Visual Studies Workshop has held innovative exhibitions in photography, film, video, artists books and interdisciplinary art since 1970. This is a timeline of exhibitions programmed between 1970 to 2011. Exhibitions before 1978 were held at VSW’s first location, 4 Elton Street, Rochester, New York, and exhibitions after were held at VSW’s 31 Prince Street location. This timeline covers a wide variety of types of exhibitions, including media installations, solo and group photo and bookworks exhibitions, and video art broadcasts. For more recent exhibitions, click here.

 

1970

 

The first formal space devoted to exhibitions at the Workshop at 4 Elton St. was a small hallway space which was converted into an exhibition gallery in 1970. The Slightly Sloping Gallery opened on March 20, 1970 with a fundraising exhibition titled “Photographs for Sale.” The Slightly Sloping Gallery was then used as a training space for museum studies students to gain the actual experience of planning, displaying and promoting exhibitions, and as a space to display exhibitions of VSW student’s work. 

• Photographs for Sale: A Print Sale in Support of the Photographic Studies Workshop, Rochester, N.Y One of eight simultaneous sales in galleries around the country held to raise funds for the new Workshop.

• Found Photographs: Snapshots selected by seven members of the Photographic Studies Workshop: Paul Baron, James Borcoman, Diana Edkins, Bill Jenkins, Dennis Longwell, John Witter and Anne Tucker, chairman.

• Dave Brown: Images of Chicago, New York, Paraguay and Rochester

• Joel Swartz: Xerox Prints

• Gary Metz: Plastic Love Dream

• Eric Renner: Photographs of Tical

• Colored Photographs curated by Anne Tucker

• Alice Wells: Found Moments Transformed/The Re-exploration of a series of glass plates

 

TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS PROGRAM

Almost immediately after founding the Workshop in 1969 Nathan Lyons reinitiated an exhibition rental program that he had inaugurated at the George Eastman House in the mid 1960s. The Workshop soon announced that the proceeds from the “Photographs for Sale” exhibition had allowed the Travelling Exhibitions Program to organize the first four exhibitions and that they were available for rental in March 1970. Brent Sikkema was the first coordinator of these exhibitions programs. This Traveling Exhibition Service was initiated before the Workshop itself had any space sufficiently large to display these same exhibitions. Thus some of the first exhibitions organized at the Workshop were traveling exhibitions, rented to other institutions. Some of these exhibitions traveled for a few years, some traveled for several decades, and were seen by thousands of people all over the country. The first four traveling exhibitions were:

• John Wood 

•Alice Wells: Found Moments Transformed 

• Lee Friedlander & Jim Dine: Work from the Same House Portfolio 

• Eikoh Hosoe: Kamaitachi, An Extravagantly Tragic Comedy 

1971

 

Four additional exhibitions were added to the traveling exhibitions program.

• Ralph Eugene Meatyard 

• Todd Walker 

• Robert Fichter 

• Donald Blumberg: Daily News 

1972/1973  

 

additional traveling exhibitions included:

• Les Krims 

• Nathan Lyons: Notations In Passing 

• Tony Ray-Jones 

• Kenneth Josephson 

1974/1975 

 

Seven new traveling exhibitions were available for rental. For the first time, these included some group shows.

• Walter Chappell  

• Sonia Sheridan: The Inner Landscape and the Machine 

• Michael Bishop, Darryl Curran, William G. Larson, Keith Smith 

• Robert Flick, Allen Dutton, Bart Parker 

• Jerry Burchard, Mark Cohen, Gary Hallman, Roger Mertin 

• Linda Connor, Jim Raymo, Carl Toth, Joan Redmond 

• The First Traveling Offset Rip-Off Show, which consisted of 20 pads of offset lithograph prints by 20 artists, which could be removed and taken at will by the renting gallery’s viewers. The participating artists in this unusual exhibition were Michael Bishop, Leif Brush, Eileen Cowin, Robert Fichter, Robert Heinecken, Scott Hyde, Syl Labrot, Joan Lyons, Cynthia Marsh, Bea Nettles, Tony Petracca, Sonia Sheridan, Keith Smith, Harland Snodgrass, Michael Sowden, Joel Swartz, Charles Swedland, Todd Walker, Barbara Wilson and John Wood.

1975

 

In 1975 a room in the expanded area of the Workshop at 4 Elton St. was refurbished and The Workshop Gallery or The Visual Studies Workshop Gallery or the Main Gallery was opened on Jan. 17, 1975 with a group exhibition. Now the Exhibitions Programs could mount an exhibition in the main gallery with a second show in the older hallway gallery, or a larger exhibition using both spaces, or any variant. By April 1976 exhibitions organized for the traveling exhibitions program also began to be displayed at the Workshop, in the Main Gallery or in the Slightly Sloping Gallery, either before they began to travel, or at some convenient time in the schedule. There were still occasions, however, if size or schedule problems existed, when traveling exhibitions were not displayed. at the Workshop itself.  

 

• Group Exhibition: Walter Chappell, Max Hein, Joseph Jachna, Ken Josephson, Roger Mertin, Bart Parker, Sonia Sheridan, John Wood (Main Gallery)

• Gravure Prints by Edward Curtis, Lithographs by Eadweard Muybridge (Main Gallery) Curator Natan Lyons.

• The Great American Waistland Buckle Show: Photographic Belt Buckles by Dave Brown and Joe Denaro (Slightly Sloping Gallery)

• Photographs: Doug Baz, Lyn Mandelbaum, Joan Redmond, Jeff Silverthorne, John Spence (Main Gallery)

• Recent Polariod SX-70 Work by Les Krims (Main Gallery)

• Sixteen Studies of Vegetable Locomotion by Marion Faller and Hollis Frampton (Main Gallery) Apparently there was also a “Live video performance” by Louise Etra, Bill Etra and Peter Crown offered at some point during these exhibitions. 

• The Visual Studies Workshop Summer Exhibition: Carol Drobek, Allen Dutton, Marion Giacomelli, Bruce Horowitz, Syl Labrot, Richard Link, Joan Lyons, Ray Metsker, Timo Pajunen, Eric Renner, Murray Riss, Joel Swartz, Charles Traub, Todd Walker, Henry Wessell, Jr. (Main Gallery)

• Young British Photographers: John Wall, Valerie Wilmer, Brian Griffin, Chris Steele-Perkins, Paddy Summerfield, Larry Herman, Homer Sykes, John Webb, Ron McCormick, Neil Gulliver, Richard Wood, Simon Marsden, Mark Edwards, Paul Hill (Main Gallery)

• Photographs by Jacques-Henri Lartigue (Main Gallery)

• Etchings by Vera Berdich (Slightly Sloping Gallery)

• Photographs by Linda Connor, John Divola, and Eric Renner

1976

 

• Anonymous Lantern Slides (Main Gallery)

• Stroboscopic Photographics by Dr. Harold E. Edgerton (Slightly Sloping Gallery)

• Photographs by Donald Blumberg (Main Gallery)

• Photographs by Janet Applebaum (Slightly Sloping Gallery)

• Photographs by Lewis Hine (Bookstore)

• Photographs by Jerry Burchard, Mark Cohen, Gary Hallman and Roger Mertin (Main Gallery)

• Photographs by Walter Chappell [Slightly Sloping Gallery]

• Etchings, Screenprints and Photographs by Keith Smith 

• Photographs by John Pfahl

• Photogenic Drawings by Barbara Kasten

• Photographs by Leland Rice

• Photographs by Mark Cohen

• Prints by Darryl Curran

1977

 

• Xerox facimilies from a journal by Willyum Rowe

• Photographs by Bart Parker

• Drawings, Lithographs and Photocollages by John Wood 

• Photographs by Henry Wessel, Jr. 

• Photographs by Todd Walker

• Photograms by Carol Drobek

• Photographs by Barbara Blondeau

• Cyanotype Prints by Bonnie Gordon

• Color Photographs by Joan Redmond 

• Albumen Prints by Francis Bedford, Frances Frith and Anonymous Photographers 

1978

 

The Visual Studies Workshop moved from 4 Elton Street to 31 Prince Street in 1977. There were no exhibitions held by the Workshop from December 1977 until October 1978, while new exhibition spaces were being organized and renovated. The initial location of the Workshop Gallery was in two conjoined rooms on the ground floor of the front building. These rooms housed the Sales Gallery and the Main Exhibition Gallery. The Bookstore (and the Bookstore Gallery) was in a third, adjacent, room. The hallway on the second floor of the front building was used as the Research Center Gallery. Later, temporary walls were constructed in the auditorium on the ground floor of the front building, turning that area into the main exhibition gallery. Even later, the top floor of the back building was renovated and it held the Main or Workshop Gallery, the Sales Gallery, and the Bookstore. Charles Stainback, who apparently took over the role of coordinator of exhibitions sometime in 1977, is first listed as coordinator of the exhibitions program in publicity announcements for the Blondeau show.

During the interval as the Workshop moved, a new Traveling Exhibitions catalog printed in 1977 lists twelve previous exhibitions, one new group show, “Fichter, Walker, Wood,” which seems to have been combined from three earlier one-man exhibitions, and three new exhibitions. Two of these consist of the work of a contemporary but recently deceased photographer Barbara Blondeau, whose archive was in the VSW Research Center collections, and the first historical survey exhibition on the work of the New York Photo League from the 1930s and 1940s. Anne Tucker was the guest curator for the Photo League exhibition. 

• Murry Riis 

• Fichter, Walker, Wood 

• The Photo League 

• Barbara Blondeau 

• Selected Photographs: Paul Diamond, John Wood, Tom Gibson, Bruce Horowitz, Bart Parker, John Pfahl, Ken Josephson, Keith Smith, Henry Wessel, Jr., Bonnie Gordon, Joseph Jachna (on site at VSW, Main Gallery)

• Impressions of Cuba 1977. Seven Photographers: Harvey Finkle, Rene Gelpi, Susan Meiselas, William Price, Mel Rosenthal, Ede Rothaus, Frank Stewart (Upstairs Hall Gallery) Part of a program “Photography and Community” including weekend workshops, lectures, and seminars at various institutes around Rochester during October and November, with three exhibitions throughout the city. Co-sponsored by the Bilingual Academy of Fine Arts and Cultural Development, the Community Education Center, Empire State College, the Puerto Rican Cultural Center and Rochester Institute of Technology. One co-coordinater of this program was Leslie Locketz, formerly a student at the Visual Studies Workshop, and she most likely was the facilitator of this exhibition.

• Roger Mertin: Photographs

1979

 

• Xerox Drawings and Lithographs by Joan Lyons

• Drawings and Photographs by Eric Renner

• Photographic Crossroads: The Photo League, guest curator Anne Tucker. This exhibition is described as selected prints from the VSW traveling exhibition

• E.O. Goldbeck: Panoramic Views

• Split-toned Black & White Photographs by Murray Riss

• Color Photographs by Doug Baz

• Color Photographs by John Divola, James Henkel, Bart Parker, John Pfahl 

• Photographs by Joseph Jachna, Mario Giacomelli, 

• Book Objects: The Work of Ten Bookmakers: Frances Butler, Gary Frost, Alison Knowles, Joan Lyons, Richard Minsky, Lois Polansky, Sue Share, Keith Smith, John Wood, Paul Zelevansky (Main Gallery)

• Selections from the Visual Studies Workshop Independent Press Archive (Research Center Gallery)

• Book Productions from Educational Print Centers (Research Center Gallery)

• Speaker’s Exhibition: Original Examples of Work Discussed in Presentations (Research Center Gallery)

• The Evolution of An Artist’s Book: Pleasure Beach by Syl Labrot (MFA Gallery)

• Collective Exposition: An unedited display of books and other multiples published by artists throughout the world,  More than 110 artists or presses displayed one or more books in this exhibition. These exhibitions were held in connection with an “International Conference on Alternative Art Publishing” held at the Workshop from Nov. 6 – 9, 1979.

