Exhibition
Considering Possibilities moves the viewer through the intentional mystical imagery of Elizabeth’s photography that breaks the realism of photography to the moods only available through the magic of experimental and alternative photographic processes.
Ryan Gallery presents a collection of prints by Elizabeth Opalenik with Mordançage work also found in her book Poetic Grace, the never exhibited platinum print series from her personal experiences A Journey Home, and a collection carbon prints created using the same negatives from her Mordançage prints.
Elizabeth will join us for the opening reception on July 16 from 5pm to 8pm, and on Friday July 15 at 7pm she will give a talk about her art and experiences as a photographer.
About Elizabeth
Elizabeth spun a map on a lazy-susan in 1968 and left home to the sound of peace marches and her mother saying, “I knew you were different from the time you were two.” She discovered photography as a metaphor for life in 1979 at the Maine Photographic Workshops and discovered passion and possibilities in Provence in 1983 where she later began her evolution as a Mordançeuse. Traveling through six continents, camera in hand, she connects life’s possibilities through teaching workshops, humanitarian projects and making art.
“I am a photographic artist, educator and freelance photographer traveling the world with my camera and I love it. Philanthropic projects keep me grounded and connected universally.
I believe that all good photographs are self portraits and know that my many former lives manifest themselves in my images. My heart is still in my darkroom working in the Mordançage process, but I use today’s technology when appropriate to explore all the creative paths.
My photographs are collected and published internationally and all work is for sale. Mordançage images are unique, others are silver gelatin, platinum, hand painted or digitally printed in very limited editions on beautiful handmade papers.”
Art Intersection’s eleventh-annual All Art Arizona exhibition opened its doors on May 14th, 2022! Local artists, their families, and their friends joined us for wonderful evening to discuss and appreciate the talent and broad range of creativity here at home.
This year we celebrate the twelfth anniversary of All Art Arizona at Art Intersection through the breadth and diversity of art created by Arizona artists. The range of artwork encompasses sculpture, photography, painting, ceramics, wood, printmaking, mixed media, and more.
All Art Arizona presents exciting work created by both well-known and emerging artists living in our own back yard, the state of Arizona.
The All Art Arizona opening reception draws artists, art collectors, and art lovers from all over the state to one of our best attended exhibitions of the year. As always, the exhibition is free and open to the public during business hours.
Banner images by: Michael Pierre Price, Rosalie Vaccaro, Martina Skobic
All Art Arizona Online Gallery
Look through the exhibition online and then come in to see the work in person. If you wish to purchase one of the pieces in the exhibition and can’t come in, give us a call and we will take payment over the phone and ship worldwide.
Submission Deadline Extended To Thursday, August 4
Submit your images taken from marches, protests, rallies, and demonstrations, whether you are in solidarity with the marchers or documenting their voices. Your images should show people, in the public view, voicing their passion for change. This Picturing Resistance exhibition at Art Intersection gives your photographs visibility and exposes the energy you captured.
There are no timeframe restrictions for photographs, only that you are the photographer or you own the copyright to an historical image from your collection. We wish to present the landscape of people engaged in the act of creating change by exercising their right to be noisy.
If you use a phone camera to photograph protests and marches, let us know if you need help printing images from your phone for this exhibition.
Our juror, Ken Light, photographer, author, and a Reva and David Logan Professor of Photojournalism at the University of California, Berkeley, will select from submitted images.
Melanie Light and Ken Light’s book, Picturing Resistance, serves as the inspiration for this juried exhibition, and a must own book for anyone interested in social justice movements in the past seven decades.
In Ryan gallery Ken Light’s images from his book Midnight La Frontera will be shown during the Picturing Resistance exhibition.
About the Juror Ken Light, a freelance documentary photographer for over fifty years, focuses on social issues facing America. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, his work has been published in twelve books, in magazines, exhibitions and numerous anthologies, exhibition catalogues and a variety of media, digital and motion picture.
His most recent book Course of the Empire, published by Steidl, portrays a decade of mounting tension in a polarized America, from Wall Street to the rural heartland and is a portrait of the American social landscape and is a riveting historical and visual record of a complicated country in a complicated time.
