Summertime & It's Showtime Again!

The Workhouse Photography Group members have been busy since May and we are pleased to share that our newest exhibit is up and ready for viewing! This month is also special because the 2nd Annual Juried Photographic Competition is up and on exhibit from July 21st-August 15th. Most of our members are showcased in the exhibit this year... "congrats!" to all that were accepted. But, the one of the most special honors for one of our members (Richard Allnutt) is his work was chosen in the 2009 Best of the Collector's Showcase. He was honored with a solo exhibition from July 21st to August 15th.

Here are the dates of special note and we hope that you will come by to view our work, share in the excitement and especially share in the cheer as we honor everyone that's a part of this special group of artist/photographers.

July 18-September 12
Summer Works Exhibit by the Workhouse Photography Group
Location: Vulcan Gallery in Building W-16 at the Workhouse Art Center; Lorton, VA
Gallery times: Wed-Sat: 11am-7pm, Sun: 12-5pm

July 21-August 15
2nd Annual Juried Photographic Competition Exhibition
Location: Building W-16, second floor
Award reception: Sunday, July 25 from 2-4pm
Gallery times: Wed-Sat: 11am-7p, Sun: 12-5pm

The selected works in this exhibition features both professional and amateur photographers, their age ranges are 18 years and older. The juror for the competition is David Adamson. He is an internationally renowned master printer who has produced limited edition pigment prints for the world's best fine art photographers for 18 years. Adamson Atelier has recently completed major shows for Al Wertheiner, Lyle Ashton Harris and William Eggleston, and is currently working on a master set of Annie Leibovitz's lifetime work. His Adamson Gallery opened in Washington, DC in 1982 and has hosted numerous photography exhibitions, as well as representing a group of photographers who presently include: Chuck Close; Titouan Lamazou; Julian Faulhaber; and William Wegman. He will personally be presenting the awards to the selected photographers for their work.

July 21-August 15
2009 Best of Collector's Showcase Exhibition: Richard Allnutt
Location: Building W-16, second floor
Meet the Artist! reception: Sunday, July 25 from 2-4pm
Gallery times: Wed-Sat: 11am-7p, Sun: 12-5pm

The winner of the Workhouse Best of the Collector's Showcase 2009 was Richard Allnutt. His shot of Branford Marsalis, taken at the front door of a small church on Wisconsin Avenue, won Best in Show. Allnutt's solo exhibit will take place in Galley W-16 from July 21 - August 15 and will feature candid, and not so candid, portraiture. Please join us at the opening reception on Sunday, July 25 from 2-4pm to meet the artist.

Richard Mallory Allnutt is a British-born photographer based in the United States. He focuses primarily on portraiture, but his passions for aviation and the natural world also play a strong role in his repertoire. He has won several significant awards for his work such as the ITVA-DC still photography and the Aviation Week & Space Technology competitions. With clients as diverse as Dom Perignon Champagne, Telarc and Virginia Tech, Richard's images have graced the covers and pages of many magazines and books.

The Collector's Showcase is an annual exhibition that highlights the work of all Workhouse artists. Workhouse artists donate a piece of art work to the exhibition. Of all the pieces submitted, an outside juror then selects 13 artists to exhibit their art work in the Collector's Showcase Exhibition and also in the 2011 Workhouse Arts Center Calendar. The piece that is awarded Best in Show is used as cover art for the calendar and later granted a solo exhibition in Gallery W-16.

Second Saturday Art Walk
August 14th

A good day to visit is August 14th the 2nd Saturday Art Walk will be held. You will be able to join more than 125 Workhouse artists as all studios buildings stay open until 9:00 PM! You will experience first hand the vitality, creativity, and diversity of the artists who make up this unique arts community. Each 2nd Saturday Art Walk features receptions in all Workhouse buildings, where you can meet each building's featured artists of the month.

Sample Works from the Current WPG Exhibit

Kathy Strauss
Wind

Carol Simon Huddleston
The Tackle Box

Larry Rood
Martyrdom of the Saints - Assisi

Lillis Werder
Wisteria

Richard Allnutt
Rachel

Wayne Guenther
Red Stairs

E.E. McCollum
Three Trunks







James McGivney

1st Workhouse Juried Photography Competition

The inaugural Workhouse Juried Photography Competition will be on display in the upper gallery of Building W-16 at the Workhouse Art Center through August 22nd. Juror Ann Shumard, the Curator of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., selected the finalists from a national field of entries. This show establishes the Workhouse as one of the premiere fine art photography venues in the region. There is no charge to view the show. Directions to the Workhouse are available here.

An awards reception will be held Sunday, August 9th from 2 - 4 p.m. Ms Shumard has selected one work to receive a $500 Best in Show award and three others to receive $150 Equal Merit awards.

The photographers of the Workhouse Photographic Society are well represented among Ms. Shumard's selections. Lillis Werder, Kathy Strauss, Jen Chappell, Carol Simons Huddleston, Larry Rood, Wayne Guenther, Loma Mier, and E. E. McCollum all have pieces included. McCollum's photograph "Portoroz Boats #1" (above) was selected for the Best in Show award.

Other WPS members' works in the show include:

Wayne Guenther - Red Square


Loma Mier - Lost Memories


Jen Chappell -- Chicago Night View


Kathy Strauss - Carnival


Lillis Werder - Feeding Pigeons in Venice


Carol Simons Huddleston - Secluded Morning


Larry Rood - Archway - Arles

Artist Reception: "VOLUME" by Jen Chappell

The lovely and talented Jen Chappell is currently the featured exhibitor at the Workhouse Photographic Society! We will host an artist’s reception in our studio in building W6, Saturday, August 1st, 7:00 – 9:00p. Meet Jen and many of the photographers, as we welcome the prints on the walls! Directions, here.

This exhibition entitled, Volume by Jen Chappell, is so thoughtful and succinct. The work is based on the notion of the sound that an image resonates. The photographs have been selected from over two decades of her photographic career, and represent the span of her vision.

On the featured artist and exhibition, by the artist:

“Volume is a play on many levels,” Chappell says. “Each image has a sound quality and each resonates in its own way. Some are quiet (volume 3); some are quite loud (volume 10). I am showing a volume of work, cataloging my evolution and growth as an artist.”

Chappell began photographing directly after high school. Her first works were portraits of friends and the cataloguing of her surroundings. As her surroundings morphed, so did Chappell’s photography. Quickly she became the de facto chronicler of the Lehigh Valley and New Jersey punk scene. She shot many album covers and band photographs.

The frenetic pace that was this demimonde punk scene slowly grew into more structural and architectural work that imbued inanimate objects and spaces with an otherworldliness through her deft use of graininess and cross processing of color. The moodiness that she had found in the interplay of texture and color then encouraged her to move her eye to concentrated close-ups of living and growing things.

Chappell sees these as just another aspect of herself. “I chronicle my life by photographing those things that speak to me. Often these items are either of two opposites. A flower or rusted sheet metal; the quiet morning fog or a concert. I see the beauty of the normal, be it conventionally, or absurdly, beautiful …the life force.”

Jen Chappell is a juried member of the Workhouse Photographic Society at Lorton, a member of Del Ray Artisans, the Del Ray Dozen, and a consistently juried contributor to Alexandria City’s Art in City Hall program. Her work has hung in National Symphony Orchestra designer show houses as well as the Pennsylvania State House.

And there is plenty more photographs, in varied styles, that grace the wall by the additional members of the group! This exhibition runs through September 13th.