• Lejaren A. Hiller: A Half Century of Photographic Illustration

• The Image Considered: Recent Work by Women, Eileen Berger, Garie Crawford, Alma Davenport, Marion Goldner, Wanda Hammerbeck, Susan Jahoda, Colleen Kenyon, Jacqueline Livingston, Wendy MacNeil, Martha Madigan, Susan Rankaitis, Ann Rosen, Ruth Schilling, Barbara Schamblin, Jessie Shefrin, Lanie Strahler, Ruth Thorne-Thomsen Curator Nancy Gonchar and Catherine Lord.

The Traveling Exhibitions catalog published in 1978/79 states that the Workshop circulates sixteen traveling exhibitions available for rental. New listings include:

• The Extended Frame: Ten picture-makers who have each challenged the limitations of the conventional photographic picture frame. James Alinder, Oscar Bailey, William Larson, Ray Metzker, Bart Parker, Eric Renner, Art Sinsabaugh, Keith Smith, Carl Toth, John Wood curated by Nathan Lyons. 

• Points of View, The Stereograph in America: A Cultural History, curated by Edward W. Earle, et al. 

• Color Photographs by John Divola, James Henkel, Bart Parker, John Pfahl

• Contemporary Issues: Visual Articulation of Idea 

1980

 

• Image & Surface: Four Picturemakers, Benno Friedman, Joyce Neimanas, William Parker, Bruce Patterson (Main Gallery)

• Selection from The Photographic Crossroads: The Photo League [Research Center Gallery]

• Rhode Island School of Design MFA Candidates Traveling Exhibition: Drex Brooks, Thomas Lamb, Martha Leinroth, Linda Mahony, William Manis, Stephen Petergorsky, Esther Solondz, Joshua Touster, Jamie Wolff [VSW Loft Gallery]

• Bruce Horowitz, Willyum Rowe and Jeff Silverthorne [Main Gallery]

• Photographs by Nathan Lyons from the mid 1950’s to the early 1960’s [Workshop Gallery]

• The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake: Views of the Aftermath. Photographs by Harry W. Chadwick et al [Research Center Gallery]

• Ithaca Video Festival

• Visual Articulation of Idea: John Baldessari, George Blakley, Agnes Denes, Douglas Heubler, Victor Landweber [Main Gallery]   

• Selections from the Collection of A. D. Coleman [Research Center Gallery] This collection consists largely of 19th & 20th century topographical or vernacular photographs.

• Arthur F. Gay: Photographs from Gay’s Gymnasium and School of Physical Culture [Workshop Gallery Office]

• Contemporary Tourist Postcards: Symbolic Stops Along the Way [Research Center Gallery]

Nancy Gonchar is first listed as Exhibitions Coordinator in the literature promoting the John Pfahl/Jo Babcock exhibition with the opening of the exhibition season in the Autumn of 1980. It seems probable that during this time of active exhibitions programming in the Research Center Gallery that Helen Brunner or Don Russell also coordinated several, if not all, of those exhibitions.

• John Pfahl: Picture Windows [Workshop Gallery] 

• Jo Babcock: Scientific Portfolio [Workshop Gallery Office]

• Women’s Bookworks: Contemporary Artist’s Books by Canadian Women. [Research Center Gallery] Guest curators Doreen Lindsay and Sarah McCutcheon. 

• People: Works in Progress, Color Photographs by Charles Traub [Main Gallery]

• Camera Text or Picture, Photographs by Paul Berger [Main Gallery]

• Eric Baden: Photographs [Workshop Gallery Office]

• Film Posters for Nazi Popular Cinema [Research Center Gallery]

• E.O. Goldbeck, Panoramic Views [Bookstore Gallery, rehung]

• Bernard Faucon: Color Photographs [Workshop Gallery]

• Phyllis Galembo: Color Photographs [Workshop Gallery]

• Martha Madigan: Photograms from the series “Patriarchal Tools” [Workshop Gallery Office]

• The Use of Photographs in Magazine Illustration [Research Center Gallery]

• The Artist and the Magazine [Bookstore Gallery] 82 magazines from 1900 – 1980

• Photographs: 1980 CAPS Award Recipients [Loft Gallery] 50 photographs by 17 New York state artists, all recipients of 1980 Creative Artists Public Service Fellowships

1981

 

• Bodybuilders: Photographs by Arthur F. Gay 

• John Brumfield: Portraits [Workshop Gallery]

• Ester Parada: Photographic Composites [Workshop Gallery]

• “To Be Continued…”: The Sequential Image in Photographic Books [Research Center Gallery] Organized by guest curator Norman B. Colp. 13 limited edition or unique artist’s books, one each by Bettina, Ania Bien, Phyllis Bilick, Norman B. Cole, Barbara Crane, Conrad Gleber, George Griffin, Charles Hovland, Wolf Kahlen, Richard McKown, Antonio Mendoza, Bruce Nauman, Robert Sennhauser, Al Souza.

• Books from The Coach House Press [Bookstore Gallery]

• On Photography and Vision: Photographs by Michael Bishop [Workshop Gallery]

• The Photographic Book [Research Center Gallery]

• The Illustrated Book [Bookstore Gallery], “The Photographic Book” and “The Illustrated Book” exhibitions were held in conjunction with the symposium “The Photographically Illustrated Book” sponsored by the Friends of the University of Rochester Library which was held at the Workshop on Saturday, March 7, 1981. Both exhibitions were coordinated by Helen Brunner and Don Russell. A previously announced exhibition “Photographs as Evidence,” in the Research Center Gallery, was replaced by the Photographic Book exhibition.

• Selected Gallery Artists: Paul Diamond, Carol Drobek, Joan Lyons, Roger Mertin, Bart Parker, Willyum Rowe, Sonia Landy Sheridan, Keith Smith [Workshop Gallery]

• William Paris, Photographs [Workshop Gallery Office]

• The Photographic Book [Research Center Gallery] Continued from the earlier schedule.

• Books and Posters by Bern Porter [Artists Book Gallery], Documents of Porter’s art works and involvements in the book arts, photography and film

• An Exhibition of Work by John Wood [Workshop Galleries], Recent books, photo-collages and drawings and the portfolio “Twelve Offset Lithographs,” published by the VSW Press. This exhibit was apparently kept up throughout the summer and the galleries were opened to the public on Sat. and Sun, Sept. 12 and 13th to display the show.

• Form As Content, A Contemporary Photography Exhibition: Aldo Davanzo, Carol Drobek, Barbara Kasten, Mark McFadden, Gary Minnix, Richard Neill, Charles Nicholson, Lorie Novak, Sheila Pinkel, Daniel Ranalli, Jim Raymo, Robert Stiegler, Patricia White [Workshop Gallery]

• The PAROS Dream Book: Photographs by Laurence Bach and Text by Robert Goolrick [Artist Book Gallery]

• Selected Photographs: Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries [Workshop Gallery] Works for sale from Richard Link Photography Ltd.

• The Photographs of Giorgio Sommer: Adam Weinberg MFA Final Presentation [Research Center Gallery]

• Paul Zelevansky: Selected Pages from the Case for the Burial of Ancestors, Book 1 [Artists Book Gallery]

• Lantern Slides [Bookstore Gallery]

• Points of View: The Stereograph in America – A Cultural History [Auditorium] These exhibitions up during the symposium “Photographs as Historical Documents” held at the Workshop on Nov. 21, 1981. 

The 1981 Visual Studies Workshop Traveling Exhibitions catalog lists seventeen exhibitions, including the following listings added since 1979:

• U.S. Eye. National Fine Arts Committee of the Lake Placid XIII Olympic Games and the Visual Studies Workshop. 65 artists from 23 states [132 photographs]

• The Image Considered: Recent Work by Women 

• The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Views of the Aftermath 

1982

 

• Visual Cataloguing and Mapping: Photographs, Installations and Artists’ Books by Bernd & Hilla Becher, Robbert Flick, Barbara Jo Revelle, Michelle Stuart, Jeff Weiss [Workshop Galleries]

• Artists’ Books by: Luciano Bartolini, Agnes Denes, Jan Dibbets, Mary Fish, Hamish Fulton, Eldon Garnet, Michael Gibbs, Wanda Hammerbeck, Geoffrey Hendricks, Sol Lewitt, Richard Long, Joan Lyons, Bruce Nauman, Ken O’Hara, Eggert Petursson, Bern Porter, Lyle Rosbothan, Charles Ross, Edward Ruscha, Laurie Seniuk, Michael Snow, Telfer Stokes, Athena Tacha, Joyce Wieland and others [Workshop Galleries]

• Eikoh Hosoe: Kamaitachi and Selected Photographic Books [Research Center Gallery]

• Recent Photographs of the Western Landscape by Wanda Hammerbeck, Terry Husebye and Lawrence McFarland [Research Center Gallery]

• The Avant Garde in Print: 20th Century Typography and Design [Artist Book Gallery] Portfolio of 50 facsimile reprints, compiled by Arthur and Elaine Cohen. 

• Joan Lyons: Presences [Office Gallery]

• Text/Picture Notes: Artists’ Books, Photographs and Videotapes by: Carolyn Berry, Corinne Bronfman, Carol Conde and Karl Beveridge, Steven Cortright, Peter D’Agostino, Juan Downey, Bonnie Gordon, Dennis Grady, Gary Hill, Fred Lonidier, Nathan Lyons, Antonio Muntadas, Martha Rosler, Charles Stainback, May Stevens, Lew Thomas [Workshop Galleries]

• Photographic Albums from the collections of the Visual Studies Workshop and the George Eastman House and a continuous slide presentation of related work [Workshop Galleries]

• Russian Samizdat Art: 1960 – 1982: Natalya Abalakova, Andrey Abramov, Nikita Alekseev, Vagrich Bakhchanyan, Nickolas Bokov, William Brui, Michael Chernyshov, Rimma and Valery Gerlovin, Goroshko and Clark, Michael Grobman, Ilija Kabakov, Gregory Kapelyan, Komar and Melamid, Henry Khudyaakov, Konstantin Kuzminsky, Leonid Kuznetzov, Leo Lapin, Igor Makarevich, Andrey Monastyrsky, Vsevolod Nekrasov, Lev Nussberg, Dmitri Prigov, Lev Rubinshtein, Leonid Sokov, the group “Toadstools,” Anatoly Ur, Nikiphor Zayats, Anatoly Zhigalov [Workshop Gallery] Books, posters and objects by contemporary Russian artists and Russian emigres. Curator Rimma and Valery Gerlovin, circulated by Franklin Furnace, New York.

