LENOX, MASS.- Sohn Fine Art is presenting Abstract Rhythm & Blue Notes, a celebration of abstract photography highlighting the work of eight emerging and established artists from around the globe. The works on exhibit were created during an intensive, year-long workshop which explored the intersection of photography, abstraction and creativity under the guidance of Valda Bailey and Doug Chinnery. The show features the two instructors and six of their students, Deborah Loeb Bohren, Edie Clifford, Laura Goin, Jennifer Gordon, Linda Hacker and Barb Kreutter.
The exhibition is on view at Sohn Fine Art (69 Church Street, Lenox, MA) September 9 – October 3.
The exhibition and events are made possible by Sohn Fine Art’s Master Artist Series program, which hosts world class photographers in the Berkshires annually. The goal of this program is to offer unique experiences with artists in the top of their fields to patrons and collectors of photography, as well as professional and aspiring photographers and artists. Sohn Fine Art’s Director states, “I founded MAS to contribute to the vitality of the arts, culture and education in the Berkshire region. I wanted to create unique and intimate ways of engagement between the artists and the community that promote broader understandings of, and engagements with, artistic mediums through exhibitions, lectures and workshops with world-class photographers.” Special thanks to the 2022 MAS partners, Apple Tree Inn, The Mount, Muse and Pleasant Valley.
This exhibition of abstract photography is an artistic culmination of works inspired by the world of jazz music, specifically blue notes, an expressive technique using minor intervals where major intervals are expected. Quite similarly, these artists employ their own methods of multiple exposures, intentional camera movement and post-processing methods in order to abstract shapes, eliminate detail and alter the perception of reality. They work in a way that is controllable to a certain degree but retains a strong element of unpredictability and serendipity.
Valda Bailey is a freelance photographer living in Sussex, England. Her approach to photography is informed by her background in painting, and her influences come as much from artists working in that medium as photography. Largely motivated by color and form, Bailey’s impressionistic photographs have a clear tension and dynamism, as she looks to push the boundaries of what photography is about. She strives to produce work that has movement and energy. Portraying an interpretation of a scene rather than a literal representation, Bailey makes her images using in-camera multiple exposure and ICM (intentional camera movement)—two techniques that help to create abstract shapes and painterly strokes. Learn more about her work at valdabailey.com
Doug Chinnery is a photographic expressionist artist with his camera being his principal medium. He is driven to make work which reflects his love of abstraction, focusing on details rather than the wider world. In his quest to evoke emotional responses, he captures beauty from the mundane and overlooked, having little interest in depicting things as they are. Finding balance and harmony in pure shapes, colours, forms, contrast and texture, Chinnery’s works are inspired by Rothko, Ryman, Feiler and Hodgkin. He has been featured in National Geographic and countless other national/international publications and has exhibited extensively in galleries in the UK and Europe. He enjoys a quiet life with his wife and pups in the hills of Northern England.
