Currency Leis, Digital Image Transfer and Oil Paint on Aluminum Substrate, 2016
I am happy to announce that ‘Currency Leis’ from Luminiferous: Adventures in Metal has been selected for inclusion in the 2016 Bluegrass Biennial: A Kentucky Juried Exhibition at the Claypool-Young Art Gallery, Morehead State University, June 6 – August 24, 2016.
This marks the seventh Bluegrass Biennial, an exhibition dedicated to featuring contemporary work created by artists from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Lindsey Maestri, an artist, curator and Executive Director of Yeiser Art Center, based in Paducah, KY, is the 2016 exhibition juror.
Roughly 155 pieces were submitted and 38 were selected for exhibition. A closing reception and juror’s talk about the exhibition will take place on Wednesday, August 24 from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Jenny Zeller puts photographs on surfaces where you don’t expect to find photographs. It can be a challenge to try to synthesize one artist’s work down to a few words, but that is a reasonable thumbnail description of what Zeller has been up to recently.
Like many photographers and printmakers, the particulars of process help define the work, as Zeller explains in her artist’s statement: “Currently I explore the world of digital photographic transfer techniques reminiscent of alternative photographic processes. By printing onto specially coated transfer film, my images are released onto a variety of substrates with the help of custom- made transfer mediums. My latest body of work focused on the transferring of images to aluminum substrates.”
When asked to cite artist who have influenced her, Zeller names others who have pushed the traditional boundaries of their chosen medium, photography and otherwise: Genesis P-Orridge, Doug and Mike Starn, Sally Mann, Robert Rauschenberg, Francesca Woodman and Bonny Pierce Lhotka. “I am inspired by new experiences, iterates Zeller, “the natural world and personal environment with a predisposition for darker imagery.”
In addition to teaching workshops with the Louisville Photo Biennial this past fall, she also worked with Louisville Visual Art and their Open Doors program at Home of The Innocents. “During the Photo Time Machine Workshop I took students through the history of photography working with cyanotypes, Polaroids, disposal and digital cameras, as well as image transfers. I was just in Key West where I taught a 2–day Digital Image Transfer and Mix Media workshop at The Studios of Key West, and I am in the planning stages of offering workshops like this in Louisville.”
Zeller most recently had a solo exhibition entitled Luminiferous: Adventures in Metal, at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. She was also recently a featured artist in Wildlands Art & Music: A Pine Mountain Collective Group Show, Friday April 8th, at The Grand Reserve in Lexington, KY. In 2015 Kentucky Natural Lands Trust hosted artists’ retreats on Pine Mountain, a 125 mile forested ridgeline in far southeastern Kentucky. The retreats were aimed at engaging artists in the Pine Mountain Wildlands Corridor project.
As a visiting artist I also taught a digital image transfer workshop with the students in Jose Bentancourts‘ Experimental Photography Class. I introduced the class to alcohol gel transfers and DASS supersauce transfers to wood, metal foils and glass.
I like to encourage students to bring in substrates of their choice for transfers images onto as shown in the above photograph.
Raeley Stevenson distressed the edges on the emulsion side of film before transferring onto watercolor paper.
You know you’re doing something right when you can generate excitement in sharing your process! And it was such a pleasure to get students excited about image transfer. A lot of great results came from the workshop as you can see below.
In addition to exhibiting and teaching, I was also lecturing…three lectures to be exact.
One lecture was to Jose Betancourts‘ Documentary Photography class. This talk was very detailed specific and entirely about my involvement with the Haitian Art Company and the multiple trips (one of which was 2 months!!) I made to Haiti during my 7 years of service to the gallery in Key West. As one would expect, this experience had an enormous influence on my life as artist and creative professional.
The business gave me unique access to Haitian artists and allowed me to experience the culture in a way that is unavailable to the average person. The photographs I have taken in Haiti reflect a bond I have with my subjects and contain emotional power attained only through the crossing of cultural boundaries. Obviously I highlighted my images of Haiti, developed in the style of 19th century photographs and talked extensively about my travels with artist Franz Zephirin who was determined to show me ‘the real Haiti’. We traveled to Cap Haitien and specifically to his grandmother’s voodoo compound where I was graciously given permission to record the events of a seasonal voodoo ritual. Ceremony of the Serviteur was shown in it’s entirety during this talk.
