Pictures Meet Text in “Process: Word & Image”
Two artists whose work combines photography, the written word, and self-portraiture are featured in the current exhibit at Photoworks Gallery. Process: Word and Image, presents work by John Borstel and Matthew M. Smith. Mark Power, Photoworks faculty member, serves as curator for this thoughtful and evocative exhibit. The show runs through November 15. As one of several Fotoweek DC events on November 7, the artists and curator will participate in a gallery talk at 12:3o PM.
Borstel and Smith’s work combines intimate revelation with a certain theatrical flourish – the photographic equivalent of performance art. Each artist employs a range of strategies to synthesize image with text, providing an absorbing and provocative experience for viewers. In his curator’s statement, Mark Power sees a thread of vulnerability that runs through the exhibit.
“Vulnerability is the keynote,” Power states, “that makes the revelations in the exhibit all the more poignant. In Borstel’s work, theatre, costume and mime plays a strong role. In Smith’s portraits, amid formal combinations of domestic artifacts, we see a person coping with rejection and isolation.”
Humanities Director for Liz Lerman Dance Exchange John Borstel is an active member of the greater Washington arts community. His work has recently been seen in a solo exhibition at the Atrium Gallery in the Takoma Park Community Center.
Matthew M. Smith is an MA Graduate from the University of Maryland, employed at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. His work is featured in the current OPTIONS 2009 exhibit at Connor Contemporary Art in Washington, DC.
