asbestos and lead paint cover the floors. This is really "Art That Can Kill"....
I don't care much about the site’s history, its ghosts, former mental patients etc.....
For me, as bizarre as it may sound, standing in many of these buildings, amidst all the
wreck and ruin, feels much the same as when I was standing in a grove of Giant Sequoias
in California, (albeit I am dressed in a HazMat suit!)
I love the stillness and quiet of the place. All I can hear is my breath through the respirator
I have to wear, much like a diver undersea.... In addition, the absolute lack of my seeing anything living (except an occasional fern or moss trying to eek out an existence)
continues the metaphor of a diver visiting a bleached and dying coral reef, once thriving
with life, but now lifeless and stark, man being the catalyst to nature's relentless predisposition to return to chaos.
“Harlem Valley / Wingdale # 7146”
Taken in the power plant using early morning light
