Masked people, spacemen, mannequins, women falling thru time, time suspended, and stuff of unconscious dreams – all of this photographic imagery make up the PhotoSC Surrealism Triennial. PhotoSC joins museums around the world in celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Surrealism art movement with a triennial photographic exhibition, a scholarly talk ‘InConversation on Surrealism,’ and a surreal-fun mask-making workshop, all this October.
The PhotoSC Surrealism Triennial exhibition opening reception is October 17, 2024, from 6-9 p.m. at 918 Lady Street in the Vista. The photographic exhibition features 25 photographic works by photographers from around the nation, with the show hanging a total of 32 photographic prints.
Photographer Francis Crisafio of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania took first place in the Triennial with his image, Hold Up in the Hood 3. The work was created as part of an afterschool program with Pittsburg students exploring “personal and communal exploration of self.” Crisafio was a LensCulture Exposure Award recipient in 2015 for his work with the program.
The group show was juried by Sheryl Conkelton, curator, editor, and writer focusing on photography and modern and contemporary art. She has held senior curatorial positions at the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Henry Art Gallery (Seattle), and has worked at other museums, including the Art Museum, Princeton University, and the Smithsonian Institution. A noted researcher and writer her books on photography include Lewis Baltz: Works (Steidl), Uta Barth, In Between Places (Henry Art Gallery), Annette Messager (MOMA), Aaron Siskind, The Fragmentation of Language (Robert Mann Gallery), and Frederick Sommer (Clio Pess).
Amid the backdrop of World War II, French writer and cultural theorist André Breton (1896-1966) is credited with authoring the first Surrealist Manifesto in October 1924. The Surrealist movement spans a vast breadth of artistic creation with its roots reaching into the Middle Ages, its influence on the visual arts and the other arts worldwide has inspired the photographic artists, past and present, and lead to the abstract expressionist movement.
Scholars Peter Chametzky, Ph.D and Susan Fellerman, Ph.D will present a fascinating conversation on the evolution of the Surrealist movement and its impact on modern photography and art over the past 100 years. Their InConversation talk will be held Saturday, October 24, 2024, from 2-4 p.m., at 918 Lady Street in the Vista with the gallery opening at 1 p.m. to view the exhibition.
Peter Chametzky is Professor of Art History and has been on the SVAD faculty at the University of South Carolina since 2012. His research focuses on 20th and 21st century German art and culture. He received the 2024 Russell Research Award in Humanities and Social Sciences, University of South Carolina. His recent book, Turks, Jews, and other Germans in Contemporary Art received an honorable mention, art history, Hans and Lea Grundig Prize, Art History, 2021. Peter teaches courses in 20th and 21st Century art, theory, and culture, as well as the art history survey, ARTH 105 and ARTH 106.
Susan Felleman, Ph.D. is a Professor of Art History + Film and Media Studies at the University of South Carolina who specializes in the relationship between film and other visual arts, history and theory of avant-garde film and video and the art film; history and theory of Hollywood cinema; modern art and theory; psychoanalytic theory; feminist theory and videographic criticism. She is the author of four books, numerous scholarly articles and two video essays. She recently wrote and co-directed (with Hannah Shikle) a feature-length, personal essay film, In Production: the Life and Career of George Justin.
Later, on the same day, at 918 Lady Street, from 5-7 p.m. Columbia artist Michael Krajewski dives into surrealism by leading a paper bag mask workshop a’la Saul Steinberg. All materials supplied at this highly creative artistic masquerade in celebrating the 100th anniversary of Surrealism. Michael Krajewski, a talented neo-expressionist artist, will conduct a workshop in which participants create a surrealist paper bag mask in a manner similar to Saul Steinberg’s masks. The adult workshop will be held on October 26 and will use collage, paint, pen, and crayon to create the artwork, all of which will be photographed and promoted across PhotoSC’s social media. Both Neo-expressionism and surrealism draw upon a variety of themes including the mythological, the cultural, the historical, the nationalist, and the erotic.
The PhotoSC Triennial Exhibition and Surreal Paper bag Mask-Making Workshop, a’la Saul Steinberg: Workshop with Michael Krajewski is sponsored by the SC Arts Commission and Abacus Planning Group.
InConversation with Peter Chametzky and Susan Fellerman on Surrealism is sponsored by the SC Humanities Council.
PhotoSC is a 501C3 non-profit arts organization dedicated to the exploration of photography and visual culture.