• Magical Changes: a survey of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Children’s Mechanical and Movable Books [Research Center Gallery] 

• Biff Henrich: Recent Color Photographs [Gallery Annex]

• ADSVMVS ABSVMVS: A Portfolio by Hollis Frampton [Workshop Gallery]

• Lessons and Notes: Recent Photographs by Anne Turyn [Gallery Annex]

• Magical Changes: a Survey of 19th and 20th Century Children’s Mechanical and Movable Books [Research Center Gallery] 

• Seeing Double: A Survey of Contemporary Stereographic Imagery: 99 works by Shinkichi Tajiri, Michael Kostiuk, Charles Swedlund, Bill Liedlich, Kristi Hager, Doris Vila, Connie Hitzeroth, Ekkehart Rautenstrauch, Masumi Hayashi, Robert Bowen, Fred Faudie, William Molteni, Steve Benton, Julianne Domm-Gershwin, David Hlynsky, Dan Gosch, Peggy Weil, Peggy Weil and Luis Frangella, John Lovell, Max Alexander, Steve Aubrey, Sandor Bodo, Thomas Gold, Lorran Meares, Dale Hueppchen, Steve Schwartzman, Stephen Best, Gerald Marks, Larry Thomas, Beverly Tuttle, Jamie Stillings, Jeff Hoke, Edie Freedman [Workshop Galleries]

• Travels in the Limelight: Projections of the World Through the Magic Lantern, 1880-1930 [Research Center Galleries]

• Vintage Photographs: Photographs 1860 – 1950 on sale. [Workshop Galleries]

1983

 

• Manual: Thirteen Ways of Coping with Nature [Workshop Galleries] Photographs by Suzanne Bloom and Ed Hill [Manual] 

• The Photographic Caricatures of Alberto Schommer [Research Center Gallery]

• Swimmers: Contemporary Color Photographs by Jerry Gordon [Gallery Annex]

• Student Artists’ Books from Virginia Commonwealth University [Workshop Galleries] 29 books by Caryl Burtner, Jeffrey Byrd, Margie Scruggs Chism, Michael Clautice, R. Bob Salad/Tony Cokes, Elizabeth Greene, Ruth Hansen, Candee Harris, Bill Humm, Helge Jorgensen, William Koch, Holly Laws, Carolyn Magura, Mike Pattisal, Glenn Richardson, Kenny Spreeman, Eric Ungar, S. B. Watkins, Peyton Whitacre. Curator Carolyn Magura and Helge Jorgensen.

• Labor Editorial en Normales: Artists’ Books from Mexico [Gallery Annex] Approximately 30 objects, Curator  Carla Stellweg and Martha Hellion.

• Recent Work by Mark Klett

• Items from Our Catalogue: Portfolios and Artists’ Books from the Workshop’s Research Center [Workshop Galleries] A selection of portfolios “Artifacts at the End of a Decade,” “American Roads,” “Underware,” “Altered Landscapes,” by John Pfahl, “Twelve Offset Lithographs,” by John Wood, “Fashion Plates,” by Karen Savage and Ray Martinand and over 300 recently produced artist’s books. [Main Gallery]

• Cartes-de-Visite: Precedents and Influences [Announced, possibly not hung]

• Video Installations 1983: Videos by Barbara Buckner, Tony Conrad, Doug Hall, Margia Kramer, Bill Stephens 

• Selected Works from the Gallery Inventory [Workshop Galleries], 49 photographs by Murray Riss, Bonnie Gordon, Bart Parker, Willyum Rowe, Linda Connor, Bruce Horowitz, John Wood, Joan Lyons, Nathan Lyons, Lawrence McFarland, John Pfahl, Joseph Jachna, Michael Bishop, Susan Jahoda, Roger Mertin, Charles Traub, Jeff Silverthorne, Marion Faller, Hollis Frampton

• Vintage Photographs [Gallery Annex]

• Albums from the Collection [Research Center Gallery]

1984

 

Glenn Knudsen is listed as the individual to contact on exhibition publicity releases starting with the Paul Berger exhibition announcements in 1984.

• New Family Album: A Photo-Audio-Video Installation Project by Barbara Jo Revelle and Alex Sweetman, with Katie Revelle Sweetman [Auditorium Galleries]

• Paul Berger: Seattle Subtext [Workshop Gallery]

• Photographs by Gary Hallman [Workshop Gallery, not verified

• Paul Strand: “The Mexican Portfolio” and Selected Photogravures from “Camera Work” [Research Center Gallery]

• The Landscape Starts Here: Contemporary Photographs by Elizabeth Boettger, D. O. Bradley, Kevin Buss, Jno Cook, Peter Joseph Cook, Joe Daniels, Joe Davis, Jay DiLorenzo, Nancy Fink, Gaylord Herron, Julie D. Taylor, Bob Thall, Ruth Thorne-Thomsen, Jeff Weiss. Curator Jno Cook and Jay DiLorenzo [Auditorium Gallery] 

• Nancy Linn: Color Photographs [Workshop Gallery]

• Photographically Illustrated Books from the Collection [Research Center Gallery] Rare illustrated books published in Europe, the United States, and Japan between 1863 and 1916.

• Kim Mosley: Altered Photos 1979-1984 [Workshop Gallery]

• The Czech Avant-Garde and the Book 1900-1945 [Auditorium Gallery], Over 300 works of modern Czech typography and artist’s books by more than 60 artists. Curator Jiroslav Andel. 

• Lief Brush: Video Installation/Sound Sculpture [Research Center Gallery]

• Jeff Silverthorne: Silent Fires [Main Gallery], Suite of black and white photographs inspired by the myth of Orpheus and Euridice.

• Color Photographs: Joel Sternfield [Main Gallery]

• Old Rochester: A Contemporary Look [Research Center Gallery], Modern prints from Nitrate negatives, taken ca. 1920-1939, from the City of Rochester Municipal Archives Photograph Collection.

• Eight Colorado Photographers: Holly Arrow, Alicia Bailey, Bill Boyd, John Dziadecki, Lou Marcus, Janet Pritchard, W. S. Sutton, Judith Thorpe [Main Gallery] Students at University of Colorado at Boulder 1978 – 1983. 

• Martha Tabor: Images of Working Women [AuditoriumGallery] Artist-in-residence at VSW 

• The Albums of Charles Norman Sladden [Research Center Gallery], 12 handbound albums of snapshots with added drawings, watercolors and other embelishments produced between 1906 and 1916 by Sladden, of Bristol, MA.

• George Blakey: The Florida Pictures Show [Main Gallery, Annex], An installation of 25,000 photographic postcards of Florida.

• Recent Acquisitions: Photographs and Artists’ Books from the Permanent Collection [Research Center Gallery], Works acquired over the past three years. Michael Bishop, Mark Melnicove, Joel Slayton, Barton Lidice Benes and Lief Eriksson et al. Artists books by Wedgepress and Cheese Press.

• Anne Noggle: A Retrospective Exhibition [Main Gallery], 100 black and white photographs, Curator  the Chicago Center for Contemporary Photography at Columbia College, Chicago.

1985

 

Exhibition press releases began to be signed by Karen Chase with the Rita Dilbert show in 1985. Later documentation does indicate that she was the Exhibitions Program Coordinator until at least March 1987.

• On the Grounds: Photographs by James D. Colby [Main Gallery]

• American Stories: Photographic Collages by Linda Gammel [Gallery Annex]

• Carl Toth: Recent Works [Main Gallery] 20 collaged still lives, whose individual elements are generated from b & w or color xerox machines, plus 4 large scale b & w diptychs.

• The Carte-de-Visite: It’s Precedents and Influences [Research Center Gallery] Curator Dan Younger.

• Sheila Pinkel: Thermonuclear Garden [Main Gallery]

• James Butkus: Photographs [Research Center Gallery]

• Jim Pomeroy: Installation [Auditorium] [Not verified]

• Hiromi Tsuchida: Hiroshima [Main Gallery and Auditorium] Approximatelr 150 photographs.

• New Photomontage/Photocollage: Daniel Babior, Ken Graves, Gay Lasher, Brian Taylor [Research Center Gallery]

• Hand-painted Photographs by Rita Dibert [Main Gallery, Gallery Annex]

• Bill Seaman/ Walter Wheels [Auditorium]

• Structure/Components (3X): Robert Downsbrough, Robert C. Morgan, Buzz Spector [Auditorium]  Installation work curated by Robert C. Morgan.

• Sans Titre: Contemporary Photography and Video from France [Auditorium] 28 photographs by 8 photographers: Antoine Bootz, Bernard Borgeaud, Christian d’Aiwee, Jochen Gerz, Guillaumon, Pascal Kern, Patrick Raynaud, les freres Soussans. The number and makers of the videos not listed, but there were two showings. Curators Bernard Brunon and M. E. Sorrell. 

• Media Installation: Chariot Chamber by Aysha Quinn and John Sturgeon [Auditorium]

• Aldo Tambellini, Sarah Dickerson

1986

 

• Brian Oglesbee: Color Photographs [Main Gallery]

• Marion Faller: Recent Photographs [Main Gallery]

• Jim Stone: Photographs [Auditorium]

• Jeannne Finley: “Beyond the Times Forseen” and “Risks of Individual Actions” [Auditorium] Two installations.

• Finger Lakes Exhibition [Main Gallery, Auditorium], Joint exhibition with Pyramid Art Center and Memorial Art Gallery.

• The West: Steina and Woody Vasulka

• Artists’ Books from the Collection [Research Center Gallery] 7 artists.

• Marilyn Monroe and Salvador Dali Portfolios by Phillipe Halsman [Research Center Gallery]

• La Gran Pasion [Auditorium] 65 photographs by Latino photographers. Curator  Charles Biasiny-Rivera and Frank Gimpaya, En Foco, Inc. Photographers include Nydza Bajandas, Antonio Mendoza, Frank X. Mendez, Julio Piedra, Juan Sanchez, Sophie Rivera, Gilbert Acevedo, Naomi Simonetti, Jose Antonio Vazquez, Gilbert Acevedo, Hector M. Mendez-Caratini, et al.

• Gay Block: Color Photographs [Auditorium] From two of her series “South Miami Beach” and “H. E. B. Texas”

• Work from the Collection [Main Gallery] 

• Training Maneuvers: Chip Lord [Auditorium] Video media Installation.

• Video Transformations: Programs I & II [Media Center] Videotapes interpreting the performing and visual arts

• Photography: A Regional Survey [Auditorium], Curator Karen Chase. 68 photographers from central and western New York State. Organized in conjunction with the symposium “On Regionalism” held at the VSW on Wed., Oct. 22, 1986 as one event in the 1986 Northeast Regional Society for Photographic Education conference. Photographers Patti Ambrogi, Stan Bowman, Barbara Bosworth, Marilyn Bridges, David Broda, Tim Callahan, James Conlin, David Cook, Nicholas Culkowski, John Danehy, Lucinda Devlin, Frank Duffy, Peter Eberlin, Margaret Evans, Marion Faller, Brad Freeman, Roger Freeman, Collette Fournier, Courtney Frisse, William Gandino, Tyrone Georgiou, Bonnie Gordon, David Gordon, Jill Gussow, Danny Guthrie, Rita Hammond, Mark Haven, Alloysia Haynes, Rick Hock, Jeffrey Hoone, Bruce Horowitz, Jim Jipson, Edward Kinney, John Knecht, Lou Kruger, Philip Lange, Martha Leinroth, Jacqueline Livingston, Jean Locey, Joan Lyons, Judith Mallinson, Richard Margolis, Scott Mccarney, William McDowell, Jim Megergee, Lawrence Merrill, Roger Mertin, Theresa Miller, Kathy Morris, Sandy Moss, Judith Natal, Gail Nicholson, Brian Oglesbee, Willie Osterman, Barry Perlus, John Pfahl, Doug Prince, Ruth Putter, Lynn Schwarzer, Laurie Sieverts Snyder, Nancy Stuart, Sylvia deSwaan, Joel Swartz, Jim Sylvia, Michael Teres, James Via, Michael Zirkle, Del Zogg.

