June 24 - July 8 2015

Marian Roth | Ivan de Petrovsky | Amy Howell | Keith Krisa | Shania LeClaire Riviere | Sarah Lyon | Jerry Russo

Half Empty Half Full

Opening Reception: Friday, June 26, 6-9 pm. The Opening will feature a very special appearance by Tammy Faye Starlite! Excerpts from her performance, Nico: Underground, will be accompanied by Monica Falcone, at 8pm.

Marian Roth

Where Time and Light Meet

I like to inhabit the cameras I create—whether they are rooms, or tents, or the back of a jeep. Inside the darkened space, time and light penetrate the stillness through a tiny hole or a slit. The outside world is projected upside down and backwards. I hold my breath and sigh at the beauty of this world as it comes into my camera obscura like magic. I am a witness, and this is what I see.

Marian Roth was born in Coney island in 1944. Although as a child she dreamed of making art, she became obsessed with social justice as a teenager in the 50’s and studied political science, earning a PHD in 1968. Her beautiful career as a professor ended in 1973, when her feminist activity lead to her politically motivated and highly charged dismissal. A self-taught photographer and painter, Marian moved to Provincetown in 1982 to live among artists, fulfill her lifelong yearnings, and open her consciousness to the mysteries and joy of living once again at the edge of the Atlantic. Marian has spent the last forty years attempting to express her innermost dreams and feelings through her art. Her pinhole photography — with imagery crafted from tin cans, huts, a travelling van and lately a geodesic dome — has brought her great acclaim. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2001 and has received various fellowships and grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council over the last 20 years. Her work has appeared in Eric Renner’s classic Pinhole Photography, in various magazines and journals, and a folio of her work was highlighted in Adventures With Pinhole and Home-Made Cameras by John Evans. Marian has exhibited internationally and taught widely. She makes her home in Provincetown.

Ivan de Petrovsky

Solitude

“I have always been attracted to the wide open spaces of America — perhaps due to my coming from Europe where almost every non-urban area has been tamed. The photographs and paintings of the European mountain ranges with their rivers, lakes and greenery have always, rightly or wrongly, imbued in me a sense of 'The Sound of Music' sweetness. I far prefer the wild, less familiar places of the U.S.

Although one recognizes that large areas of the Southwest are desolate wildernesses and deserts, areas of the Outer Cape during the off-season can mirror the barrenness and the sense of solitude one experiences in the remoter areas of Arizona and New Mexico. I truly love these landscapes. For the longest of times I wished to capture their beauty on film. The difficulty for me is that although I can look at a pure landscape and admire its beauty and marvel at the skill of the photographer, I need more than that for myself to satisfy my need for self-expression.

My series Solitude, from which these two images derive, is an attempt to put a narrative into the landscapes that I love so much. Here I have sought to use the expansive landscapes and the naked human form to explore the ethereal. I have tried to conjure up in the mind of the viewer the concept of Man, his environment and his Creator. By placing a small, yet strikingly posed, nude figure into these large and challenging landscapes, I hope to initially seduce the casual viewer with the immediate beauty and composition of the image. Once captivated, my hope is that the viewer will be prompted to larger questions in the mind. The human form so small in its environment representing the Creator, contrasted to Mankind's supreme importance in the scheme of the creation as a whole.”

Ivan de Petrovsky, born in the U.K., was initially self-taught in the art of photography. As he became increasingly interested in the craft itself, and not just in the picture taking process, he decided to move to New York City and embark on a series of Black and White Photography workshops at the world-renowned International Center of Photography (ICP).

After completing his season at the ICP, and fueled with an avarice for further knowledge and skill, Ivan left New York City and went north to Rockport, Maine, where he was enrolled in the residency program for photographers at the Maine Photographic Workshops. Here, under the expert guidance and instruction of such luminaries as Brenton Hamilton and Jan Rosenbaum, he learned the techniques and intricacies involved in toning and bleaching monochromatic negatives and prints, and the complexities of fine-art black and white printing.

