March 29 - May 27, 2012
Opening March 29, 5:30-7:30pm

Two Northern California photographers are featured in the Spring exhibition at the Nelson Gallery: Dreams of the Darkest Night, with work by Vanessa Marsh and Sean McFarland. Both artists hold MFAs from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and both practice experimental forms of photography. Marsh makes photograms, which are images made on photo paper without the use of a lens. The earliest celebrated practitioner of the form was the emigre American surrealist, Man Ray, in the early 20th century. Marsh has reinvigorated the genre with large narrative images that have the illusion of depth, and employ grays as well as blacks and whites. McFarland's most recent body of work are large black and white images from nature that are very dark, almost all black, giving the viewer the feeling the he or she is glimpsing a dream in the depths of the darkest night. There will also be other works by the artists: polaroids by McFarland and color work by Marsh.

Images:
Top - Vanessa Marsh
Man Chopping Wood, 2010
photogram
Bottom - Sean McFarland
Untitled (mt. davidson), 2010
C-Print / 30 x 36 inches
Edition of 3