“Photography Across the City” Exhibits on Display at Gaithersburg Arts Barn

Gaithersburg, MD (June 14, 2022) As part of “Photography Across the City,” Gaithersburg’s Arts on the Green presents Photography on Unusual Surfaces with an Invitational Metal Sculpture Exhibition. The exhibits are now on display through October 2, 2022. The Arts Barn is located at 311 Kent Square Road, Gaithersburg, Maryland. Viewing hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m., during events and other activities, or by appointment.

Meet the artists and view their works at an Artists Reception on Sunday, July 17 from 1 to 3:30 p.m. The receptions for the Gaithersburg Camera Club exhibit at Kentlands Mansion and The Award Winning Images from the Maryland Photography Alliance exhibit at the Activity Center at Bohrer Park will also be held that afternoon and attendees are invited to visit all three galleries.

Traditionally, photographs were printed on glass and metal plates. In recent years, artists have returned to this type of support medium as well as other non-paper surfaces. For this exhibit, five photographers were asked to display their imagery that was printed on both metal and acrylic. As a complement to the photography work, two metal sculptors were also invited to share their work.

Local fine art and portrait photographer, Bruce Bowers is an internationally published professional photographer with more than 40 years of artistic experience working in several types of media. Photography has been his focus during the last fifteen years, although he still enjoys looking at painting, sculpture, and ceramics for ideas to apply to his work. His composite images are largely an outgrowth of this ongoing fascination with all things visual.

Stephen J. Dill is an artist-blacksmith and has been practicing his art for 22 years. He works primarily in steel but has experience in forging other metals as well. His work is based on and inspired by both traditional and contemporary methods of smithing. Stephen uses botanical models for creating ornamental ironwork such as small scale sculptures, but also follows traditional designs for architectural ironwork such as hinges, shutter dogs, knobs, hooks and pulls. A lot of his work incorporates some form of traditional joinery, such as forgewelding, mortise and tenon joints, and riveting.

Luc-Alain Fiedler of Elf Studio is an award-winning sculptor with a Masters of Fine Arts from University of California in Sculpture and Intaglio Printmaking with additional studies in Art and Architecture. Luc has an extensive background in metal fabrication and bronze casting. His sculptures are collected widely both privately and publicly and are in galleries across the country. With an interest in the sciences, recent works explore the relationships between the physical and metaphysical world. Many of the elements within the compositions are either found in nature or have man-made connotations.

Thomas A. Germer has always been interested in photography and optics. As a career physicist, he specializes in studying how light interacts with materials and how one can learn about a material by the way it reflects or transmits light as a function of wavelength, direction, or polarization. As a photographic artist, he likes to explore how lighting, color, and perspective affect how we perceive objects. He views the world with a unique sense of humor and, using his experience in physics and optics, tries to put what he sees in an interesting perspective. His 4π Panoramas are named after the surface area of the unit sphere and are ultra-wide panoramas that capture all of the directions about a single point in space. Different projections onto the two-dimensional print create new perspectives of the world.

Virginia Sperry says, “Photography is therapeutic for me. Getting behind a camera and exploring the intricacies of the world, especially at the macro level, expands my soul. It incorporates all of my favorite things: storytelling, color, texture, play, and drama. Most of my work is done in the studio (with the exception of Oxidations) using whatever little pieces of material I find.” Throughout her artistic career, Virginia has jumped from two dimensions to three dimensions and back again. From the physical movements of dance to the textures of watercolor, from the forms of polymer clay, steel and fiber, to the new other-worldly photographs, she enjoys creating physical and sensorial experiences for the viewer.

Patricia R. Stockman, a photographer, designer and teacher for more than 25 years, is informed by changes in technology, trends in graphic design, her students’ learning, and her personal observations. She attempts to create photographic works that evoke a sense of familiarity, of awe and wonderment from dreams or memories, and of complexity through order and repetition. Her work ranges from “straight” photography, altered only be techniques that originated in the darkroom, to complex photo composites making full use of digital software. Patricia enjoys exploring various surfaces on which to print, such as aluminum, acrylic and watercolor paper.

Mary Waldhorn is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Art. In her long journey through the art world, she has taught art for more than 45 years in museum and school settings, managed and worked in galleries, been an art curator, and has also tried her hand at framing art. As her children left the nest, Mary worked more seriously on making her own art. Her preference is oil painting where she enjoys using her imagination and painting the ideas that come from it. Her “Water Reflections” series started as spontaneous photo taking during her pandemic walks and she decided to print some as a collection on metal.

Please note that most of the included artwork is for sale and all images are copyrighted by the artists. For more information or to schedule an appointment, please call 301-258-6394, e-mail [email protected], or visit the Arts Barn gallery webpage. A full image catalogue of the exhibit may also be found on the gallery page for those wishing to experience the exhibit virtually.

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The Arts on the Green visual arts program is funded in part by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC). To discover more about MSAC grants and how they impact Maryland's arts sector, visit www.msac.org