During his time in Maine, Ivan furthered his craft and broadened his learning by attending various workshops with numerous industry-recognized fine-art and documentary photographers including the Magnum photographer, Constantine Manos, and ICP veteran Amy Arbus.

From Maine, Ivan crossed the pond back to London and signed on at the London College of Printing (LCP). There he learned many skills in the art of commercial photography — exploring, among others, the fields of studio flash and large-format photography (which would serve him well on future fine-art self-assignments).

On completion of the LCP course Ivan moved to Sydney, Australia where he was quickly taken on by the Look Photographers Agency. He shot international multi-media campaigns for Coca-Cola, Energy Australia, Nutrimetics and Sunraysia UK, to name a few. Although initially trained in film and darkroom craft, much of his commercial work was shot digitally as the commercial clients increasingly desired to embrace this rapidly emerging medium.

Although he still shoots commercially, Ivan has continued to pursue his passion and love of fine art photography, particularly in the wilderness areas of the globe. His series 'Solitude' was shot on location in the U.S., and many of these prints are now held in private collections on several continents.

Ivan currently lives in Provincetown MA, and has been resident here for the past seven years.

Amy Howell

Not in my Neighborhood

“These images were taken in a charming upper middle class residence in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago. You see manicured lawns, luxury cars parked inside double spaced garages, sidewalks with beautifully fenced-in yards. From the front of this particular home it appears a regular family with their three kids reside, the dad taking the train to the city for work, the Mom on the PTA, living within their expected style of living. But we all have our oddities from our childhood, and the ways our parents prepared us for the world often can fall more towards the outer ends of the continuum chain for what is considered the average normal.

The interiors immediately reveal a hurricane in motion, a slow moving invisible lava-like force that is capturing everything is its path, forcing shoes with books, and toys with clothes and the lost forgotten of the once treasured. It was disturbing for me to shoot these photos as the home belongs to someone very dear to me and I see how this clutter storm has impacted the sprouting minds and souls of the children that inhabitant it.

I graduated in Graphic Design before computers were solely the creative media in creating images. I spent many late nights with my rapidograph and T-square making those perfect lines. But I was more drawn to the magic of the dark room and began experimenting with imagery, mostly focusing on the absurd and/or the quirky. I worked for a couple of small newspapers before being sucked into the culinary world where I learned the art of flavors and presentations. Living in Provincetown, the vortex of visual creativity, I first picked up playing the flute and soon after picked up my camera with a renewed enthusiasm to start sharing my images. Recently, a photograph of mine was chosen for a juried show celebrating PAAM’s 150th year. I like to embrace the passing mood, an image of time that one experiences with what is not defined to our minds and hearts, but in a place more eternal.”

Keith Krisa

Living Room Series

Keith Krisa's photographs, mostly taken with a Diana camera, are becoming widely collected and embraced for their dream-like quality. This new selection of images are, in part, from his ongoing Living Room Series, which was first exhibited here at AMP Gallery in 2013. Keith lives and works in Cambridge, MA.

"I use a Diana (plastic camera) to create my images. Film is exposed in the camera, the developed negatives are digitally scanned and then printed with an inkjet printer using archival pigment inks.

On a technical level Diana cameras are cheap, all plastic, medium format cameras. It was the discovery of these toy cameras about 30 years ago that opened up the world of creativity for me as a photographer. Because of the lack of quality of the camera body and lens, the images are often distorted and out of focus in some areas. Light leaks often occur, as well as other unpredictable occurrences, and images look like they are coming up from under water or out of a dream. It is this serendipity that brings my images to life. I was able to free myself from the conventions of a sharp and precise lens. This enabled me to be more spontaneous in my shooting and visceral with my content. The simplicity of the camera allows me to be entirely in the moment creatively."

Shania LeClaire Riviere

Out the Window

After creating art for over thirty years, it all comes down to this: 1. "Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." – Thomas Merton. 2. "Art doesn't have to be pretty. It has to be meaningful." – Duane Hanson. These photos represent 4 1/2 years of my life. All photographs are taken from the same room and same window. There are 50 photographs in total.

