Two Cannons and an Icon – Photography by Barbara Merritt, Munroe Cooper and David Szekeres
Three long time friends and artists that have been a part of Tremont and art for over twenty years come together in this group exhibit. While Barbara Merritt is the only one who has shown exclusively photography, this exhibit seeks to explore each of their own uses of photography in their artistic endeavors.
Ever since she was gifted a Pentax K1000 back in 1994, Barbara Merritt her conscious life has been driven by the world of photographic imagery. Immediately, the science and manipulation of film chemistry and the philosophy of imagery had her hooked.
The current exhibit at the Brandt Gallery is inspired by her love for movies. Although she has never worked within the moving picture genre, she is continually mesmerized by it. This series is a short story. The viewer will inevitably fill in the blank spots with their own creativity.
While to Merritt’s mind it conveys the story of innocence, corruption of innocence and the drive to regain that innocence in the end.
Merrit says of photogrpahy:
The still image has saved my life again and again. I am
eternally grateful for the gifts it bestows on my psyche.
David Szekeres has had three solo exhibits at Brandt Gallery, his first was in 2000, Only in My Dreams. Szekeres said of that body of work that he had “delved into his memory bank of
images I had seen or experienced in dreams. This provoked more emotional reaction than I had expected.”
But what might have been amusing to some proved to be unfamiliar
or uncomfortably dark to others. One viewer felt they should be worried
about my stability, commenting on the overall dark and depressing tone,
and suggesting I was depressed. Quite the contrary; mission accomplished.
While Szekeres began his fine art exhibiting with a mix of drawings and paintings, he found that he began to first take a manipulated photograph of what he wished to paint. He has moved on towards also showing his photography as its own exhibit.
Tremont resident Monroe Cooper has show extensively in Tremont. While some 20 years ago he showed much sculpture, in recent years he has moved more towards his photography. His maritime photos are often displayed at Grumpy’s. For this exhibit Cooper is experimenting with various images and scale of reproduction. In a word, BIG.
Two Cannons and an Icon
Photography by Barbara Merritt, David Szekeres and Munroe Copper
July 13 – August 4, 2012