Midnight La Frontera (TBW Books) illustrates, in piercing words and in strobe lit images caught against the dark of night, the struggle and defiance of those who make the perilous hike for days and weeks in search of the American Dream.
Important Picturing Resistance Exhibition Dates
August 4: Online submissions due by midnight Arizona time
August 9: Email notification of artists selected for exhibition
3-day Mordançage Workshop with Elizabeth Opalenik, July 15, 16, 17, 2022, from 9am to 5pm each day with lunch included.
I vividly remember that first Provence meeting in 1983 when I heard Jean-Pierre Sudre say, “In mordançage you have the possibility….” For the next 30 summers I visited his studio and work discovering them all while learning the process in 1991 directly from this master. In this workshop we shall begin with a brief history of the mordançage process, looking at original work as we gather valuable insight into directions for making it your own creative voice.
Together we mix the chemistry and begin with an instructor demonstration on understanding the test strips to discover proper exposures for negatives and working with photograms, which is the best way to learn the possibilities. Mordançage takes time to master when working with intent and begins with a darkroom print. Information on making negatives, film or digital, and materials to bring shall be sent prior to the workshop. You will discover, when the silver print is put through the mordançage solution, the silver gelatin in the densest areas of the photographic print swell and can be removed with the pressure of a jet of water or cotton ball. Darkroom days will be spent testing various paper and redeveloper combinations, experimenting with oxidation, toners and hand painting to alter color, and deciding to save or not to save the veils. Often, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Papers, chemicals and notebooks with formulas will be supplied.
After more than 30 years of committing to the mordançage process, Elizabeth has many possibilities, pitfalls and discoveries to share. Working collectively with a group of photographic peers, students can combine information on papers available today to further enhance their creativity. Experimenting is highly encouraged. A working knowledge of the darkroom is essential.
As artists, we much each find our way and hope to leave something of value behind. The “draped spidery veils” in the images are my contribution to this process, accomplished by using my breathe or drops of water to preserve and alter the delicate floating silver skin. As such, each piece is unique and truly made by hand even when created using the same negative.
This year’s No Strangers exhibition presents a diverse range of artwork created by Art Intersection members. This annual exhibition showcases the creative energy from the vision and talent of our members.
Memberships support Art Intersection, and through our membership program we strive to create an engaging atmosphere for creativity, networking, sharing work, and learning from each other. From a range of membership levels including Student, Friend, Sponsor, Patron and Collector, you can find the membership that works best for you!
Banner images by James Syme, Charlene Engel, Jason Salecki
To celebrate the art of handcrafted prints, Art Intersection presents Light Sensitive, our eleventh-annual, international juried exhibition of images created using traditional darkroom, historical, and alternative photographic processes and methods.
In the current takeover of imagery presented on computer screens and the overwhelming volume of digitally printed pictures, the purpose of our Light Sensitive exhibition is to celebrate, promote, and reaffirm the art of handcrafted prints that uniquely belong to the tradition of light sensitive creative processes. Each year we search for work representing creativity, passion, and display of the beauty these light sensitive processes bring.
Banner image by Rebecca Zeiss
Awards Special thank you to Brian Taylor for his insightful vision as our juror. Choosing awards in an exhibition of highly amazing works proved to very challenging and much consideration (and pacing through the galleries) was given to all of the darkroom creative art in the galleries. Congratulations to the awardees and everyone juried into Light Sensitive.
First Place – Rebecca Zeiss Second Place – Richard Hricko Third Place – Sara Silks Award of Excellence – Diana Bloomfield Honorable Mentions – Allan Barnes – Matt Connors – Wendy Constantine – Susan Elizabeth de Witt – Elizabeth Davis – Anne Eder – Jeannie Hutchins – Jen Leahy – Maureen Mulhern-White – Emily Penrod – Gerado Stübing – Vaune Trachtman
Juror Art Intersection is honored to have Brian Taylor jury this year’s Light Sensitive exhibition. He is known for his innovative explorations of alternative photographic processes including historic 19th Century printing techniques, mixed media, and hand made books. His work has been exhibited nationally and abroad in numerous solo and group shows and is included in the permanent collections of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, Rochester, NY.