• Super 8 Film Exhibition. Group exhibition.

1987

 

In July 1987, James B. Wyman became the Exhibitions Program Coordinator, a position he retained until June 1997. Stronger ties with the State University of New York College at Brockport led to an increased Workshop presence at the Tower Fine Arts Gallery on the Brockport campus. In 1987, the SUNY Brockport Summer Arts Festival was produced in cooperation with VSW. This program, “The Extended Page,”consisted of an exhibition, a symposium, and several performances of the work of six intermedia artists.

• The Extended Page: Bonnie Gordon, Alison Knowles, Kumi Korf, Scott McCarney, Keith Smith, Paul Zelevansky, organized by Joan Lyons at the Tower Fine Arts Gallery.

• Selections from the Sales Gallery Collection [Main Gallery Annex] 

• “The World Gets Organized”: Photographs by William Paris [Main Gallery] 34 black and white prints.

• Codices 1986 – 1987: Photographs by Rick McKee Hock [Main Gallery]

• Ian Breakwell & Anna Ridley: Videotapes from Channel 4 England

• Local Cable Television & Independent Media Seminar

• Videotapes by Artist-in-Residence John Canalli

• Visual Studies Workshop Alumni Show [Main Gallery] [Not verified]

• Empathy: Contemporary Japanese Photography [Main Gallery] Organized by Akira Matsumura. Photographs by Moriyama Daido, Tsuchida Hiromi, Suda Issei, Miyoshi Kozo, Nakagawa Masaaki, Kobayashi Norio, Akiyama Ryoji, Fujiwara Shinya, Hayashi Takanobu, Takagi Yuriko.

• Hand-colored Photographs by Philip Lange [Main Gallery] Wall-sized handcolored photographic portraits and folding screen with poetry by Dale Davis, founder/director of the New York State Literary Center.

• Photographs by Aaron Siskind [Main Gallery]The two-part exhibition consists of later photographs produced between 1981 and 1986 in addition to an installation of early work dating from 1933 to 1970 including various artifacts and books. 

• Artists’ Books: A New York State Survey [Main Gallery] 60 artists including: John Cage, Dick Higgins,Jenny Holzer, Tatana Kellner, Sol Lewitt, Allison Knowles, Barbara Kruger, Scott McCarney, Bern Porter, Martha Rosler, Laurie Simmons, Keith Smith.

• Photographs by John Knecht [Main Gallery] Color photographs made from various advertising media that serve to deconstruct myths of war imagery present in marketing strategies aimed at children.

• Sceneries [Main Gallery] A display of a portfolio of 15 silkscreens by Charles Boris Gershwin, T.R. Hearsum, Dennis Inch, Syl Labrot, Steve Labuzeta, Barry Matus, Laurence Myers, Jonathan Morse, Kenda North, M. Trimble, B. Wilson. Produced at the VSW in 1973 under the technical and theoretical guidance of Syl Labrot.

1988

 

• Shelby Lee Adams, Black-and-white photographic portraits made with an 8×10″ view camera in the photographer’s birthplace of the Appalachian mountains of Eastern Kentucky.

• Martha Leinroth, Large-scale color photographs made with a Widelux panoramic camera. 

• James Friedman: 12 Nazi Concentration Camps: Color Photographs: 1981 and 1983 Dye-transfer photographs made with an 8×10″ field camera. 

• Gallery Artist Series: James Friedman, The first of a series of exhibitions showcasing work by artists represented by the VSW Gallery. Concurrent with the main gallery exhibition “12 Nazi Concentration Camps.”

• James Byrne: Wisconsin Liars’ Club, A one-person multi-media installation utilizing single-channel video, over 50 color monitors, and sculpture. The monitors are arranged in a massive pile and appear to burn with video and audio footage of fire. The monitors are surrounded by 12 fetishistic sculptures. A VSW Media Center re-grant project. 

• Aspects of the “Wisconsin Liar’s Club,” exhibition were considered offensive by a group who identified themselves as “…’Labia,’ an open and ongoing group concerned with feminist activism throughout the Rochester community…” One night this group mounted a satirical counter exhibition in the VSW hallway in front the entrance to Byrne’s exhibition. The small installation, containing many condoms and a statement of the group’s aims, remained there until Byrne’s show was taken down.

• Richard Bolton: The Imaginary Avant-Garde, A one-person site-specific installation of images and text culled from commercial advertisements and combined with original texts and data. The work consists of four distinct narratives that explore the effects of corporate sponsorship on the arts. 

• Lynette Molnar: Meditations on Pornography, Color and black-and-white photographs with text that examine the relationship between pornography and violence against women. 

• Harvey Stein: Identities, Two-series of black-and-white photographic portraits. “Parallels: A Look at Twins” features portraits of twins accompanied by excerpts from interviews. “True Identities” are extreme close-up, large-format portraits that concentrate on the landscape, topography, and symbolic nature of the human face. 

• Selected Works by Wanda Hammerbeck and Eikoh Hosoe, Part of a series of exhibitions featuring the work of photographers represented by the VSW Gallery. Organized by Alla Yefimov.

• The Avant-Garde and the Text, A VSW traveling exhibition of 150 paper-works produced during the period 1909 to 1953. The exhibition is arranged into 10 parts: Futurism, Expressionism, Zurich Dada, Berlin Dada, Cologne Dada, New York/Paris Dada, Hannover Dada, Bauhaus, International Constructivism, and Surrealism. The exhibition is organized by the Visual Studies Workshop in collaboration with the University of Iowa’s Fine Arts Dada Archive and Research Center, and from the collection of Dr. Hans J. Kleinschmidt. Accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published as an issue of “Visible Language,” MIT Press, 1988. Organized by Roy F. Allen, Stephen C. Foster, and Estera Milman. Over 70 artists including: Hans Arp, Hugo Ball, André Breton, Sonia Delauney, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, George Grosz, Walter Gropius, Raoul Hausmann, John Heartfield, Wieland Herzfelde, Richard Huelsenbeck, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, El Lissitzky, Man Ray, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Francis Picabia, Kurt Schwitters, Kate Steinitz, Tristan Tzara. A symposium “The Avant-Garde and the Text” was held in conjunction with the exhibition. 

• Contemporary Bookworks and the Text 36 Individual and collaborative artists’ books, Organized entirely from the Independent Press Archive maintained in the Visual Studies Workshop Research Center Permanent Collections by Lisa B. LaLonde.

• Arcadia Revisited: Niagara River and Falls from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario Photographs by John Pfahl, A VSW traveling exhibition organized in collaboration with the Castellani Art Museum, Niagara Falls, NY by Sandra Olsen.

• Nuclear Landscapes by Peter Goin, The color photographs document the grounds of the nuclear test sites in Nevada, New Mexico, and Washington. 

1989

 

• Kaucyila Brooke, Wall-sized color photographic sequences, collage, and light box organized in comic-strip formats that consider lesbian relationships within American popular culture. A symposium “Reclaiming the Self in Lesbian Cultural Production” held in conjunction with the exhibition included Marusia Bociurkiw, Kaucyila Brooke, Cyndra MacDowell, Linda Reinfeld with moderator Lorraine Kenny.

• Chamber Soundings: Kevin Jones An interactive audio/sculpture installation by artist/composer Kevin Jones. 

• The Photographic Work of Barbara Blondeau, A one-person VSW traveling exhibition by a leading figure of photographic experimentation and education in the 1960s and early 1970s. The exhibition was displayed at Spectrum Gallery in Rochester as part of a satellite exhibition program in cooperation with Light Impressions Corporation. Co-Organized by John Rudy and James B. Wyman.

• FIX-IT An exhibition of mail art, posters, electro-static copier art, photos, computer work, text and audio by 26 artists which addresses the exclusion of women and people of color in photographic education, exhibition and publication. Curator  Feminists-In-eXile (anonymous collective) Held in conjunction with the Society of Photographic Education National Conference.

• The 2nd Annual National Student Media Arts Festival, A VSW traveling exhibition of time-based art. Films, videos, and computer animation produced by pre K-12, undergraduate, and graduate students from across the country. Peer panel review. Held in conjunction with the NationalAlliance of Media Arts Centers Conference and the Society for Photographic Education National Conference. 

• Visual Studies Workshop Gallery Artists Photographs, computer art and sculpture by 30 contemporary artists represented by the VSW Gallery held in conjunction with the Society for Photographic Education National Conference.

• Ralph Eugene Meatyard (1925-1972) A one-person VSW traveling exhibition of vintage black-and-white photographs. The exhibition was displayed at Spectrum Gallery in Rochester as part of a satellite exhibition program in cooperation with Light Impressions Corporation. 

• Doug Ischar: Two Works “The San Francisco Eagle: A Gay Bar in Time of Change ” is a color photographic documentary project “Household Misappropriations” concerns private aspects of gay life and consists of large-scale color photographs and text paired with appropriated magazine images. 

• Lisa Bloomfield Exhibition of wall-sized photographic/text installations of three projects: “War Comics,” “Circular Story,” and the “Motivation Series.” The exhibition consists of digitized, 4-color ink-jet photographs and montage work which question the nature of magazine illustration and documentary narratives. 

• Works from the Research Center Collections [Research Center Gallery] 19th & 20th century works by 20 artists. Organized by John Rudy.

In the Fall of 1989 the Workshop opened a new, larger exhibition space on the top floor of the back building. The Exhibition Gallery, Artists Sales Gallery, (now called the Collectors Gallery) and Bookstore were all moved to that floor. The first show displayed there was the site specific “Naos Cataclysmos“. At this point James Wyman was still coordinator of the exhibitions programs and he continued to organize exhibitions in the VSW Exhibition Gallery, the Collectors’ Gallery, and the Bookstore as well as the traveling exhibition program. Previous exhibition spaces in the front building, however, either seemed to be transformed into other uses or they began to be informally commandeered for exhibitions organized by anyone with an interest in doing so. Both Pia Cseri-Briones and Bob Doyle offered video exhibitions in the Media Center throughout this period and the Coordinator of the Research Center, John Rudy, offered artist’s book exhibitions or other exhibitions from the collections in the Research Center Hallway Gallery. 

• Eleftheria Lialios: Naos Cataclysmos A one-person site-specific installation of large-scale Cibachrome transparencies ranging from 6 to 35 feet high. The transparencies are installed in 35 ft. windows and suspended throughout the vaulted-ceiling, cathedral-like architecture of the gallery. The transparencies are layered with imagery of ancient catacombs and churches, statues of Apollo and Athena, temple ruins, and present-day excavations. 

• Day Without Art: The 1st International Day of Action and Mourning in Response to the AIDS Crisis, Annual participation and observance of “Day Without Art” involves various activist, artistic and symbolic responses to the AIDS crisis through the coordinated efforts of various program areas of the Visual Studies Workshop. Projects include creation of temporary public sculpture; lectures and performance; research, development and dissemination of educational information concerning AIDS and awareness; information on community, counseling, and testing centers; special exhibitions and video; cloaking of displayed artworks; closings; etc.

