Two shows at The Light Factory evince sense of place

The arrival of sultry weather is a sure sign that it’s time to head over to The Light Factory for the Members Show and the Annuale. This is the third year that these shows — one egalitarian, the other selective — have been paired.

For the Annuale, entries are accepted from photographers worldwide, but the exhibition’s jurors so far have come from Southern institutions — Julian Cox, curator of photography at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art (2008), Trevor Schoonmaker, curator of contemporary art at Duke University’s Nasher Museum of Art (2009) and now Alex Nyerges, director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. But even with this run of Southern jurors, everyone involved was still a bit shocked — in a good way — by this year’s results: Although entries came from as far away as Paris, five of the winning artists are from the South. (For those of you not familiar with juried exhibitions, the juror typically makes a selection only from digital images and is provided little or no information about who submitted them.)

The Light Factory’s Third Juried Annuale features Nicholas Dantona, Franklin, Tenn.; John Grant, Charlottesville, Va.; Diana Greene, Winston-Salem; Aspen Hochhalter, Charlotte; Blue Mitchell, Portland, Ore.; and Lori Vrba, Chapel Hill.

Their work ranges from the traditional — Vrba still prints in the darkroom and Greene’s photographs harken back to Edward Weston — to the experimental — Mitchell (characterized by TLF’s Chief Curator Dennis Kiel as “our lone representative of all states west of Tennessee”) has taken a process called acrylic lift and modified it by adding a digital component.

Grant’s luscious images, with their seductive, glossy surfaces, are probably the most attention-grabbing in the show, although several of Dantona’s Harpeth River Watershed photographs (especially one in which cows stare at you with a Village of the Damned intensity) have a compelling strangeness that sticks with you long after you’ve left the gallery.

Over at the Members Show, now in its 38th year, there are the usual highs and lows that you get with a take-all-comers enterprise; however, this show is not primarily about aesthetic achievement (although it does include its share of beauties, such as Byron Baldwin’s moody Night Smoker) but is instead about the depth and richness of a community. In this show, everyone — ranging from some of Charlotte’s most noted photographers to passionate non-professionals who just want the thrill of seeing their work in a gallery — are happy to share wall space. The sense of community may be best evidenced by Hochhalter, whose ethereal Reclamation of Silver Series graces the Annuale, but who submitted a piece to the Members Show too.

To fully appreciate this show, it’s probably best to attend the reception, with its lively mass of photographers, friends of photographers and loved ones of photographers. See you there on May 22.

— Barbara Schreiber

Light Factory Third Juried Annuale, through August 15, and 38th Annual Members Show, through August 8; opening reception for both exhibitions, May 22, 6 p.m.-9 p.m. Details at www.lightfactory.org/photography.

This article appears in May 4-10, 2010.