Brian served as the Executive Director of the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, CA for 4 1/2 years, retiring in 2019 to return to his art practice in the studio. He received his B.A. Degree in Visual Arts from the University of California at San Diego, an M.A. from Stanford University, and his M.F.A. from the University of New Mexico and served as a Professor of Photography for over 35 years, and Chair of the Department of Art and Art History at San Jose State University.
This year marks our tenth All Art Arizona exhibition that highlights the breadth and diversity of art created by Arizona artists encompassing sculpture, photography, painting, ceramics, wood, printmaking, mixed media, artist books, and more.
All Art Arizona attracts artists, art collectors, and art lovers from all over the state to one of our best attended exhibitions of the year. Visit the Art Intersection galleries, bring your friends and family, to enjoy this unique exhibition and range of art by Arizona artists. As always, the exhibition is free and open to the public during business hours.
All Art Arizona Quick Walk-Through Video
All Art Arizona Online Gallery
Look through the exhibition online and then come in to see the work in person. If you wish to purchase one of the pieces in the exhibition and can’t come in, give us a call and we will take payment over the phone and ship worldwide.
Banner images by Nicole Richardson, Linda Finecey, Christina Rosepapa, Dino Paul
The Sky exhibition of images by two Tucson artists, Kate Breakey and Brett Starr, who recently discovered they had a mutual interest in the heavens. Each of them having looked upward, and felt compelled to make images of the sky, for years. For this exhibition they have gathered together their daytime and nighttime images–of clouds, rainbows, the sun and the moon, comets and cosmic events.
Most recently they collaborated to make deep sky images using an online telescope on the other side of the world. “It was exciting and conceptually poetic to instruct a telescope that is 9,000 miles away to point at an object – a galaxy, or nebulae- on the other side of the universe, and make an image for us to contemplate and print. The incomprehension and wonder you feel is transforming – it puts time and life on earth into perspective, and that is always a good thing”.
Banner image, Kate Breakey, “Orange First Quarter Moon Setting – Safford Peak”
“You can never have too much sky. You can fall asleep and wake up drunk on sky, and sky can keep you safe when you are sad.” – Sandra Cisneros
Brett Starr, “Above The Horizon”
Kate Breakey and Brett Starr, “Galaxy NGC 55”
About Kate Breakey
Kate Breakey is internationally known for her large-scale, richly hand-colored photographs including her acclaimed series of luminous portraits of birds, flowers and animals in a series called Small Deaths published in 2001 by University of Texas Press. Her other monographs include, Painted Light, University of Texas in 2010, a career retrospective that encompasses a quarter century of prolific image making.
Her collection of photograms, entitled ‘Las Sombras / The shadows’ was published by University of Texas Press in October 2012. This series is a continuation of her lifetime investigation of the natural world which in her own words is ‘brimming with fantastic mysterious beautiful things.
Since 1980 her work has appeared in more than 110 one-person exhibitions and in over 60 group exhibitions . A native of South Australia, Kate moved to Austin, Texas in 1988. She completed a Master of Fine Art degree at the University of Texas in 1991 where she also taught photography in the Department of Art and Art History until 1997. Her collections include the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, The Australian National Gallery and the San Diego Museum of Photographic Arts, as well as various private collections.
She has resided in the Tucson, Arizona for 20 years, and regularly teaches workshops nationally and internationally.
About Brett Starr
Brett Starr is a photographic artist born and raised in Tucson, Arizona. He received his bachelors degree in fine art photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He works primarily with historic processes in his photography. By knowing the rules of calculation and precision in the processes, he is then able to deconstruct and embrace the uncontrollability of the historical processes. Doing this allows him to create work in an experimental way without getting lost trying to recreate the incidental. His work explores the relationship between humans and the world around them. Brett is currently residing in Tucson, Arizona working as a commercial real-estate photographer.