• Chile from Within: Photographers: Paz Errazuriz, Alejandro Hoppe, Alvaro Hoppe, Helen Hughes, Jorge Ianiszewski, Hector Lopez, Kena Lorenzini, Juan Domingo Marinello, Marcelo Montecino, Oscar Navarro,Claudio Perez,Luis Poirot, Paolo Slachevsky, Luis Weinstein, Oscar Wittke A VSW traveling exhibition of work produced between 1973 and 1988 by 15 Chilean photographers with personal narratives and poetry. Additional texts by writer Ariel Dorfman; Cynthia Brown, Deputy Director of America’s Watch; and Chilean playwright Marco Antonio de la Parra. Curator  Susan Meiselas.

• Art to Air/The Listening Room: A Radio Art Exhibit 38 artists including: Terry Allen, Jackie Apple, Joseph Chaikin, John Cage, Charles Dodge, Bill Fontana, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Pauline Oliveros, John H. Rieger, Peter Sellers, Susan Stone, May Sun, Hildegard Westerkamp, Gregory Whitehead The inaugural exhibition in the new acoustically designed Viewing/Listening Room in the VSW gallery. The first major exhibition in the U.S. of audio art works created especially for radio. The exhibition consists of 12 hours of tape, all produced between 1979 and 1989. Incorporating conceptual new drama, experimental documentaries, musique concrete for the digital age, language explorations, performance art storytelling, sonic meditations, acoustic sculptures, environmental compositions, and experiments in non-narrative audio figuration. Organized by the Visual Studies Workshop in collaboration with New Radio & Performing Arts, Inc. Organized by Regine Beyer. 

1990

 

• Michael Bishop: On Photography and Vision The exhibition was displayed at Spectrum Gallery in Rochester as part of a satellite exhibition program in cooperation with Light Impressions Corporation. 

• Womb Woman Dreams: A Multi-media Installation by Ann Carol Goldberg, MFA Final Project [Print Loft Gallery]

• Photographs by Edie Bresler Large-scale color photographs and photo/book/sculpture. 

• World of Wax by Susan Wides Color photographs of displays in wax museums. 

• Electronic Memoirs A group exhibition of biographical and auto-biographical works selected from “NO-TV & Movies,” a series of film, video, and computer generated work of independent artists and producers. Organized by Elisa Sharpe. 

• Lip Readings: A Video Presentation by Sylvie Poirer, MFA Final Project Presentation [Media Center]

• Rochester’s Sixth Annual Black Film Festival: Images of Freedom, Four 16mm films shown at the Workshop by the Rochester Association of Black Communicators, as part of a month-long series of films, lectures and panel discussions held in various institutions throughout the city.

• Four Residents: Jo Babcock, Dawoud Bey, Clarissa Sligh, Mary Ann Toman. Site-specific installations and exhibits by four artists who recently completed artists residencies at VSW. Babcock uses suitcases, mailboxes, even his Volkswagen bus to creates pinhole cameras which then become the tools for creating images that often illustrate an integral relationship between the camera and photographed subject. Dawoud Bey makes black and white photographs within African American urban communities. Clarissa Sligh’s site-specific, interactive installation incorporates large-scale sculpture, drawing, printmaking, photography and text to reexamine childhood, adolescence and the experiences encountered growing up “black and female.” Mary Ann Toman’s videotapes “There Is My Mother,” “Perfect Corpse,” and “Island Symmetry” are collages of images, sound and text, bringing together often disparate elements in order to explore concepts of meaning. 

• The Rochester Artists’ Coalition Against Censorship An unedited group exhibition of approximately 100 one-of-a-kind posters concerning censorship and the freedom of expression. The posters were created by Rochester area residents of all ages including children, young adults, artists, educators, and general public. The exhibition was circulated without fees to other not-for-profit artists’ organizations throughout upstate New York. Organized by the Rochester Artists’ Coalition. 

• Photographs by Jeffrey Silverthorne and Bruce Horowitz (Research Center Gallery) Two artists represented by the VSW Gallery. Jeffrey Silverthorne’s black-and-white photographs are from the series entitled “Silent Fires.” Bruce Horowitz is a social worker whose black-and-white portraits of young children are a result of his expeditions into various Rochester neighborhoods with a plastic lens camera. Organized by Audrey Mandelbaum and Alicia Miller.

• Rita DeWitt and Bart Parker A two-person VSW traveling exhibition of individual and collaborative photographic projects. Both DeWitt and Parker make black-and-white, color, and digital photographs, electrostatic copier work, quilt and fabric work, collage, and text. Organized by James B. Wyman.

• A Little More Sound Please A group exhibition of audio art and experimental music. Organized by Robert Doyle. 

• Time after Time, the Photographs of Alice Wells, This VSW traveling exhibition is the first retrospective exhibition by Alice Wells who was at the heart of the renaissance in creative photography that spread across the U.S. in the 1960s. Held in conjunction with the symposium “American Photography, Culture and Society in the 1960s.” Accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published by the VSW Press, 1990. Organized by Susan E. Cohen. “Well, I was going to say I saw a Duckie and a Horsie, but I changed my Mind” Artifacts, images, ephemera and exotica make up this not-too-nostalgic view of society and culture in the 1960s. Held in conjunction with the symposium “American Photography, Culture and Society in the 1960s.” Organized by Nathan Lyons.

• Time Based Review A group exhibition spanning a decade of early independent/alternative video. Irit Batsry, Peer Bode, Mark Brady, Bill Creston, Diane Spodarek, Juan Downey, Raymond Ghirardo, Ernest Gusella, Alexander Hahn, Ralph Hocking, Steven Koplan, Victor Masayesva, Megan Roberts, Barbara Rosenthal, Skip Sweeney, Steina Vasulka, Jay Yager, Jud Yalkut. Curator  Elisa Sharpe. Held in conjunction with the symposium “American Photography, Culture and Society in the 1960s.”

• Day Without Art: The 2nd International Day of Action and Mourning in Response to the AIDS Crisis

A Visual Studies Workshop Traveling Exhibitions and Exhibitions Services catalog was published ca. 1990, which seems to have been the first published since 1981. This catalog lists twelve exhibitions available for rental:

• Alice Wells: A Retrospective Exhibition [60 frames, avaiable in Jan. 1991]

• Arcadia Revisited: Niagara River and Falls from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. Photographs by John Pfahl [52 frames]

• The Photographic Work of Barbara Blondeau [35 frames]

• Chile From Within [63 frames]

• Rita DeWitt and Bart Parker [available Autumn 1990]

• Lejaren a Hiller [61 frames]

• The Avant-Garde and the Text [111 frames]

• Hiroshima by Hiromi Tsuchida [154 frames]

• Ralph Eugene Meatyard (1925 – 1972) [35 frames]

• James Friedman: 12 Nazi Concentration Camps. Color Photographs: 1981 and 1983 [30 frames]

• Annual National Student Film and Video Festival [13 half-hour 3/4″ videotapes]

• Michael Bishop: On Photography and Vision [35 frames]

By this time, virtually all traveling exhibitions are first displayed in the Workshop galleries, then packaged for travel.

1991

 

• Possession by Lynne Warberg, A one-person VSW traveling exhibition of Cibachrome photographs with Creole proverbs, painting, and an installation documenting Haitian voodoo. The exhibition was held in support of the artist’s New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Award.

• Photographs by Dan Williams, Two ongoing color photographic series. “The Black Biker Series” The photo-assemblage series includes collage work concerning stereotypes of African American experience. The exhibition was held to coincide with Black History Month.

• The 3rd Annual National Student Media Arts Festival, A VSW traveling exhibition of time-based art coordinated by Ellen Mahaffy and Elizabeth McDade. 

• Convergence: 8 Photographers, Albert Chong, Todd Gray, Jeffrey Henson Scales, Coreen Simpson, Clarissa Sligh, Elisabeth Sunday, Christian Walker, Wendell White. A VSW traveling exhibition of contemporary African American photography. Organized in collaboration with the Photographic Resource Center in Boston. Organized by Deborah Willis. 

• Australian Artists’ Bookworks, Gary Catalano, Glen Clarke, Peter Herel, Frank Hodgkinson, Ted Hopkins, Maria Kozic, Peter Lyssiotis, Robert Rooney, Alex Selenitsch, Graham Willoughby. A group exhibition of approximately 20 independently produced artists’ books made between 1970 and 1990. The exhibition was organized to coincide with Australian book artist Graham Willoughby’s artist-in-residence at the VSW Press. Organized by Graham Willoughby, Melbourne, Australia.

• Selections from the Collectors’ Gallery [Collectors’ Gallery], Vintage and contemporary prints.

• Electro ‘91 Over 20 artists including: Sheri Lynn Behr,Caterina Borelli, Shalom Gorewitz, Angelo Jannuzzi, Robert Normandeau, Helen Thorington, Annette Weintraub. A regional group electronic arts exhibition including digital photography, video, audio, electronic music,computer graphics and animation, as well as painting based on computer generated images. Organized by Robert Doyle. 

• Visits to the Homeland: Photographs of China Anita Au, Michael Chen, Joseph Fung, Leong Ka Tai, Yves Lieou, Reagan Louie, Peter Man, Meibao Nee, Carol Nye, Wong Wo Bik. A VSW traveling exhibition that brings together photographs of China produced throughout the 1980s by ten photographers of Chinese ancestry who live outside mainland China. Organized by Sandra Matthews.

• Stories from the Collection: Dan Appleby, John Canalli, Bruce Carlson, Matthew Geller, Marsha Herle, Lynn Hershman, Dale Hoyt, Heidi Klein, Les Levine, Mary McFerran. A group video exhibition showcasing the art of storytelling in a variety of styles ranging from the traditional to the experimental. Organized from the “NO-TV & Movies Archive.” Organized by Karen Chase.

• Other Images, Other Realities: Mexican Photography Since 1930, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Gilberto Chen Charpentier, Eugenia Vargas Daniels, Agustín Estrada, Flor Garduño, Héctor García, Germán Herrera, Graciela Iturbide, Nacho López, Salvador Lutteroth, Pedro Meyer, Rogelio Rangel, Carlos Somonte, Gerardo Suter, Jesús Sánchez Uribe, Mariana Yampolsky, Carlos Ysunza. Organized by the Sewall Art Gallery, Rice University, Houston, Texas. Organized by Stella Dobbins, Geoff Winningham with Cristina Kahlo.

• Mexican Artists’ Bookworks, Approx. 50 artists including: Fiona Alexander, Albert Rafols Casamada, Felipe Ehrenberg, Yani Pecanins, Doris Vila. A group exhibition of independently produced contemporary Mexican artists’ books. Organized from the Independent Press Archive maintained in the Visual Studies Workshop Research Center Collections. 

• Selections from the Collectors’ Gallery [Collectors’ Gallery] Vintage and contemporary prints.

• There’s Got to be Another Way! A group exhibition of alternative community-based videos by 12 artists to be shown to small groups of friends or others as an alternative to the dominant media. Organized by Robert Doyle.

• Fish Tank Sonata: An Ecological Fantasy in Five Parts, Text and Images by Arthur Tress

A VSW traveling exhibition of Cibachrome prints and prose by a master of directorial photography. 

