Sage Lewis, sliver gelatin print

Photography Exhibit Of Metal and Light, Featuring Work By Lisa Elmaleh, Sage Lewis, and Lucretia Moroni On Display At Gravy Studio During March

PHILADELPHIA, PA — The Halide Project is pleased to announce its upcoming photography exhibition entitled Of Metal and Light, which will be on display at Gravy Studio & Gallery in Northern Liberties from March 3rd – 26th, 2017.

Of Metal & Light features work by three artists who explore the elementary nature of photography, both chemically and conceptually. Their work demonstrates how choice of material and process is an important—and too often overlooked—factor in image creation.

West Virginia-based artist Lisa Elmaleh will be exhibiting prints from her Everglades series, which celebrates an ecosystem that shaped her personal history as a native of South Florida. Her use of the historic wet plate collodion process, with its slow rendering of light, captures images that show the passage of time.

Vermont-based Sage Lewis painstakingly constructs architectural models and then crushes them, photographing the ruins from various vantage points in order to show divergent views of the same structure. Her evocative, high-contrast gelatin silver prints draw viewers into these constructed worlds and invite them to question just what it is they are seeing.

Lucretia Moroni (based in New York and Italy) approaches photography from a background in the decorative arts, a form that she has practiced for over thirty years. Experimenting with cyanotype and platinum palladium prints made on traditional gold and platinum leaf, her work reflects the interplay between art historical traditions and the more modern tradition of photography, firmly anchoring Lucretia in both realms.

The work will be on view during open gallery hours on Wednesdays through Sundays from noon to 6pm, or by appointment, throughout the duration of the show. The exhibition will open with a reception and artist talk on on First Friday (March 3rd, 6 – 9 PM, talks beginning at 7:30). In conjunction with the exhibit, The Halide Project will be hosting a variety of interactive events, including guided tours, a hands-on photography workshop, an informal group critique, and a trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s study room. Most events are free and open to the public, though some incur a small materials fee. Registration is required for the events and can be made through The Halide Project’s website at www.thehalideproject.org.

Of Metal and Light was made possible by a grant from the Penn Treaty Special Services District. Additional funding was provided by Project Stream, a grant initiative of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts that is regionally administered by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. Additional support for Project Stream is provided by PECO.

Lucretia Moroni, Untitled, platinum/palladium print on gold leaf

About The Halide Project

The Halide Project was created in 2015 by Alexandra Orgera and Dale Rio in order to promote the continued practice and appreciation of traditional and alternative photographic processes. Run by a volunteer board of artists, The Halide Project produces two annual exhibitions: a small group invitational and a call-for-entry show, as well as affordable workshops, photographic study sessions, and other casual events throughout the year. Plans for future programming include artist residency opportunities and a dedicated darkroom workspace for community use.

About The Artists

Lisa Elmaleh’s work is an exploration of rural America. Using a portable darkroom in the back of her truck, Elmaleh photographs using the nineteenth century wet plate collodion process. Elmaleh is a West Virginia-based photographer and educator, teaching at the School of Visual Arts and the Penumbra Foundation in New York City. She has been awarded the Aaron Siskind Foundation IPF Grant, PDN’s 30, the Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation Grant, the Tierney Fellowship, and The Everglades National Park Artist Residency. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently featuring her American Folk project as a solo show at the Appalachian Center, Berea College in Kentucky, and her Everglades project in a group show, Imaging Eden: Photographers Discover the Everglades at the Norton Museum. Elmaleh’s work is in the collection of the Norton Museum, the Ogden Museum, and other private collections.

Sage Lewis is interested in the connections between material process and concept and works through drawing, sculpture, prints, and photography to translate images into multiple outcomes. She recently completed a Project Space Residency at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York and 10-month Artist-in-Residence Fellowship at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar. While in Qatar she set up a darkroom for students to learn analogue processes and received a faculty research grant to study and teach the process of carbon printing. Recent exhibitions were held at the Denison Museum in Granville, Ohio, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and Hamad bin Khalifa University Art Gallery in Doha, Qatar. Lewis holds an MFA in Painting & Drawing from The Ohio State University and a B.F.A. in Painting and Art History from Maine College of Art. She is currently based in Vermont.

Lucretia Moroni was born in Italy and attended the renowned Van der Kelen School in Brussels and continued her training in Interiors with the Renzo Mongiardino architecture firm in Milan. After working with Franco Zeffirelli, she moved to New York in the early 1980’s and has since worked on a large number of private and public projects, including painting 24 Murals at Bethesda Fountain, commissioned by Central Park Conservancy and New York Landmark. After studying photographic processes at International Center for Photography, she is currently experimenting in work that combines photography and the decorative arts.

Lisa Elmaleh, Slash Pines, gelatin silver print (from glass wet plate negative)

Details

What: Of Metal and Light, a photography exhibition highlighting the work of three artists using chemistry-based practices.

Where: Gravy Studio & Gallery, 910 N. 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123

When: March 3rd – March 26th

Regular viewing hours: Wednesday – Sunday, 12 – 6 PM

Opening Reception and Artist Talk: Friday, March 3rd, 6:00 – 9:00pm (talks begin at 7:30)

Related educational events (information available at www.thehalideproject.org):

• Guided tours of the exhibit

• Hands-on Traditional Photography Workshops

• Visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art Study Room

• Informal Group Critique

Registration and more info: www.thehalideproject.org

Thank you to The Halide Project for the content of this post.

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