Opening Event and Panel Discussion in Relation to 'Altarations: Built, Blended, Processed'

The University Galleries will present the second opening of the two-part exhibition, "Altarations: Built, Blended, Processed," on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015 at 7 p.m. The opening will start with a panel discussion in the Performing Arts Building, room 101, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton campus. The reception will then follow in the Ritter Art Gallery (a five-minute walk from the Performing Arts building). "Altarations," which was organized by FAU University Galleries Director W. Rod Faulds and FAU graduate Jeanie Ambrosio, presents a wide range of photographic work by artists from several generations and geographic origins.

The panel discussion will include a look at abstraction in current photographic art and other aspects of the "Altarations" exhibition. Panelists include two artists participating in "Altarations"; Ellen Carey, associate professor of photography at the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, Conn.; and John Mann, associate professor of photography at Florida State University. In addition Heather A. Diack, Ph.D., assistant professor of modern and contemporary art theory at the University of Miami and Galleries Director W. Rod Faulds will participate.

Diack specializes in conceptual art and the history of photography and has authored an essay that will be included in the exhibition catalogue for "Altarations," to be published in the spring of  2015. Diack writes frequently on contemporary art for journals including Afterimage, RACAR and Artforum. She wrote  "Photography Collected Us" (University of Toronto Art Centre, 2012) and is finishing her upcoming book project "Framing Doubt: Photography, Conceptual Art, and Contemporary Uncertainty," which focuses on the ways in which conceptual artists use photographs to challenge epistemological boundaries.

Carey is a nationally and internationally known abstract and lens-based photographer. Her work in "Altarations" plays with the fundamentals of light and photochemistry and conceptual theories that question the most basic aspects of the photographic process. Some of her recent solo exhibitions include "Let There Be Light: The Black Swans of Ellen Carey," Akus Gallery, Eastern Connecticut State University (ECSU); "Photography Degree Zero," Joseph Bellows Gallery, La Jolla, Calif.; and "Struck by Light," Nina Freudenheim Fine Art, Buffalo, New York. Her work is in the permanent collections of more than 20 major art museums including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the New Britain Museum of American Art, Conn.; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Mann's works are generated and influenced by the many ways that mapping, drawing, and photography attempt to describe the landscape. His work in "Altarations," simple images of rocks, have been made otherworldly through Mann's manipulations of photographic processes. Mann's work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Daniel Cooney Fine Art, Daniel Cooney Fine Art, New York; the PDX Contemporary, Ore.; and The Center for Emerging Media, Orlando, Fla. Some recent group exhibitions include "NOW: Art in the Twenty-first Century" Philips De Pury, London, United Kingdom; "Three Ways to Draw the Landscape" (with Jon Gitelson and William Lamson), Ditch Projects, Springfield, Ore.; "Crossroads" Museum of Contemporary Art, Atlanta; "Created and Found Maps: Exploration of Self and World" The Houston Center for Photography, Houston; and"Mapping: Memory and Motion in Contemporary Art (Curated by Sara Tanguy)", Katonah Museum of Art, New York.

Faulds has worked as a curator, art museum administrator, and exhibition and graphic designer. He has held positions with several northeastern museums including the Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Mass.; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and The Brooklyn Museum. Since 1997 he has been the director of the University Galleries at FAU where he has curated numerous contemporary art exhibitions while developing collaborations with various academic departments and community organizations. He has also engaged several guest curators from New York as well as local visual art experts to organize exhibitions for the University Galleries.

The panel discussion is one of three public programs presenting artists in "Altarations." On Wednesday, January 28 at 7:30 p.m. New York-based Penelope Umbrico will present a lecture at the Girls' Club in Fort Lauderdale and on Wednesday, February 4 at 7:30 p.m. L.A. -based artist and poet Jibade-Khalil Huffman will present a reading from his two published works in the Ritter Art Gallery.

The University Galleries at FAU are free and open to the public Tuesdays through Fridays, from 1 to 4 p.m., and Saturdays from 1 to 5 p.m. Group and class tours are welcome during public hours as well as at other times scheduled by appointment. Gallery exhibitions are sponsored by the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County. For more information, call 561-297-2661, email galleries@fau.edu or visit www.fau.edu/galleries.