• A Reflexion of Events: Contemporary Czechoslovakian Photography Pavel Banka, Milota Havrãnkovã, Rudo Prekop, Miro Svolík. Photographs, text and collage work of contemporary Czechoslovakian photographers. Organized by Light Work Community Darkrooms, Syracuse, and hosted as part of the VSW exhibition exchange program. 

• NO-TV & Movies #11 10 artists including: Ann Sargent-Wooster, Emily Breer. A series of videotapes and films by artists and independent producers from across the U.S. This annual series is broadcast on Greater Rochester Cablevision.

• First Annual Rare, Out-of-Print Books and Periodicals Show and Sale [Collector’s Gallery] Portfolios offered for sale: Presences, by Joan Lyons, Portrait Constructions, by Philip Zimmerman, Fall Creek Rock Drawings, by John Wood, Naked, by 35 artists, Seven Settings, by Carl Chiarenza, Twenty Daily Photographs, by Donald Blumberg as well as several limited edition artists books, periodicals from the 1920s and 1930s.

• Day Without Art: The 3rd International Day of Action and Mourning in Response to the AIDS Crisis

1992

 

• Installation by Les LeVeque A one-person exhibition of objects/video/audio concerning labor, technology, and revolution.

• The 4th Annual National Student Media Arts Exhibition 32 student artists. A VSW traveling exhibition of time-based art. This year’s festival was coordinated by Harold Coogan, Stuart Larson, Elizabeth Porier, Tracy Rudzitis and Tina Tryforos.

• Ralph Hocking Media installation. [Not verified}

• Selections from the Collectors’ Gallery [Collectors’ Gallery] Vintage and contemporary prints.

• The Mercy of Late Birth: Hermann Feldhaus, MFA Final Project Presentation

• María Martínez-Cañas: Recent Works, Montaged black-and-white photographic images and totems concerning the artist’s Cuban heritage.

• To the Promised Land, Photographs by Ken Light, A VSW traveling exhibition. The exhibition documents the plight of Mexican migrant workers through black-and-white photographs with bi-lingual text panels excerpted from fifty interviews with indocumentados, or undocumented immigrants, conducted by Samuel Orozco. 

• Finishing Funds: Mara Alper, Joan Boccino, Mary Bosakowska, Bradley Eros, Sorrel Hays, Wago Kreider, Barbara Kristaponis, Jeanne Liotta, Pam Payne, Neil Zusman. A selection of video, audio, and computer based works by New York State electronic artists who have received grants from the Electronic Arts Grant Program, an activity of the Experimental Television Center in Owego. The Experimental Television Center’s Finishing Funds program is designed to help New York State’s electronic media artists with the completion of works already in progress. Organized by Sherry Miller Hocking and Karen Chase. 

• The Natural History of Proteus, The Perpetually Fluid Photo-Paint-Print (An Interdisciplinary Intermedia Installation) by Bonnie Gordon A one-person site-specific installation of half-tone photo-engraving combined with acrylic polymer paint. 

• Source and Resource: The Visual Collections of the Research Center at Visual Studies Workshop [Brockport’s Tower Art Gallery] curated by John Rudy

• Quiet Protest: Recent Work by John Wood A one-person VSW traveling exhibition of photography, collage, artist’s books, and installation work in response to human interaction with the earth. 

• First Annual Greater Rochester Media Arts Exhibition A group exhibition of video, audio, film, and computer works by Rochester area artists organized by local producers.

• 365/360 by Patrick Clancy A multipart installation/performance/bookwork which considers alternative possibilities for interrelating facets of modern/post-modern culture. 

• Performance by Patrick Clancy, Performers included: Sarah Bass, Dan Brumley, Christopher Burnett, Patrick Clancy, Harold Coogan, Kevin Cunningham, Stuart Larson, Paul Pegnato, Roger Rowley, Christina Tryforos, Gwen Widmer The component of the live performance entitled “The Crossroads” incorporated numerous performers, foley and computer sound, still, video and computer projection, and a multitude of props, scenes, sculpture all orchestrated within one-hour of live action. 

• Caught in a Box, Bernard Cairn, Paul DeMarinis, Toni Dove, Brenda Hutchinson, Joey Morgan, Alex Noyes. A group exhibition of music, narrative and sound art from Harvestworks in New York City and Tellus, the Audio Arts Magazine. The exhibition was organized within three rotating weekly programs. 

• Day Without Art: The 4th International Day of Action and Mourning in Response to the AIDS Crisis

• Museum Musings by Diane Neumaier An installation of two series of black-and-white and color photographs which critique the power relationships within the American museum system and patriarchal art history. “Museum Musings” is a sequence of 160 B&W photographs made between 1986 and 1992 in many American museums. “Metropolitan Tits” is a series of forty-four color photographs completed in 1988. “Metropolitan Tits” features a selection from the Met’s permanent collection. “Metropolitan Tits” critiques patriarchal art history by scrutinizing its obsession with women’s breasts. 

• NO-TV and Movies #12 16 artists including: Portia Cobb, Tania Cypriano, Sian Evans, Thomas Allen Harris, Baruch Rafic, Steve Zehentner. A showcase of videotapes and films by artists and independent producers from around the country. Organized by Mona Jimenez.

A Visual Studies Workshop Traveling Exhibitions and Exhibitions Services catalog was published ca. 1992. This catalog lists the following exhibitions still available for rental:

• Arcadia Revisited: Niagara River and Falls from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. Photographs by John Pfahl 

• Chile From Within 

• Rita DeWitt and Bart Parker 

• Ralph Eugene Meatyard (1925 – 1972) 

• James Friedman: 12 Nazi Concentration Camps. Color Photographs: 1981 and 1983 

• Annual National Student Film and Video Festival 

• Michael Bishop: On Photography and Vision 

• The following new exhibitions were added to those already available:

• Quiet Protest: Recent Work by John Wood 

• Possession by Lynne Warberg 

• Fish Tank Sonata: An Ecological Fantasy in Five Parts, text and images by Arthur Tress 

• Convergence: 8 Photographers 

• Visits to the Homeland: Photographs of China 

• To the Promised Land: Photographs by Ken Light 

1993

 

• Tuluva—Photographs of Temple Culture from Southern India by Vasant Nayak Black-and-white photographs that reflect the artist’s encounter with his culture in the southern region of India known as Tulunad.

• The Open Book? Theodore Claussen, Deborah Davidson, Robert Goss, Kumi Korf, Craig Matis, Peter Sramek, Laurie Sieverts Snyder. A group exhibition that investigates the challenges and opportunities presented by the display of artists’ bookworks in the gallery environment. Organized by Nina Tovish.

• La Voz de la Mujer: Contemporary Latina Artists. Cecilla Barriga, Marta N. Bautis, Poll Marichal, Lleana Montalvo An exhibition of recent work by women film and video makers from the Carribbean, Latin America, and North America. Organized by Pia Cseri-Briones.

• Montage ’93: The International Festival of the Image, Festival chairperson: Nathan Lyons. The “Montage ’93” office and staff was located at the Workshop and the coordination of this city-wide event went through the Workshop. Numerous programs, lectures, films and exhibitions concerning the visual image, media education, new imaging technologies, and industrial developments occured throughout the Rochester area during the month-long festival, which presented new artwork and artists from around the world and which was attended by over 150,000 international visitors. Participating institutions included the Visual Studies Workshop, which was the initiating organization of this project, as well as the George Eastman House, Memorial Art Gallery, Monroe Community College, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester Museum and Science Center, SUNY/Brockport, The Strong Museum, University of Rochester. More than a dozen exhibitions, coordinated through Montage ’93, were held in these institutions, and additional exhibitions and artists’ installations were sited in special locations throughout the city. An exhibition of electrostatic copy art was held in the Workshop Gallery.

• Copigraphic Interconnections: Alcalacanales, Barbara Astman, Philippe Boissonnet, Daniel Cabanis, Jacques Charbonneau, Ginette Daigneault, James Durand, Evergon, Richard Garneau, Marvin Gasoi, Jean Mathiau, Franziska Megert, Georg Mühleck, Yuri Nagawara, Boris Nieslony, Ann Noel, Jesus Pastor, Francisco Rangel. The international premiere of a major exhibitionof electrostatic copier art, or copigraphy. The exhibition includes sculptural works, installations, video, and 2-D work by an international array of artists who integrate various copier technologies as well as include the actual copy machines in their work. Organized by Monique Brunet-Weinmann.

• Motion and Document—Sequence and Time: Eadweard Muybridge and Contemporary American Photography Including: Berenice Abbott, Vito Acconci, Gwen Akin & Alan Ludwig, Mowry Baden, John Baldessari, Paul Berger, Donald Blumberg, Mel Bochner, Bette Borgoyne, Sarah Charlesworth, William Christenberry, Robert Cumming, Robbert Flick, Thomas Eakins, Dr. Harold Edgerton, Walker Evans, Marion Faller & Hollis Frampton, Robert Frank, Dan Graham, Douglas Huebler, Jon Kessler, Mark Klett, Heidi Kumao, Stephen Laub, Barry LeVa, Helen Levitt, Sol Lewitt, Robert Mapplethorpe, Ray Metzker, Duane Michals, Eadweard Muybridge, Bart Parker, James Pomeroy, Jake Seniuk, Robert Smithson, Michael Spano, Ted Spagna, Ralph Steiner. A traveling exhibition organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art and jointly hosted by the Visual Studies Workshop and the George Eastman House. 19th century motion study photographs by Eadweard Muybridge are integrated with a survey of contemporary American photography actively influenced by Muybridge. The exhibition includes more than 160 works of art, two video installations with CD ROM computer access and interaction, a zoetrope installation. Hosted as part of the VSW exhibition exchange program. Organized by James Sheldon and Jock Reynolds.

• Digital Check-up [Viewing/Listening Room, VSW Gallery], Interactive computer works on health and medicine by artists, educators and health-care professionals. Viewers operate and engage with computer programs they view by selecting options from on-screen menus or by typing in responses to on-screen dialog boxes which in-turn print output on a permanent paper scroll. The exhibition coincides, in part, with “Day Without Art/The 5th International Day of Action and Mourning in Response to the AIDS Crisis.” Organized by Brian Goldfarb.

• International AIDS Posters from the Collection of Dr. Edward C. Atwater A special display of 50 posters from around the world concerning HIV and AIDS education. The exhibition coincides, in part, with “Day Without Art/The 5th International Day of Action and Mourning in Response to the AIDS Crisis.”

• Reflections on Gender in the Moral Landscape by Patti Ambrogi Two recent projects which raise issues of family, representation and censorship. “Spring of Life; Roe Roe Your Boat and Other Big Fish Stories” consists of large-scale computer digitized color photographs combined with drawing and text. “Tangerines and Other Pure Forms” consists of black-and-white mural photographs. 

• Lessons on Being Female by Jill Gussow Several series of recent work concerning female experience within the contexts of family, public institutions and society. The work combines black-and-white photography, drawing, sculpture and photo-installations. 

• NO-TV and Movies #13 Over 20 artists. Diane Bonder, Gene Gort, Dezso Kiss, Aaron Kllk, Marshall Video Project, Ken Michaels, Deborah Orloff, Liss Platt & Joyan Saunders, Yvette Torell, Eric Welsh, Jo Wright Whitten.. Organized by Julieve Jubin and Pia Cseri-Briones. 