Shania LeClaire Riviere was born and raised in the South. He left home in his twenties to travel the world and work on a cruise ship. Ultimately those voyages landed him in New York City where he settled for ten years and began exploring his creative process by donning drag. He was inspired by such creative forces as The Cockettes and performance artist Leigh Bowery. After ten years in New York City he migrated to Provincetown, MA and it was here that he made a commitment to bring his unique style of drag into the Fine Art world.

His first painting show in 2009 called There is no Shane, only Shania, represented a year’s worth of self-portraits in drag that he recreated as abstract paintings. In 2010, he shot 18 Ghosts, a short black-and-white silent film as Shania. In 2011, one of his paintings, Gender Bent, was featured in Australian Vogue Living and was selected for an exhibit and show presented by TREE at the Charles Lahti Studio in Brooklyn. In 2012, Et Alors Magazine, the first glossy Gay, Drag & Gender Bending style magazine, did a feature story and interview highlighting Shania’s performance art. Also in 2012, Shania was featured in the film trailer for the Independent film, Spiral. It was at this time that he moved to Los Angeles, California and launched his creative brand ‘Maid by Shania’ and where he finished his first photography/video project entitled Bus Talk.

In 2013, he packed up his belongs and his husband and returned to his creative center, Provincetown. In the winter of 2013/2014 he completed his second photography project Out the Window. In the spring of 2014, he published his first coffee table book called “Out the Window”. He will also be featuring his largest photo exhibition from Out the Window in 2015 at AMP Gallery. He is currently working on two graphic art projects, “The Deconstruction of Strangers” and “The Beauty of Being Broken”. His work can be found on his website www.shanialeclaireriviere.com.

Sarah Lyon

Next Exit Series

On highway 65 in Southern Indiana there is a set of 6 wooden billboards in various states of decay. Drawn to the aesthetic of their faded colors and textures and the history of what was once hand painted on them, I made several pilgrimages in efforts to document them. That winter a friend died, an artist named Stephen Irwin, who had been an influence on my life and my art practice. In the snow I spent a final afternoon with the billboards while mourning the loss of Stephen. The images that ensued are my homage to him, meditations on change, loss, and architectural perspectives toward the sky.

Sarah Lyon grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and has lived in Italy, London, and Ohio. She spent several years touring the United States alone on her motorcycle, living on the road while working on various photography projects. Her artwork has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the Midwest, and in San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Austria. Sarah received her BFA from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She has taught photography at Bellarmine University, worked as a carpenter, motorcycle mechanic, archivist, editorial and commercial photographer. Her self-published Female Mechanics Calendar, a document of all varieties of women mechanics working in their shops, was distributed to audiences around the world. Sarah has received grants from The Kentucky Arts Council, The Kentucky Foundation for Women, and ArtPlace America. She lives in Louisville with her cat Roland.

Jerry Russo

Alone Together

The great photographer, Walker Evans, shot photographs of people on the New York City subway system between 1938 and 1941 using a camera painted black and hidden in his coat. Thanks to the iPhone, I am attempting to follow in Evans footsteps by photographing people on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) buses and subway trains since 2013.

Alone Together is an examination of people while confined to the crowded spaces of the T. I strive to capture people when their guard is down and the mask is off showing a vulnerability in the faces of those weary from work after longs days and tiresome commutes.

Like a good novelist I attempt to show that person and place are inextricably intertwined by including more than just the face of the commuter. The too-small personal space and the structure of the bus or train all contribute to the commuter’s state of being and are a participant in the photograph.

It is in the moment when space, expression, and opportunity come together that I take my shot.

Jerry Russo was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and has lived in Los Angeles and Las Vegas before arriving in Boston. His career spans three decades as a commercial and editorial photographer shooting everything from a Muhammad Ali and George Foreman prize fight at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, to documenting the Punk Rock music scene in Los Angeles. In 1996 he came to Boston where he received a BFA from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts. While at the Museum School, he received the honor of a Traveling Scholarship from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. His work has been shown at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, EADS Symposium in Munich, Germany and the Thread Waxing Space, NYC. His work is in the permanent collection of Polaroid, Wellington Management and other private collections.