FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - September 28, 2017
Different Trains Gallery Contact:
Shawn Vinson 404.939.2787 shawn@vinsonart.com
Through a Glass, Darkly - DIFFERENT TRAINS GALLERY group exhibition showcases protest photographs by Jim Alexander, Michael Jackson & Katie Archibald-Woodward + protest art by Eben Dunn & Kosmo Vinyl. This Atlanta Celebrates Photography event opens October 6th, 6-9pm, with an artists reception & live 'protest jazz'.
DECATUR, GA - The 'Art of Protest' is as old as art itself and it's more prevalent than ever today - from city streets to professional football stadiums. A new exhibition at DIFFERENT TRAINS GALLERY, 432 East Howard Avenue No 24 in Decatur, showcases work by three contemporary photographers who document protests through their camera lenses, and two artists whose photo-based artworks serve as their personal means of social commentary.
The pictures in the exhibition span five decades, mostly thanks to Atlantan Jim Alexander's award-winning work. His early mentor was none other than Gordon Parks, and the gallery pays homage to Mr. Alexander by displaying his photos made from 1969 to 2017. Chicago lensman Michael Jackson has been photographing the Occupy movement since 2011. Local photographer Katie Archibald-Woodward contributes work from her project Through the Checkpoint, documenting life in the West Bank. Atlanta artist Eben Dunn makes large scale photo collages appropriating photos of iconic Civil Rights figures. Last but not least, Kosmo Vinyl, a "Londoner-turned-New Yorker", proves that size doesn't matter with his small and powerful collages in protest of current events.
Vinyl is one artist in particular who knows a thing or two about protest art. In 1970s London at Stiff Records, he worked alongside legendary artists Barney Bubbles and Sir Peter Blake, before going on manage The Clash, arguably one of the greatest 'protest bands' in history. His four "artists postcards that have not been mailed" take aim at Poverty, Junk Food, Fear and Firearms. He said, "When Shawn Vinson asked me if I'd like to participate in the show, I asked who else was in it and as soon as he said Jim Alexander I said count me in !".
Shortly after earning a degree from the New York Institute of Photography in 1968, Mr. Alexander began to document the local and national response to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He moved to Atlanta in 1976 and continued to build a reputation as a photographer, curator, lecturer and teacher, earning a myriad of awards along the way. Born in 1935, Jim Alexander has "done a lot of things". But what really defines him, according to a 2016 interview on NPR, "are his camera and his activism". In the past year, he's been honored with an exhibition at the Tubman African American Museum in Macon, Georgia, and had his work prominently featured in the book Forty years of the Atlanta Jazz Festival.
Like Kosmo Vinyl, Michael Jackson is an English born artist who emigrated to the US long ago and who admires and reveres Jim Alexander. Both photographers have made careers of shooting pictures of whatever moves them, mainly musicians and social activism. Michael is a regular contributor to Downbeat, JazzTimes, The Chicago Reader, et. al.). He and Jim have known each other since their 2007 two-man-show at the Vinson Gallery in Decatur during Atlanta Celebrates Photography, entitled 'Musicians: Snaps of the Cats that Make it Happen'.
The six photographs by Katie Archibald-Woodward are a selection from "Through The Checkpoint", a multimedia project on Palestine/Israel. She hopes to help our global community gain a fuller picture of life in Palestine/Israel and compel viewers to join movements that aim to catalyze equity, peace, and coexistence without occupation for Palestinians, Bedouin, and Jewish Israelis alike.
WHAT: Through a Glass, Darkly - group exhibition of photographs of protests + protest art
WHEN: opens Friday, Ocotober 6, 6 - 9 pm, with Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017, with ribbon cutting at 12 p.m. Opening reception continues until 6 p.m. (during the AJC Decatur Book Festival)
WHERE: 125 Clairemont Avenue, No. 100, Decatur, GA 30030
