Amos Eno Gallery is pleased to collaborate with The Center for Photographic Art (CPA) in Carmel, California, for their 2024 Juried Exhibition, Present Tense, with CPA’s Executive Director Ann M. Jastrab serving as Juror.

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The show will be on view from June 28 to July 28, 2024. An opening reception will take place at the gallery's Bushwick location at 56 Bogart St. on June 28 from 6 to 8 p.m.

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This year, Amos Enos Gallery opened their juried show exclusively to Friends of Photography members at CPA and invited them to submit recent work to create an exhibition that reflects this moment in time as seen through the lenses of photographers around the country.

 

Ann Jastrab, Juror’s Statement, June 2024

 

Thanks to the Amos Eno Gallery for partnering with the Center for Photographic Art to give our Friends of Photography members a chance to share their work with a new audience 3000 miles away! Jurying is never easy, but as the director of our organization, it was wonderful to see the depth and breadth of the projects submitted by our members, many of them new to me. The talent, diversity, and strength of the portfolios was something to behold and I was honored to view and select from the myriad works. The images in the gallery take us from the intimate and exquisite portraits by Sandra Chen Weinstein from her series, “She” to the wide open horizons of the bay actually near my home in Northern California, but Michael Scandling’s vistas are magical, glowing, and ever-changing. I liked the way Eben Ostby’s argyrotypes of architectural ruins of the South paired with Phil Sager’s gritty and sometimes apocalyptic street images from San Francisco from his long term project, “Fragmented Memories.” Then there are the diptychs paired in pandemic introspection by Yelena Zhavoronkova, quiet observations and beautiful color, inextricably linked. Jo Ann Chaus’ self-portraits and still lifes are so vibrant in her use of color, that the color almost becomes a character, electrically charging each scene. And then our farthest afield member, Alexis Gerard, takes us on a journey to fog shrouded Fontainebleau, letting us peek into empty palaces and walk through the misty grounds and silent streets. Together these projects are a journey across miles and minds and into the heart of 7 diverse artists’ portfolios.

 

I want to thank all the photographers for sharing their work with me and for taking me on this journey, foreign and familiar. It was very difficult culling several hundred images down to just thirty-five in the physical gallery and another forty-fine in the online gallery. I had to leave out many portfolios and photographs that I would have loved to include. Congratulations to all the artists for creating such cohesive and incredible projects and for pursuing your unique vision. It’s not always easy to make work, but your perseverance and commitment to the medium shines through.

 

Jastrab selected five works each by seven photographers for installation in the gallery:

• Jo Ann Chaus

• Alexis Gerard

• Eben Ostby

• Philip Sager

• Michael Scandling

• Sandra Chen Weinstein

• Yelena Zhavoronkova

 

“The images in the gallery take us from the intimacy of bedrooms to the wide open horizon of the sea, the ruins of the Antebellum South to the gritty streets of a bustling city, diptychs paired in pandemic introspection and self-portraits made using color as a character, plus a journey to fog shrouded Fontainebleau,” Jastrab said of the work on view. “A journey across miles and minds and into the heart of 7 diverse artists’ portfolios.”

 

In addition, Jastrab selected five images each from an additional nine photographers’ whose work will be on view through a digital gallery presentation:

• Jennifer Fox Armour 

• Gary Beeber

• Ellen Konar and Steve Goldband

• Landry Major

• Jeanne Rousseau Marino

• Mark Overgaard

• David Rathbone

• Mark Tuschman

• Gary Wagner

 

“There were so many incredible projects submitted from our Friends of Photography members, that it was nearly impossible to select just seven artists to feature in the gallery,” Jastrab said. “These additional nine photographers had powerful projects, from documentary projects about the American West and migrant labor, to gorgeous landscapes in both color and B&W, displaying the beauty of our Earth and our surroundings. Many of the images in this online gallery make me want to travel to the poles as well as the wild and tamed places in between.”

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Notable Contributors

• Ellen Sturm Niz, Exhibition Design & Installation

• Julianne Nash, Exhibition Production & Consultation

• Blick Art Supplies, Production Materials

• New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, Exhibition Funding

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About the Juror
Ann M. Jastrab is the Executive Director at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, California. CPA strives to advance photography through education, exhibition and publication. These regional traditions—including mastery of craft, the concept of mentorship, and dedication to the photographic arts—evolved out of CPA’s predecessor, the renowned Friends of Photography established in 1967. While respecting these West Coast traditions, CPA is also at the vanguard of the future of photographic imagery.

 

Before coming onboard at CPA, Ann worked as the gallery director at RayKo Photo Center in San Francisco for 10 years until their closure in 2017. While being a champion of artists, she created a thriving artist-in-residence program at RayKo where multiple residents received Guggenheim Fellowships. Ann was also the gallery manager at Scott Nichols Gallery in San Francisco where she incorporated contemporary artists with the legends’ photography.

About Amos Eno Gallery
Amos Eno Gallery has been a fixture in the New York art scene since 1974 when it opened in Soho. It has moved with changing arts neighborhoods over the years to land at its current space at 56 Bogart St. in Brooklyn, across from the Morgan Ave. L train stop. The gallery is run by a small community of professional artists, both from New York City and across the country, and a part-time director. 

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For more information, please contact Gallery Director Ellen Sturm Niz at amosenogallery@gmail.com.