SuperNatural: Landscapes by Bruce Checefsky and Barry Underw
Date: Saturday October 29, 2011 - Sunday March 4, 2012
Time: Wed – Sun: 11 am – 5 pm, Thurs: 11 am – 9 pm, Closed Mon and Tues and all major holidays
Location: Akron Art Museum
www.AkronArtMuseum.org
Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell Gallery
Featuring the works of Cleveland artists Bruce Checefsky and Barry Underwood, SuperNatural: Landscapes by Bruce Checefsky and Barry Underwood will be on view October 29, 2011 – March 4, 2012, at the Akron Art Museum in the Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell Gallery.
Each artist utilizes the effects of atmospheric light in addition to outside light sources to create ephemeral moments in the landscape that give viewers the sense of discovering hidden worlds. Their inventive use of photography and light alters our perception of the landscape to reveal unseen aspects. Checefsky uses a flat-bed scanner as a field camera in his garden. Rather than placing an object on the scanner’s glass surface, he aims the scanner outward to capture images of flowers and foliage. His lush images appear to be traditional botanical studies or pastoral scenes except for the occasional scanning glitch, which blurs or distorts a part of the image.
Also an experimental filmmaker, Checefsky moves the scanner around the object he is recording so that the images have an animated quality to them. According to the artist, “They are not the frozen moment that photographs typically capture. Using a scanner feels truer to the way we see things; [the image] looks less photographic.”
Barry Underwood’s surreal photographs are a cross-pollination of static and performing art. By staging temporary light installations in the landscape, he seems to capture a secret happening—an unnatural moment in the natural world that he has chanced upon and recorded. His stunning images combining the effects of atmospheric light and his own light “interventions” spark questions about illusion, imagination and the artist’s process.