1994

 

• Welcome to the Neighborhood: A Celebration of Student Work from School of the Arts, Rochester City School District A group exhibition comprised of approximately 700 pieces of art by 200 high school students working in a variety of media including mural and graffiti art, photography, bookmaking, printmaking, computer art, installation, sculpture, painting, drawing, ceramics, glass, and mixed-media. The exhibition serves as a welcome to the autumn 1994 relocation of School of the Arts, a magnet school in the Rochester City School District, to a new facility immediately adjacent to the Visual Studies Workshop. 

• National Student Media Arts Exhibition 1994 A VSW traveling exhibition of time-based art. 16 short films on 3/4″ video coordinated by Ann Curran, Alizabeth Fritz and Chris Russo.

• Message Carriers: Native Photographic Messages. Patricia Deadman, Zig Jackson, James Luna, Carm Little Turtle, Larry McNeil, Jolene Rickard, Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, Richard Ray Whitman. An exhibition of work by contemporary Native American artists who examine issues of personal and public native identity and the conflicts between resulting expectations, both externally and self-imposed. Organized in association with the Photographic Resource Center, Boston. Hosted as part of the VSW exhibition exchange program. Organized by Theresa Harlan. 

• Native Voices: Videotapes from the Collection. Jon Alpert, Dennis Darmek, David Goodman, Dee Dee Halleck, Victor Masayesva, Farzan Navab, John Orientlicher, J. Leighton Pierce, Pam Walton, Women’s Video Collective/Cambridge, MA. An exhibition which explores the multiple meanings associated with the word “native” and how this idea is reflected through the work of diverse media artists. Organized from the Visual Studies Workshop Video Archives. Organized by Joan Boccino. 

• Val Telberg and Anaïs Nin: House of Incest, A VSW traveling exhibition of photomontage work and selected correspondence exchanged during the collaboration for the 1958 edition of Anaïs Nin’s book. The exhibition is organized in association with Sage Junior College of Albany. Organized by Jim Richard Wilson.

• Regional Rewind: Work by the recipients of the Upstate Media Regrants 1988-1993. Bob Doyle, Mark Gordon, Chris Hill, Rii Kanzaki, Jayce Salloum & Walid Ra’ad, Wendy Smith, TV Dinner Collective, Richard Wicka & Ron Ehmke, Jo Wright Whitten.

The Upstate Media Regrant is a program funded through the New York State Council on the Arts to make available individual regrants to emerging media artists and independent film and video producers from upstate New York. Organized by Pia Cseri-Briones.

• Privileged Text: Selections from the Artist’s Book Archive [Research Center Hallway Gallery] Organized by Ann Curran and Anne Martens.

• Visible Traces: Work from the Collections: Jacki Apple, Skip Atwater, Jon Bowermaster, Brian Breen, Bruce Childs, Cora & Ethel Clark, Larry Clark, Rita DeWitt, Marion Faller, Robbert Flick, James Friedman, Herbert Glaser, Lawrence Guetersloh, Gaylord Herron, Abigail Heyman, Dorothea Lynch & Eugene Richards, Joan Lyons, Ellen Mahaffy, Jay Manis, Elbert Marble, Kotaro Masuda, Bart Parker, Barbara Jo Revelle, Tom Robinson, Mary Schnegg, Susan Schnegg, Daniel Seymour, Anna Strickland, Linn Underhill, Dan Williams, Walter Wright. A group exhibition that investigates the biographical narrative as an expressive form. Included are historical and contemporary photographs, prints, books, albums, journals, other photographica and art objects by a diverse group of artists and amateur picturemakers. The exhibition reveals relationships between 19th and 20th century vernacular imagemaking/storytelling and contemporary art practice. Organized entirely from the Visual Studies Workshop Research Center Permanent Collections and gallery inventory. Organized by Jeanie Gayeski and Elizabeth McDade. 

• NO-TV and Movies #14: Alternative Visions by Independent Film and Video Artists. Lynn Estomin, Cheri Gaulke, John Gwinn, Susan Halpern, Lana C. Lin, Grai St. Clair Rice, Tran T. Kim-Trang. Organized by O. Funmilayo Makarah and Pia Cseri-Briones. 

A Traveling Exhibitions and Exhibitions Services catalog published ca. 1994 lists only one new show: 

• Val Telberg & Anais Nin, House of Incest 

It then lists “From the Background to the Foreground,” “America: Photographs by Jeffrey Henson Scales” and “a retrospective on Susan Meiselas” as forthcoming in 1995. The Susan Meiselas show was never realized, but the other two shows did eventually travel.

1995

 

• Shaping the New Forest: Photographs by Lorraine Gilbert, A one-person exhibition of recent large-format black-and-white landscape and portrait photographs made in the Canadian northwest of the Silviculture Project. 

• The Book Landscape Approximately 80 artists including: Charlotte Attig, Helen Brunner, Rafols Casamada, Agnes Denes, Chris Enos, Ian Hamilton Finley, Allan Kaprow, Stephen Laub, Jim Pomeroy, Ed Ruscha, Mieko Shiomi, Clarissa Sligh, Keith Smith, Susan Weil, Karen Wirth, Philip Zimmerman. A group exhibition by independent bookmakers exploring various artistic landscape traditions within book formats. Included are over 80 artists’ books incorporating photography, text, image-text combinations, and other less conventional media. Organized entirely from the Independent Press Archive maintained in Visual Studies Workshop Research Center. Organized by Roger H. D. Rowley. 

• MeAtFEST ’95: National Student Media Arts Festival A VSW traveling exhibition of time-based art. Over 15 student artists and school groups. This year’s festival coordinators are Devon Cummings, Dina Light and Eric Likness. 

• Resolutions: A Chronological Survey of the Visual Studies Workshop Press A selection of 250 books and projects designed and/or produced at the Visual Studies by more than 150 artists. The exhibition was organized in conjunction with the Visual Studies Workshop 27th Anniversary and Reunion held June 30 – July 1, 1995. 

• Deja Vu All Over Again: Contemporary Photographers Reuse Old Memories [Tower Art Gallery] curated by John Rudy

• Gallery Benefit: Colorblind James Experience, Marci Lea and No Limit, Workshop Blues Band A musical fundraising event in support of the exhibitions and educational programming of the Visual Studies Workshop Gallery.Co-sponsored by Freetime Magazine and Genesee Brewing Company. Sound by Erik Richardson. 

• Annual Book & Print Show and Sale A special pre-holiday season show and sale of art books, periodicals, prints, portfolios and posters from the bookstore and Collectors’ Gallery inventories. 

1996

 

William Johnson became Coordinator of the Research Center and he reestablished the practice of using the Hallway Gallery [now called the Corridor Gallery] as a training ground for student-organized exhibitions. 

• A Small Sampling of Books from the VSW Press, [Corridor Gallery] curator William Johnson 

• Pictures from America by Jeffrey Henson Scales Photographs with text concerning the African American experience. 

• Towards a New Vision: A Ceramic Viewpoint by Les Lawrence, Ceramic art integrating photo-silkscreen monoprint and porcelain sculpture. The exhibition is held in conjunction with the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts Conference, Rochester, NY,March 20-23, 1996.

• NO-TV and Movies #15 Videos and films by Karim Ainouz, Emily Breer, Amy Hufnagle, Denise Iris, Joyce Lee, Nancy Lewis & Renate Seldon, Lana Lin, Liss Platt, Luis Valdovino. Organized by Pia Cseri-Briones and Ann Curran. 

• From the Background to the Foreground: The Photo Backdrop and Cultural Expression Hundreds of international participants including: Mohammed Adams, Li Gang, Christraud M. Geary, Gunashanker, Orlando Herrera, Lejaren à Hiller, Vasant Nayak, Beaumont Newhall, Marion Oettinger Jr., Ann Parker, John Pfahl, Linda Robbennolt, Jacinto Rojas, Rudolph Seales, Laura Shurley, James Van Der Zee, Vera Vidtiz-Ward, James Whitfield, Kenneth Willis, Kenn Yazzie, Melanie Yazzie. A major VSW traveling exhibition and publication of painted itinerant and studio photography backdrops, portraits, props and photographic apparatus from around the world. Approximately 20 backdrops produced and used in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas are included in the exhibition. Also included are cameras, various objects, interactive installations, and approximately 400 photographs.Historical and contemporary work by artists, itinerant photographers, studio photographers, amateur picturemakers and a multitude of imagemaker/scholars including anthropologists, curators, and historians is organized to raise questions about the creation, use and interpretation of photography’s most pervasive form—the human portrait. Organized and edited by James B. Wyman with essays by Lucy Lippard, Avon Neal and Arjun Appadurai. 

• Close To Home: Works by Local Alumni of Visual Studies Workshop [Tower Fine Arts Gallery] curated by Roger Rowley

1997

 

Roger H. D. Rowley became the Exhibitions Program Coordinator in June 1997. 

• Four Perspectives: Artists’ Books from the Independent Press Archive Selected by Marge Elder, Kitty Hubbard, Ginger Sweeny and Cynthia Young [Corridor Gallery] 

• Reading the Land: Contemporary Artist’s Books [Corridor Gallery] curator Cynthia Young 

• En Norsk Fotograf: Anders Beer Wilse in the Pacific Northwest and Norway, 60 photographs, artifacts and text that explore Wilse’s photography. The exhibition was complemented by an educational symposium organized in association with the “Faculty Roots” program at the State University of New York, College at Brockport and the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The exhibition was organized by the Museum of History & Industry, Seattle,WA. Organized by Carolyn J. Marr.

• Works from an Ordinary Life: Pat Bacon, Mixed-media, sculpture and installation art including xerographic prints and painting that concerns the artist’s life and work as a high school teacher. 

• Rock the Cradle: Photography in Ruins by Judy Natal, Site-specific exhibition of mixed-media assemblages and sculptures incorporating found objects, photographic work and marble. The work is installed as an archeological ruin that reflects on issues such as women and aging. 

• National Student Media Arts Festival 1996 A VSW traveling exhibition of time-based art.

• Landscape/Land Use:A Collaborative Arts Project, As in “Montage ’93,” the Workshop once again took the lead in organizing and coordinating a city-wide collaborative effort among a number of arts and educational institutions to mount a program of exhibitions, lectures, workshops and special events around a topic of current importance. There were eleven exhibitions held by ten institutions in the area. Two of these, listed below, were held in the Workshop. A third, Sanctuary, organized by VSW Exhibitions Coordinator Roger Rowley, was a collaborative installation work by the artists Nancy Ghertner, Stuart Larson, Judy Natal, Roger Rowley and Margaret Wagner, which was displayed at the Tower Fine Arts Gallery, University of Brockport from Sept. 18 to Oct. 19. A forth exhibition, More Than Meets the Eye: Photographic Landscapes 1850 – 1910, was organized by William Johnson, Coordinator of the VSW Research Center, from the VSW Research Center collections and private collections in the area, was held at the Hartnett Art Gallery, University of Rochester from Oct. 9 – Nov. 9. A fifth exhibition, Terra: Struggles of the Landless. Photographs by Sebastiao Salgado, was an exhibition of 60 photoposters acquired by the Workshop and displayed in the Mercer Gallery, Monroe Community College from Sept. 12 – Oct. 17. This show was then rehung by William Johnson in the downstairs front hallway of the Workshop from late October through1998.

