September 6 – October 13, 2002

The Gallery of Fine Art, Edison College, is pleased to present the photographic work of Amelia Tierney.  A Florida resident, Amelia lives in Flagler Beach and has been a photographer for more than 30 years.  Amelia’s education and studies have had her at Briarcliff College, Yale Workshop, Silvermine College of Art, Vanderbilt University, The New School of Social Research, Mills College, California College of Arts and Crafts and the San Francisco Art Insititute.

With more than 150 exhibits of her work in the past 30 years Amelia Tierney clearly is one of Florida’s most significant photographers.  Amelia’s photography, taken on her extensive travels in the United States, Europe, South America and the Caribbean has been exhibited in more than 30 states including over 50 university and college venues.  Amelia’s exhibition record of one person, two person and group shows includes exhibits at Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida, Gulf Coast Museum of Art, Belleair, Florida, Museum of Fine Art, Florida State University, Orlando Museum of Art, Florida, Ohio State University, Mansfield, Ohio, University of California, Berkeley, California, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota and the Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee to name just a few.

The exhibit at Edison College includes images from several series that Amelia has worked on and also shows her technical versatility.  Featuring 40 photographs, including black and white infrared photographs, digital photographs, polacolor transfers and giclée prints, the exhibit challenges the viewer’s concept of reality and fantasy by combining unexpected objects that find their relationships primarily in the realm of ideas.

Black and white infrared film photographs invisible light and, in Amelia’s work, adds an unreal quality by softening the grain and changing the tones.  Whites glow, skies turn dark and plants turn white.  Photography becomes removed from what is normally considered “photographic” reality.  The camera shows a reality slightly different than the eye sees, underscoring the relationships between the objects. There are 12 black and white infrared images in the exhibit.

In the past few years Amelia has spent less time with her Leicas and in the darkroom favoring her Macintosh computers, Epson printers and digital cameras   (first a Kodak DC 290 and then a Canon Power Shot G1.)  For Amelia, PhotoShop and its multifaceted functions have captured her attention and now dominate her recent work.    In Amelia’s words her “years of experience in photography and training in printmaking have given her an enormous boost in learning the various possibilities inherent in printing from a computer.  The results of the disciplines of printing with light and with traditional inks are both contained in the labyrinth of possibilities found in our new digital technology.  With the touch of a finger, with no hand mixing of chemicals or toxic inks, or long hours in the dark, I can create work that is as complex or more so and as exciting as those other mediums of the past.”  Giclée Printing (jhee-clay) is derived from the French verb gicler meaning to squirt.  The term Giclée print typically connotes a certain elevation in printmaking technology.  Images are high-resolution digital scans printed with archival quality inks.  The Giclée process provides better color accuracy than other means of reproduction.  Giclée prints, also known as Iris prints, have the advantage of being easily reproduced as needed.  There are 14 Giclée prints in the exhibit.

Included in this exhibit are 14 examples of Polacolor transfers.  In brief, image transfer is the process of peeling apart a Polacolor negative and transferring the positive onto a non-photographic paper. Current approaches range from making transfer images from 35mm slides via the Vivitar instant slide printer, to projection printing in the dark room, to shooting directly onto Polacolor film. Using slides allows you to reproduce the same image while direct transfers are truly original artwork.

http://ameliatierney.net/

Irene Gennaro
October 25 – December 8, 2002

The Gallery of Fine Art, Edison College, is pleased to announce an exhibition of the work of Irene Gennaro. The exhibit, “Dream Streams and Ex Votives” will open to the public Friday evening, October 25, from 6 to 8 pm.  The artist will give a talk in the gallery at 7 pm. The exhibit, over 40 hand carved and painted wood sculptures, spans the past 15 years of Gennaro’s career and includes work from the “Spirit Messenger”, “Dream Works”, “Ex Votive” and most recently the “Dream Catch” series.

It is almost unnecessary to make the statement that Irene Gennaro’s work is enigmatic. The various series titles are clear indication of that and viewing the work gives an immediate sense of the familiar and at the same time a sense of the unknown. But the enigma of Gennaro’s work goes considerably further than that. Her work stands alone, outside urban sculptors and their found or burnt or prefabricated forms, outside mainstream battles of concept and image and materials and outside technology and the immediacy it can bring. But, this should not confuse us. Gennaro is not an outsider.

Gennaro’s work has roots in the Surrealist movement with its debt to the subconscious. It also draws to our memory cross- cultural references, like “Ghost” to those of the Caribbean Santos. It brings us into direct contact with mythology and it’s spirits through pieces such as “Wizard” of “Green and red Sorcerers.” And technically her work forms a direct link to the archaic tradition of stone carving and somewhat serendipitously to folk art.

