International Juried Photography Exhibition

Guest Curator Elizabeth Flinsch

FEMALIA

Opening Night Reception June 19th 6-8pm

Exhibition Dates: June 19th – July 3rd 2021

Exhibition Documentation Link

Guest Curator | Elizabeth Flinsch

We are programmed to understand gender and femininity within narrow and restrictive definitions. Photographs, both historical and contemporary, often reinforce these definitions and boundaries that no longer serve us. 

Photography has the power to transcend all manner of boundaries. It can blur miniscule lines between otherwise dichotomous realms of physical and philosophical space. If we are to reflect on photography’s capacity to challenge concepts of gender and femininity, we enter into an extraordinary opportunity to re-envision and expand our understanding of all who identify as women. We can confront our programmed understandings and reinterpret, both what is in front of the camera and what is behind it. 

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Praxis Gallery presents photographic art or lens-based artwork that challenges, criticizes, redefines, and disrupts our concepts of female identity. 

 International Juried Photography Exhibition

MONO - KROMATIK

OPENING RECEPTION JUNE 19TH 6PM-8PM
Exhibit Dates: June 19th - July 3rd, 2021

Exhibition Documentation Link

Juror | Sandrine Hermand-Grisel

Half a century after the advent of color film, black and white & monochromatic photography continues to capture our collective imagination.  Utilizing  tone,  contrast,  texture   and   shape, monochromatic photography strips its subject to only the most essential visual elements; revealing  a  sense of  soul,  substance  and meaning – separate from the shifting sentiments, symbolism and cultural associations of color imagery.

Praxis Gallery presents photographic works that demonstrate the fundamental qualities that make black and white & monochromatic  photography an enduring, contemporary  art form. 

 International Juried Photography Exhibition

THE BEAUTY IN MADNESS

Open by Appointment
Exhibit Dates: May 15th - 29th 2021

Exhibition Documentation Link

Juror | Sarah Weiss

Madness (mental illness) is something that frightens and fascinates us all. It is a word with which we are universally familiar yet haunts the human imagination. Through centuries, in poetry, prose, drama, and the visual arts, “madness" has been on display for all to see. With devastating effect, mental illness can disturb our commonsense assumptions; create unbearable disruptions in the routine of daily living; and turn our experience and our expectations upside down. And yet, it is this upside-down world view that opens a universe of unique and inventive perspectives oblivious to those free from disruptions of the mind. 

Praxis Gallery presents work that explores ideas linked to mental health, be it conflict or humor, fiction or fact, or any other literal or ephemeral lens-based investigation. We welcome photographic art that questions conventional assumptions about mental health or celebrates the unique perspective only visible to those who can see the "beauty in madness”.

 International Juried Photography Exhibition

Letters, Numbers & Symbols

Open by Appointment

Exhibition Dates: May 15th - May 29th, 2021

Exhibition Documentation Link

Juror | Dallas Crow

What’s written, scrawled, printed, posted, erased, illegible, letters, words, glyphs, equations, signatures, graffiti, advertising, envelopes, love letters, cursive, ampersands, abbreviations, charts, graphs, lines in the sand, hieroglyphs, runes, legends, typos, billboards, mistakes, regrets, palimpsests, fragments, fractions, chicken scratch, alphabets, phrases, nouns, verbs, neon, slogans, documents.

Praxis presents photographic art that includes letters, numbers, words, and/or symbols as a fundamental aspect of the composition. 

Praxis Gallery | Photo Arts Center Presents

This Could Have Been Avoided

A Solo Exhibition by Aaron Nesheim

Postponed Artist Reception: May 15th,2021

Exhibition Dates: April 17th - May 15th, 2021

RSVP HERE

Aaron Nesheim | This Could Have Been Avoided

On the evening of May 25th, 2020 our community was reminded that the status quo remained the same. The world watched as a Minneapolis Police Officer knelt on a black mans neck until he died. After years of calling for reform in the way police interact with the community and the often violent consequences, many in our city had seen enough. This project is from my ongoing documentation of communities efforts to improve the lives of people of color, and other marginalized groups. My aim is to shed light on those working toward reforms. To amplify the voices of those whose efforts have gone unnoticed.

