March, 2009
Curator and participating artist of "Artificial (Re)covery," group video show with Nil Santana and Kurt Schneider at the Washington Street Art Center, Somerville, MA.

OPENING RECEPTION:  March 7, 2009, 6 to 9 pm
ON VIEW: March 7 to 28, Saturdays 12-4, and by appointment

Some things always come back to you, but they do not just repeat themselves as before. This exhibit is more about subtle relationships than grand vistas or representations, the objects devoid of themselves, and how technology can be used to create a simulacrum of experience and emotion.  The exhibit incorporates video and photographic works by EL Putnam and Nil Santana, accompanied by the sound work of Kurt Schneider.

For this exhibition, EL Putnam presents a series of videos collectively titled “Fauxmance: Misadventures of Wonderlust (Stay Tuned for Details),” through which she explores how imagery can provoke nostalgia, but also can create artificial emotional sensations.  Working with video she has collected over her travels throughout the years incorporated with images from performances, the artist examines the intersection of lived experience with emotional longing. 

Nil Santana explores the beauty of simplicity, creating visual tensions and a sense of motion.  Producing images of diverse characteristics, he suggests concepts of oppositions within dualities such as digital and analog, black and white, positive and negative, static and dynamic. The works of his “Noise” series have a kinetic quality evoking life and relationships – whether sequentially animated or displayed in its static state – which are the result of sequential digital-pinhole pictures, evocative of early photographic development.

Kurt Schneider is a Boston based musician, producer, and engineer whose compositions incorporate the use of an Atari, moog, acoustic guitar along with found sounds.  Kurt currently plays guitar and synth with This Car Up and guitar with Tour de North.    

November, 2008
Small Works Show at the Washington Street Art Center, Somerville, MA.

September 6 - 27, 2008
"Aggressive Recollections: Transnational Cultural Consumption in the 21st Century!"
Solo Photographic Exhibition at the Washington Street Art Center, Somerville, MA.

OPENING RECEPTION: September 6, 2008

Open Saturdays in September, 12-4pm, and Wednesday September 10, 5-8pm

While the camera-toting tourist has become an iconic (and typically negative) representation of the present day recreational traveler, Boston area artist EL Putnam embraces the action of traveling with camera-in-hand. Instead of taking images meant to capture moments as visual souvenirs, Ms. Putnam creates photographs that are meant to deconstruct presumptions concerning tourism and photography, utilizing the camera as a means of exploring the complexities associated with present day U.S. tourism in Havana, Cuba.

The exhibition “Aggressive Recollections” consists of several collections of images created by the artist during her most recent trip to Havana, including double exposures taken with a Holga, images from the world-famous Tropicana nightclub, and a project that documents a postcard writing performance. While these series may vary in terms of technique and technology, the images were all created as a way for the artist to comprehend the multifacetedness of traveling to a nation that is typically off limits to U.S. citizens.

May 3-4 2008
Somerville Open Studios at the Washington Street Art Center, Somerville, MA.

April 5 - 27, 2008
Video stills and video from A sucker born every minute. performance series included in group show "Change" at the Washington Street Art Center, Somerville, MA.

 

November 29, 2007 - January 29, 2008
Tucson to Niagara Falls in “Smaller is Better” at the Schiltkamp Gallery, Worcester, MA.

Schiltkamp Gallery
at the Traina Center for the Arts
Clark University
92 Downing Street
Worcester, MA 01610
November 29, 2007 to January 31, 2008
Artists Opening Reception: November 29, 6 – 8 pm

Clark University’s Schiltkamp Gallery is pleased to announce Smaller is Better, a juried exhibition of smallworks. With nearly 60 artists represented, the exhibit offers a variety of exciting and thoughtful works insmall format. Each piece displays a highly sensitive and dynamic use of material, proving that powerful thingsdo come in tiny packages.

Works were solicited through an open call and chosen through a blind jury so that the final selection includesa broad range of participants- national and regional artists, college faculty, and students. The concept for thisexhibition dictates that the work be six inches or less in any dimension. Nick Capasso, acting director of the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, awarded honors to the top pieces. He notes that small artworkfunctions much the same as extra large artwork- it demands that you go right up to it until the piece fills yourframe of vision. The parameters of tiny artwork provide particular challenges for artists- and in this exhibit wesee artists resolving these issues in a diverse array of media and genre.

The Schiltkamp Gallery, directed by Kirk Jalbert and Gregory Thielker, is located in the Traina Center for theArts, a part of the Clark University campus. Admission is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are asfollows: Monday – Thursday 9 am – 10 pm, Friday 9 - 5, Saturday 12 - 5, Sunday 12-10 (Please note, galleryhours are limited between December 16 and January 17. Call for hours). The gallery is fully accessible. Foradditional information, please call 508.793.7113 or email schiltkampgallery@gmail.com.