Gennaro’s work covers a lot of ground and at the same time it is crystal clear. Her work so unified by the materials and the consistency of execution and presentation that there is no room to doubt. Her dream- based work is spirit filled and echoes a familiarity that is undeniable. Irene Gennaro’s work holds a unique place in the contemporary sculpture, and it is hers alone.

http://www.irenegennaro.com/

January 10 – February 2, 2003

On display in the Gallery are more than 50 documentary images of projects created by environmental artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The chronology of the exhibit starts in the early 60’s with the Iron Curtain, Wall of Oil Barrels, Rue Visconti, Paris 1961 – 62 and progresses through projects in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Some of the projects included from that time frame are:
     Wrapped Coast, Little Bay, One Million Square Feet, Sydney, Australia, 1968 – 1969
     Valley Curtain, Rifle, CO, 1970 – 1972
     Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California, 1972 – 1976
     Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, 1980 – 1983
     The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Paris, 1975 – 1985
     The Umbrellas, Japan and USA, 1984 – 1991
     Wrapped Trees, Foundation Beyeler and Berower Park, Switzerland, 1997 –1998
     The Wall, 13,000 Oil Barrels, Gasometer, Oberhausen, Germany, 1999

The exhibit also includes reproduced renderings of projects in progress such as:
     Mastaba of Abu Dhabi, Project for the United Arab Emirates
     The Gates, Project for Central Park, New York
     Over the River, Project for the Arkansas River, Colorado

The exhibit at Edison College, Gallery of Fine Art is presented in conjunction with Eckert Fine Art-Naples, Inc. After the documentary exhibit and lecture at Edison College, Eckert Fine Art-Naples, Inc. will be hosting an exhibit of original work by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. That exhibit runs from January 30 to February 2, 2003.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude were both born on June 13, 1935. He was born in Bulgaria of a Bulgarian industrialist family and she was born in Morocco of a French military family. Christo studied at the Fine Arts Academy, Sofia, from 1953 through 1956 and also at the Vienna Fine Arts Academy in 1957. Jeanne-Claude received a Baccalaureate in Latin and Philosophy from the University of Tunis in 1952. The couple met in Paris in 1958. Their son, Cyril, was born in 1960. Their first artistic collaboration was in 1961.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude create temporary works of art of amazing allure in enormous scale. Their high profile, site-specific environmental work leads to some of the most extraordinary art experiences the public can have in both rural and urban sites. Their work combines “what is” with “what they envision can be,” broadening our perception of art and our perception of space, function and form.

The work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude evolves over years of planning with interviews and lectures and environmental impact studies among the critical parts of the process. It took twenty-five years before the Reichstag could be wrapped, seven years to organize The Umbrellas, ten years to plan The Pont Neuf Wrapped and three years for the Surrounded Islands in Biscayne Bay. And, if it wasn’t enough to create the project, educate and interact with the public and various agencies and governments, as well as developing impact studies, each project is funded entirely through the sales of prepatory drawings and early works from the 50’s and 60’s. They do not accept grants, gifts or sponsorships.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude will be on campus January 29 to give a talk about “The Gates, Project for Central Park, New York” and “Over the River, Project for the Arkansas River, Colorado.” The talk is from 4 – 6 p.m. and will be held in Corbin Auditorium, J Bldg., Edison College. Following the talk will be a reception for the artists in the Gallery of Fine Art where the artists will sign books.

The Gallery would like to acknowledge with great appreciation, the generosity of Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The artists have graciously donated all of the images in this exhibit to the Gallery of Fine Art. Each piece in the show is hand-signed by the artists and will be sold at the end of the exhibit. All proceeds from the sale of the images will go to develop future exhibits in the Gallery.

For a complete biography and project information, please visit the artists’ web site at:     http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/

February 14 – April 6, 2003

The Gallery of Fine Art at Edison College is pleased to present the recent work of Darryl Pottorf. 

For more than 20 years Mr. Pottorf has been working as an artist; in that time his work has been exhibited in Florida, California, New York, Ohio, Georgia, Texas as well as Zurich, Switzerland.  Mr. Pottorf has worked as an assistant to Bob Rauschenberg since the early 80’s and has collaborated with Mr. Rauschenberg on numerous original works of art.  

Mr. Pottorf’s paintings are developed using a highly technical approach that incorporates photographic images taken by the artist, transferred to the surface of the painting and layered with direct application of pigment.  The sophisticated transfer process was developed in the Rauschenberg studio and incorporates original photographs scanned into a computer, then printed in a soluble medium on a transparent film-like material at the scale desired.   The image can then be transferred to a surface through pressure application.  

Recently, Mr. Pottorf and Mr. Rauschenberg donated their work to benefit Lee County’s Trauma Center.  The work was shown in January, at the Alliance for the Arts, in an exhibit titled “Art for Life.”  An exhibit of Mr. Pottorf’s work is currently on display at Brenau University in Atlanta, Georgia.   Upcoming, Mr. Pottorf will participate in the annual “Arts for ACT” fundraiser in August.  Artists from around Southwest Florida, as well as international artists and galleries, donate work to be auctioned.  Darryl has been a long time supporter and friend of Abuse Counseling and Treatment, Inc., which benefits from the event.

Mr. Pottorf is a former Edison College student as well as Florida State University graduate.   He also studied art in Florence, Italy and shortly thereafter became Robert Rauschenberg’s assistant.  While an assistant to Rauschenberg he worked on such notable projects as “Quarter Mile” and “R.O.C. I.”  Mr. Pottorf is represented by Galerie Jamileh Weber, Zurich, Chac-Mool Gallery, Los Angeles and Eckert Fine Art, Naples.  Mr. Pottorf lives and works in Captiva, Florida.

http://www.darrylpottorf.com/

April 10 – 30, 2003

This is the final exhibit of the school year and features work created by Edison art students. 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place awards will be presented in the categories of Photography, Drawing, Ceramics Painting, Design, Ceramics Wheel and Ceramics Hand. In addition, a “Rising Star” award will be awarded to a full time, first year student who shows exceptional promise.

June 19 – August 20, 2003

This annual favorite features the artwork of local and national artists that have been donated for auction to benefit ACT, INC. 

http://www.actabuse.com/