 International Juried Photography Exhibition

The Found Object

Open by Appointment

Exhibition Dates: April 17-May 1st, 2021

Exhibition Documentation Link

Juror | Elizabeth Flinsch

A "found object" is a material artifact discovered by chance and assigned esthetic value in an artist’s hand.  Found art may include a wide array of objects and items either discarded, forgotten, dropped, or misplaced – such as shoes, a fork, shopping carts, signs, doll heads, abandoned cars, clocks, mementos,  or any object that can be reimagined through the lens of a camera… so long as the artist believes that the discovered object possesses a certain aesthetic or talismanic quality - stemming from its appearance, social or personal history.

Praxis presents photographic art that studies of the “found object” as pure visual form, detached from its history or utility. Conversely, the representation of the object may be a catalyst for exploring broader issues such as subjectivity and socialization, memory and loss, or love and death. 

 International Juried Photography Exhibition

THE PORTRAIT

Open By Appointment

Exhibition Dates: March 20th - April 3rd, 2021

Link to Documentation of Exhibition

Juror | Robi Chakraborty

In her book, Portraits and Persons, writer Cynthia Freeland describes three essential elements that constitute a portrait: “(1) a recognizable physical body (2) an inner life, i.e., some sort of psychological or mental states and (3) self-presentation, or the "posing.”
 

Praxis Gallery presents photographic works that celebrates the aesthetic and conceptual considerations involved in the creation of the portrait: revealing personal narratives or new anthologies through the artistic representation of the subject. 

 International Juried Photography Exhibition

ANIMAL BEINGS

GUEST CURATED EXHIBIT
BY LAURA VALENTI

Open by Appointment

Exhibition Dates: March 20-April 3rd, 2021

Link to Documentation of Exhibition

Guest Curator | Laura Valenti
 

This exhibition is a celebration of the astonishing beauty and diversity found in the animal world. Praxis Gallery Presents photographic art works that showcase animals’ inner beauty, strength, character, resiliency, and wisdom. Compassionate images of companion animals, wild animals, farm animals, insects, and fish are all heartily featured - showcasing the very best of furry, scaly, feathery photographs!

 International Juried Photography Exhibition

The Abstract Image

By Appointment Only

Exhibition Dates: February 20th - March 6th, 2021

Link to Documentation of Exhibition

Juror | Aline Smithson

‘An abstract photograph draws away from that which is realistic or literal. It draws away from natural appearances and recognizable subjects in the actual world. Some people even say it departs from true meaning, existence, and reality itself. It stands apart from the concrete whole with its purpose instead depending on conceptual meaning and intrinsic form.' John Suler

Praxis Gallery presents photographic works that explore the world through an abstracted lens; utilizing elements of color, light, shadow, texture, shape and line to express meaning outside of traditional representational and documentary styles of photography.

 International Juried Small Group Exhibit

ANTHOLOGIES

Six Artists • Six Short Stories

 Marc Apers           G.S. Broz              Paolo Rubini 

 Ilya Trofimenko      Laura Condrin      Elizabeth Bailey 

By Appointment Only

Exhibit Dates: Jan 16th - 30th 2021

Link to Videos of Exhibition

Jury Panel: Praxis Directors

Praxis Gallery is inaugurating a biennial, small group exhibition featuring narrative based collections of photographic art limited to six artists with four images each. The title of the show, Anthologies, is derived from the Greek meaning “to gather, or collect”. In this precise sense Praxis Gallery seeks to explore the manner in which photographic artists gather and organize images into collections - thereby creating meaning. However, this is not an exercise in sequencing images or linear chronologies; it is more an interpretive exploration of the interdependence of each image vis a vis the collective meaning of the group of images - indulging the viewer to extract their own subjectivities, searching for meaning out of collected images that may seem meandering, anfractuous and excursionary – as much as they may also seem explicit and absolute in substance.

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