The Center for Photography at Woodstock is presenting two gallery exhibitions, “Passionate Attitudes” and “German Herrera: Between Here & Now,” through December 23.
“Passionate Attitudes,” curated by Elizabeth Line, includes artists Rebecca Horne, Jen Davis, Graciela Fuentes, Jane Hammond, Cornelia Hediger, Rachel Mackow, Susanne Neunhoeffer, Kanako Sasaki, Xaviera Simmons as well as writers Noel Jones and Laura E.J. Moran.
“Passionate Attitudes” combines text, photography, video and performance in an exhibition that showcases women artists who explore the contemporary and complex issues facing creative women now. The women in “Passionate Attitudes” open a new dialogue by confronting their individual and shared curiosity, desire, history and fear. The show includes portraiture that ranges from humorous and theatrical to those that investigate the psychology of race and gender.
Other works on view examine the self within the landscape and domestic environments, creating a personal documentary and negotiating their own space within the roles of women today.
Originally from Mexico City, Herrera’s surreal symbolic black and white prints mine the realm of the unconscious world, symbols, emotions, nature, history and dreams. Using digital technology, photography and allowing intuition to supercede intellect, Herrera’s eloquent images are poetically expressive and meticulously composed.
He describes his work as the glimpses between the vastness where everything comes from. “Most of these images were felt, not thought…I point in a certain direction for the viewer to complete the equation; she/he may recognize some aspect of the self in the piece, if so, two parts of the whole have communicated.”
Herrera, born in Mexico City and currently based in San Rafael, Calif., has shown his work at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, Calif.; Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Ore; Entro de la Imagen in Mexico City; Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, Calif. and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Center galleries are free and open Wednesday to Sunday, noon to 5 pm and are at 59 Tinker Street. For more information, www.cpw.org or 845-679-9957.
