Perkins Center for the Arts in Moorestown will host a free artists’ reception for its current juried photography show, Photography 44, on Saturday, Jan. 18, at 2 p.m. Awards will be announced at 3:30 p.m.
“What I’m most excited about is seeing the artist’s interpretation of the theme, because the theme changes every year,” said Sharon Kiefer, exhibitions curator for Perkins.
This year’s theme is ACTION, which the artists are free to depict.
“It could mean taking action, action shots, social justice ideas such as protesting …” Kiefer explained. “Any way that the artist wants to interpret that word ‘action’ will be acceptable.”
This year’s juror is award-winning photographer B. (Barbara) Proud, whose photos have been exhibited nationally and internationally and is included in many public and private collections. Her recent work is a series of socially conscious documentary projects focused on the LGBTQ-plus and transgender communities. “Transcending Love” focuses on transgender and gender non-conforming couples.
Proud’s current work is to represent the greatest amount of ethnic, geographic, socio-economic and age diversity in the LGBTQ project to show a country that is increasingly becoming divided that transgender and gender non-conforming couples are everyone’s neighbor.
“She’s a very brave artist and photographer,” Kiefer noted of Proud. “She tackles subject matter that could make some people uncomfortable, and she treats it with love and admiration, and so the point and the stories that she’s trying to tell are welcomed because of the way she presents the work.”
Photography 44 will continue from Monday to Friday, Feb. 28. Gallery hours are from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday and noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday.
“It’s a great opportunity for the photographers to show their abilities and adhere to a theme and show off their techniques and their expertise and their creativity and their presentation …” Kiefer said. “It’s like a whole package, and it’s interesting to just look around at the choices that the judge will make for the show.
“At the reception, we always talk to the winners and have them explain their piece, and we have the judge also explain why he or she thought the piece was worthy of whatever prize that was given.”
For more, visit www.perkinsarts.org. For more on “Transcending Love,” go to www.transcendinglove.org.
