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05 October, 2009

New Directions 2010 juried by Carol McCusker



Opportunity knocks here at wall space for our annual New Directions 2010 exhibition.

Our juror this year is Carol McCusker, of the Museum of Photographic Arts, in San Diego.

We are also excited to announce our collaboration with 23 Sandy Gallery to give the exhibition an additional showcase in fabulous Portland during the month of February 2010.

Here is the critical information -

New Directions 2010
Down & Out

in Seattle at wall space - 5 January - 31 January 2010
in Portland at 23 Sandy - 5 February - 27 February 2010

submissions open now until 15 November, 2009.
Artist notification - 15 December, 2009
Prints due to wall space - 4 January, 2010


Ms. McCusker's vision for Down & Out -


This call for entries privileges two points of view: looking down from a high vantage point, and looking out to a vanishing horizon. Art historian, Albert Boime, described the former as a "Magisterial Gaze" that gave early Americans, through painting and printmaking, a view at one with God, hence, Manifest Destiny. The latter may simply be the romance of the road, or curiosity about what lies just out of sight - an American impulse from early pioneers to Jack Kerouac.

Numerous painters and photographers have employed these vantage points, subsequently, they run the risk of cliché. When done well, however, each reveals the unexpected, as in Szarkowski's photograph above (he captures both in one image). The optimist in me delights at the disorienting perspective of looking down whereby familiar objects become abstract and dizzyingly beautiful, to looking out, with that forward motion promising adventure or escape.

The title Down & Out might conjure images of ne'er-do-wells (risky, if the public decides not to inquire further). What I hope the photographs provide, however, is pleasure in the variety of ways 'down' and 'out' can be imaged, and what emotional liberation such points-of-view can have on our often confined and overly responsible psyches.

About Ms. McCusker -

Carol McCusker is curator of photography at the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego. She received her Ph.D. in art history with an emphasis on the history of photography and film history at the University of New Mexico (UNM), Albuquerque. She has curated numerous exhibitions at MoPA and UNM, and is contributing author to Paul Outerbridge (Taschen, 1999); First Photographs: William Henry Fox Talbot and The Birth of Photography (powerHouse, 2002); James Fee: The Peleliu Project (Seraphin, 2002); Phil Stern: A Life's Work (powerHouse, 2003); Terry Falke: Observations in an Occupied Wilderness (Chronicle, 2006); and Breaking the Frame: Pioneering Women in Photojournalism (MoPA, 2006) The Roads Most Traveled: Migration Photographs by Don Bartletti (2006), Rebels & Revelers: Experimental Decades 1970s-1980s (2007), Public Privacy: Wendy Richmond's Surreptitious Cellphone (2007), and The Photographer's Eye (2008)

McCusker's freelance writing has been published in The Photo Review, Communication Arts, and she is a regular contributor to B&W and Color magazines. In recent years, McCusker has reviewed portfolios at Houston Fotofest, Review Santa Fe, Photo L.A., Atlanta Celebrates Photography, Photo Lucida, and in November, the Lishui Photo Festival, China. She was also a nominator for the 2009 ICP Infinity Awards, and a Juror for the 2008 Julia Dean Berenice Abbott Award.

for more information find the New Directions page on the gallery's website, or contact the wall space or 23 Sandy for details.

05 October, 2009

New Directions 2010 juried by Carol McCusker



Opportunity knocks here at wall space for our annual New Directions 2010 exhibition.

Our juror this year is Carol McCusker, of the Museum of Photographic Arts, in San Diego.

We are also excited to announce our collaboration with 23 Sandy Gallery to give the exhibition an additional showcase in fabulous Portland during the month of February 2010.

Here is the critical information -

New Directions 2010
Down & Out

in Seattle at wall space - 5 January - 31 January 2010
in Portland at 23 Sandy - 5 February - 27 February 2010

submissions open now until 15 November, 2009.
Artist notification - 15 December, 2009
Prints due to wall space - 4 January, 2010


Ms. McCusker's vision for Down & Out -


This call for entries privileges two points of view: looking down from a high vantage point, and looking out to a vanishing horizon. Art historian, Albert Boime, described the former as a "Magisterial Gaze" that gave early Americans, through painting and printmaking, a view at one with God, hence, Manifest Destiny. The latter may simply be the romance of the road, or curiosity about what lies just out of sight - an American impulse from early pioneers to Jack Kerouac.

Numerous painters and photographers have employed these vantage points, subsequently, they run the risk of cliché. When done well, however, each reveals the unexpected, as in Szarkowski's photograph above (he captures both in one image). The optimist in me delights at the disorienting perspective of looking down whereby familiar objects become abstract and dizzyingly beautiful, to looking out, with that forward motion promising adventure or escape.

The title Down & Out might conjure images of ne'er-do-wells (risky, if the public decides not to inquire further). What I hope the photographs provide, however, is pleasure in the variety of ways 'down' and 'out' can be imaged, and what emotional liberation such points-of-view can have on our often confined and overly responsible psyches.

About Ms. McCusker -

Carol McCusker is curator of photography at the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego. She received her Ph.D. in art history with an emphasis on the history of photography and film history at the University of New Mexico (UNM), Albuquerque. She has curated numerous exhibitions at MoPA and UNM, and is contributing author to Paul Outerbridge (Taschen, 1999); First Photographs: William Henry Fox Talbot and The Birth of Photography (powerHouse, 2002); James Fee: The Peleliu Project (Seraphin, 2002); Phil Stern: A Life's Work (powerHouse, 2003); Terry Falke: Observations in an Occupied Wilderness (Chronicle, 2006); and Breaking the Frame: Pioneering Women in Photojournalism (MoPA, 2006) The Roads Most Traveled: Migration Photographs by Don Bartletti (2006), Rebels & Revelers: Experimental Decades 1970s-1980s (2007), Public Privacy: Wendy Richmond's Surreptitious Cellphone (2007), and The Photographer's Eye (2008)

McCusker's freelance writing has been published in The Photo Review, Communication Arts, and she is a regular contributor to B&W and Color magazines. In recent years, McCusker has reviewed portfolios at Houston Fotofest, Review Santa Fe, Photo L.A., Atlanta Celebrates Photography, Photo Lucida, and in November, the Lishui Photo Festival, China. She was also a nominator for the 2009 ICP Infinity Awards, and a Juror for the 2008 Julia Dean Berenice Abbott Award.

for more information find the New Directions page on the gallery's website, or contact the wall space or 23 Sandy for details.