PORT TOWNSEND — “Print Night: Contemporary Photography” opens at the Northwind Art Grover Gallery on Thursday.
The exhibit at the gallery, at 236 Taylor St., will continue through March 1. Gallery hours are from noon to 5 p.m. Thursday through Monday or by appointment. The exhibit also can be viewed online at NorthwindArt.org.
The juried exhibit features 42 fine art photographs covering street, nature, portrait and abstract themes from participants in the long-running monthly Print Night exhibit.
Northwind Art is the merger of two of the North Olympic Peninsula’s largest nonprofit arts organizations, the 11-year-old Northwind Arts Center and the 5-year-old Port Townsend School of the Arts.
Kate Kinney said she enjoys the human variety of faces and emotions.
Teresa Verraes, the current executive director of PtSA, will lead Northwind Art beginning with the opening of the exhibit, while Michael D’Alessandro, current executive director of Northwind Arts Center, will continue in a management role.
Print Night was established by Port Townsend School of the Arts faculty member Rick York in collaboration with photographer Chuck Moses in 2018. It has remained an enduring collaborative art group even as pandemic restrictions necessitated the move to a virtual setting, organizers said.
The group meets regularly to share work, discuss photography history, technique, current trends and enjoy the community of fellow professional and aspiring photographers.
The exhibit opening Thursday features work by York as well as other Print Night participants Ginny Banks, Betsy Carlson, Jeff Eichen, Kathy Fridstein, Brian Goodman, Allan Jones, Jon Kaplan, Johanna King, Kate Kinney, Gloria Lamson, Allegra McFarland, Mitchel Osborn, Nels Peterson, Lynn Sorensen, Kerry Tremain and Joe Tysl.
King said of her work: “I love the way the camera allows one to look into the very soul of people and animals, and even the earth herself.”
Lynn Sorensen gets up close for her abstract photography.
Kinney echoed that sentiment, “ … the human variety of faces and emotions will always attract my eye. I love how light illuminates one point in time. And I also love how black and white photography needs grey space so that we can see more clearly.”
Abstract photographer Sorensen is attracted to tangled textures and patterns as subject matter, whether on city streets or in natural landscape settings.
By getting up close and seeing only a detail or a portion, that slice can become an abstract work of art, as Sorensen added, “sometimes appearing more as a painting than as a photograph.”
Writer and photographer Tremain is known for his bird images, which he captures through hours of patient waiting.
Johanna King’s photographs will be on display beginning Thursday at the Northwind Art Grover Gallery.
Tremain explained his fascination with the photographic art: “Standing or squatting in a marsh or forest, or on a beach, can induce a state of mind that is simultaneously still and alert, open to serendipity — that drives my work.
“I also enjoy editing, seeing how a series of pictures parses an experience into split seconds, and then deciding which one best enables me to relive and share it over time.”
Northwind Art’s education program includes online classes, workshops and lectures. Find out more at NorthwindArt.org.