• Landscape/Land Use, Chris Burnett, David T. Hanson, Masumi Hayashi, Silvia Malagrino, Sharon Stewart, Toshio Yamane A Visual Studies Workshop Traveling Exhibition that includes the work of six artists who combine a strong visual sense of the contemporary landscape with a concern for the complex relationships of human beings and their cultural constructs to the land and water that sustain them. 

• NO-TV 97 An annual series presenting film and video that is not shown on regular programming channels. Curated by Robert Doyle

1998

 

• Rejuvenation, Work By Collectors’ Gallery Artists: Jo Babcock, Michael Bishop, Rita DeWitt, Marion Faller, Lynda Frese, James Friedman, Bonnie Gordon, Douglas Holleley, Joan Lyons, Roger Mertin, Judy Natal, Vasant Nayak, Eric Renner, Murray Riss, Jeffrey Henson Scales, Jeffrey Silverthorne, Dan Williams, John Wood, Toshio Yamane The re-opening of the Collectors’ Gallery at VSW after extensive renovation .

• Landscape: Mediated Views, Peer Bode, Barbara Buckner, Michael Camoin, Phil Jones, Jeffery Lerer, Kristin Lucas, Mary Lucier, Branda Miller, John Orentlicher, Dave Ryan, Steina Vasulka, Woody Vasulka, Bill Viola [VSW Gallery Viewing Room] A video exhibition of documentary and artistic works dealing with ideas of Landscape and Land Use. Organized by Miller Hocking, produced by the VSW Media Center.

• Vignette: Laurie Blakeslee, Karen Bucher, Al Crane, Fred Cray, Susan Grigalunas, Sally Grizzell, John Hitchcock, Rebecca Horne, W. Brian Jerkins, Michael McKeen, Gary Olivera, Brian Peterson, Carlos Ruiz-Valarino, Elizabeth Withstandley. Work by artists responding to a call for work in Afterimage, using a dictionary definition for “vignette,” as well as recent unsolicited submissions to VSW. 

• An Incomplete History: Women Photographers from Japan (1864-1997), Riu Shima, Eiko Yamazawa, Tsuneko Sasamoto, Michiko Matsumoto, Miyako Ishiuchi, Michiko Kon, Miwa Yanagi, Yuki Onodera, Yurie Nagashima. The first historical overview of the subject ever assembled. It includes the earliest extant photograph by a Japanese woman, as well as work by the first woman photojournalist. Spanning more than one-hundred and thirty years, the exhibition brings to the fore the important contributions made by woman photographers to the visual culture of Japan. Organized by Noriko Fuku.

• Angry White Men, Photographs by Robbie McClaran Color and black and white photographs with installation elements by the free-lance photo-journalist. 

• Factories, Schools, Prisons by Michael Jacobson-Hardy, Black and white photographs with quotes from the people being photographed, plus news clippings, and other documentation. The above two exhibitions presented jointly with Judical Process Commission, exhibition and presentations sponsored by City Newspaper. Several artist slide presentations and a panel discussion:by Michael Jacobson-Hardy, Okofo Baraka, Hillside Work Scholarship Program, Clare Regan, Judical Process Commission, Shelley Cochran, writer, moderator were held in conjunction with these exhibitions.

• Buffalo 6: Michael Bosworth, Shauna Frischkorn, Robert Hirsch, Gary Nickard, Laura Snyder, VIROCODE (Andrea Mancuso & Peter D’Auria)

• Out of the Clear Blue Sky: Work from the 1998 VSW Summer Institute Instructors [Corridor Gallery] curators Cynthia Young and Chris George

1999

 

• The Outline of Clouds: Photographs by Luigi Ghirri Exhibition co-hosted by the Spectrum Gallery at Lumiere Photo. This is an exhibition of color landscape photographs of the Italian countryside along the Po River Valley. 

• Contemporary Russian Photography: Anatoli Belkin, Vladimir Bryliakov, Victoria Buivid, Alexandre Filipchenko, Olga Florenskaya, Alexandre Kitaev, Bella Matveyeva, Timur Novikov, Yegor Ostrov, Andrei Popov, Valerii Potapov, Andrei Tchezhin, Alexei Titarenko, Olga Tobreluts, Natalia Tsekhomskaya, Victoria Ukhalova, Evgenii Yufit. Organized by Alexander Borovsky, Chief of the Contemporary Art Department at The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. The exhibition was co-sponsored by VSW and pARTs Photographic Arts, Minn., MN.

• Buena Memoria, A Photo Essay by Marcelo Brodsky, Starting from a class photograph from his school, the Argentene photographer Marcelo Brodsky has traced the members of his school who were murdered or “disappeared.” He combines historical images from his youth, portraits of classmates from a recent reunion, views of current students looking at the class photo and portraits, photo-constructions, and two short videos to fathom the profound sense of loss of friends, family and loved ones. 

• Made in Hungary: Contemporary Artists Books, This exhibition of Hungarian bookworks presents the work of 17 artists. Agnes Haaz, Laszlo Hegedus, Ilona Kiss, Andras Lengyel, Valeria Sovaradi, Geza Perneczky, Gyula Varnai, and others. The exhibition was organized by Janet Steck of the Dowd Fine Art Gallery at SUNY Cortland and Marta Kovalovsky of the King St. Stephen Museum, Budapest

• Ceza Perneczky: Books from the VSW Independent Press Archive

• A Holiday Selection: Work by Collectors Gallery Artists, More than 300 pieces by Roger Mertin, Eikoh Hosoe, Robert Raushenberg, Kenneth Josephson, Barbara Blondeau, Aaron Siskind, Ralph Gibson, Charles Traub, Murry Riis, Jeffrey Silverthorne, Bart Parker, Lynne Warberg, Rita DeWitt, Michael Bishop, Jeffrey Henson Scales, Jo Babcock, James Friedman, Lawrence McFarland, Gary Hallman, Dan Williams, Lynda Frese, Joan Lyons, Robbert Flick, Wanda Hammerbeck, Eric Renner and others.

• Some Times: Artists’ Books and Newspapers [Corridor Gallery] curator Chris George 

• Tomorrow and Tomorrow: Representations of Repetition in Artists’ Books and Photographs [Corridor Gallery] curator Chris George

• 1st Annual (Or Maybe Not) VSW Student/Faculty/Staff Exhibition for 1999 in the downstairs hallway of the front building of VSW

A Visual Studies Workshop Traveling Exhibition Service catalog published in 1999 lists ten exhibitions, including the following new shows, as available for rental:

• An Incomplete History: Women Photographers from Japan 1864 – 1997

• From the Background to the Foreground: The Photo Backdrop and Cultural Expression 

• Landscape/Land Use 

• Pictures from America by Jeffrey Henson Scales 

2000

 

• Science (Fiction?): Artists’ Books Look at the Future: Photographs from the Moon (NASA], Books from Earth [Corridor Gallery], curator Chris George

• A Creative Space: A History of Visual Studies Workshop/New Work by Alumni of the MFA Program in Visual Studies to celebrate VSW’s 30th anniversary

• Faces of AIDS: Photographs by Harvey Stein

• Cosmic Bonds, work by Connie Sullivan, black-and-white images of insects, ruins and outer space in photographs and collage with sound elements

2001

• Why Pinhole?, an exhibition of lensless images, curated by Stephen Eckel

• Jake in Transition from Female to Male, portraits by Clarissa Sligh, VSW Traveling Exhibition

• Video Installations by Nancy Ghertner and Cat Ashworth, “I Am, the life of a girl” and “Imprint”

• Conefield, a video installation by Megan Roberts and Raymond Ghirardo

• Kosovo 2001: A Gathering of Armies, digital collages by Allyn Stewart

• Refuge: The Newest New Yorkers, photographs by Mel Rosenthal

2002

 

• are you alone…, work by Jim Dingilian, Susan Smith, Judy Gelles, Rick S. Hill, Keith Johnson, Matthias Hoch, Dennis Witmer, Ilan Jacobsohn, and Paul Cunningham 

• Image: Invented, Constructed, Recycled, photographs by Carlos Diaz, Carl Chiarenza, John Willis, and Tom Young

• In Between, photographs by Stephenie Wratten

• rest., photographs and installations by Rick S. Hill

• Adam Fuss: Selected Work, experimental photography

• Degas’ Visual Environment, an exhibition of photographs from 1850s – 1890s, curated by William Johnson

• Disparate Views, photographs and video by Sarah Abbott, Josefa Mulaire, Susan Stava, Colette Copeland, and Stacy Green

• waxing/waning, an installation by Sarah Webb

• loquela, video installation by Jina Chang

• Film Screenings: Voices from the Arab World: The Perfumed Garden and The Women of Hexbollah, Measures of Distance and The Bombing, Covered: The Hejab in Cairo, Egypt and In My Father’s House

2003

 

• People, Places, and Things, work by Stephen Dybas, Sara J. Duffy, Jenny Gordon, Joanna Heatwole, Bonk Johnston, Lisa Kaselak, Kristen Merola, Micah Pastore, Rishi Singhal, Genevieve Waller, and HF Wetzel

• Light Index, photographs by Erika Blumenfeld, Ellen Carey, and Amanda Means

• removed, photography and installations by Joy Episalla

• Positions 38°: Korean American Crossings, photographs and media art by 6 Korean-American artists: Misugi Forssen; Kathy Halamka; Kate Hers; Ensuk Joo; Min Jung Kwak; and, Soon-Mi Yoo.

2004/2005

 

• Lawrence Brose / Chris Burnett: media art

• Breaking the Ice, juried exhibition of photography and video

• Dan Larkin: Photographs 1995 – 2005

• Crossing the BLVD: strangers, neighbors, aliens in a new America, multi-media project by Warren Lehrer and Judith Sloan

• More than Moore: Reviving the Political Documentary, video installations exploring geopolitical issues

• Bonnie Gordon/Gwen Widmer

2006/2007

 

• Past is Present, an exhibition of contemporary artists working with historic photographic processes, juried by Jenn Libby and Heather F. Wetzel

• Salon des Refuses, artworks declined by the Finger Lakes Exhibition, in partnership with Image City Photography Gallery

• Mark Klett: Selected Landscapes; Ryan Weideman: In My Taxi; Genetics: Heredity and Variation in Books from VSW Press

• Cityscape: 1820/2007: Seeing an Urban Space, photographs by Matt Walker

2009/2010

• Image Art, partnership with ImageOut

• Result: 0, photographs by Khiang Hei of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Student Protests

• Timed Release, installations by Heidi Kumao

• 52/52+, 52 books made in 52 weeks by Skuta Helgason, curated by Scott McCarney

• Small Dreams and Possessions, work by Sue Leopard

• An Alternative Process, prints by Ivan Dalla Tana

• Hello World!, installations by Christopher Baker

• Karen Brummund, installation

2011

 

• Shedding Light: Pamela Vander Zwan

• Everything In Time, an exhibition of bookworks, installations, and photographs

• In Retrospect: Artists’ Books and Works on Paper by Maureen Cummins, Ann Lovett, and Nava Atlas

• 13 Views in Arid Lands: Potter-Belmar Labs, video and installation

• Transitions – Rochester, work by Theo Baart, Oscar Palacio, Andrea Stultiens, Cary Markerink, and Jason Bernagozzi, collaboration between VSW, FOTODOK, George Eastman Museum, and Rochester Contemporary Art Center

For exhibitions after 2011, click here.