ANNUAL MEMBERS’ SHOW

Jurors: Mia Dalglish and Lisa Woodward

Co-Curators of Pictura Gallery in Bloomington, IN

JULY 15 – AUGUST 12, 2023

Opening Reception and Award Ceremony with Jurors at Colorado Photographic Arts Center

1200 Lincoln St, Denver, CO 80203

Saturday, July 15, 2023

5 – 8 pm

All events are free and open to the public

To see a highly selective survey of the best contemporary photography from Colorado and across the country, don’t miss CPAC’s 60th Annual Juried Members’ Show. This tradition showcases CPAC’s talented community of over 600 members and provides artists with an important exhibition opportunity.

Jurors Mia Dalglish and Lisa Woodward, Co-Curators of Pictura Gallery in Bloomington, IN, selected photographs by 30 CPAC members to exhibit. They also selected 20 additional works for inclusion in the exhibition catalog as a Special Mention subset. All together, the show highlights works by 50 CPAC members selected from a pool of 136 photographers who submitted more than 700 images.

At the Opening Reception and Award Ceremony on July 15th, Dalglish and Woodward presented their selections for Best in Show and Honorable Mentions. The Best in Show winner received $350 and the image was added to our Permanent Collection. The Director’s Choice winner received $150, presented by Samantha Johnston, CPAC Executive Director & Curator. All award winners also received an exhibition catalog.

Congratulations to the 2023 Annual Members’ Show Award Winners:

Best in Show – Steve MacGregor

Director’s Choice – Matt Lancaster

Honorable Mentions – Denise Laurinaitis and Michael Young

Copies of the exhibition catalog can be purchased on Blurb for $20. 

(Pictured Above: Portal #5, detail, by Thomas Carr)

EXHIBITING ARTISTS

Susan Artaechevarria, Omar Baca Cota, Robin Bell, MaryV, Raymond Bleesz, Lynne Breitfeller, Emily Buckley, Tracy Burke, Thomas Carr, Brian Carroll, Carol Eisenberg, Linda Ellis, Gary Emrich, Bryan Florentin, Kevin Hoth, Ron Johnson, Matt Lancaster, Denise Laurinaitis, Ernie Leyba, Steve MacGregor, Raj Manickam, Susan Moldenhauer, Christos J. Palios, Allison Plass, Allan Rosen-Ducat, Alexandra Sheremet, Laurie Smith, Lonnie Timmons III, Suzanne Theodora White, Michael Young

SPECIAL MENTIONS

Jody Akers, Ashley Allen, John Bonath, Derrick Burbul, JoAnn Carney, Giles Clasen, Ken Dvorak, Hollie Giannaula, Ron Hendricks, Bill Heubner, Jim Hill, Anthony Ilardi, Frazier King, Peter Kowalchuk, Julian Orenstein, Faustino Salazar, John M. Shelton, Aaron Sherman, JP Terlizzi, Anna Katharina Zeitler

Jurors’ Statement

The 34 prints in this exhibition were chosen from over 700 submissions from CPAC members. Many photographers inspired us with their use of photographic practice as a doorway to discover their surroundings with eyes that are lucid and curious. As jurors, we carefully considered every image, selecting exceptional photographs that also bring something fresh to established genres. It might be interesting to consider your own answers to these questions as you go through the exhibition. 

Even if this image is very good, have I already seen iterations of this picture before? 

Are there compositional surprises? Does the picture include a moment or subject that activates the scene? 

After repeated viewings of the image, do I still like it? Do I like it more every time I look at it? Do I like it less? 

Does the image match or even transcend what the artist statement says it should communicate? 

Does it leave me with questions, or make me want to see more of the photographer’s work? When I close my eyes, and I think about all of the photographs, do I remember this one? 

The last question is key. When we have thousands of images at our fingertips every day, how do we differentiate between what we scroll past on an instagram feed, and what we would place on the wall in a gallery or in our homes? A fine art photograph, made with care, craft, and intention can be worthy of a longer look. And it can become significant to the beholder, in a way that renews over time. 

The point of intrigue that makes an image memorable can take different forms. It may look like Susan Artaechevarria’s fox, perfectly centered and staring at us from the hay bales, sitting off at a just-unreachable distance. Or it might be Denise Laurinaitis’ tiny shadow of a toy airplane that sticks in the mind. 

Michael Young employs thoughtful visual overlap and mirroring in his portraits of two different girls growing up in the same small town. One wears a flowery dress, with a wall of delicate floral brocade behind her, and the other is positioned on a field of rough grass and straw, wearing camo. Young’s photographs demonstrate how carefully selected details in a portrait can create depth or prompt questions. 

As curators, we are drawn to photographs that hold a rare balance – where the emotional and conceptual layers of the work are just as compelling as the aesthetics. We search for pictures that first evoke feeling, but then keep your eye wandering through rich (or spare) layers of color, shape and form. We also gravitate towards imagery with a bit of mystery, and explorations that fall outside the more familiar boundaries of photographic genres. A portrait can be two shadows intertwining on the wall, as in Raj Manickam’s Layers of Love. A landscape may well be tumbling off the wall, like Suzanne Theodora White’s Against the Ruins. 

The final selection represents a throughline that we saw in the submissions – the depth and refinement that comes from slowing down and truly engaging with subject and material. With this approach of patient attention and curious appreciation, photographs become more than just an image on the wall, they are a portal for opening connection. 

– Mia Dalglish and Lisa Woodward, Co-Curators of Pictura Gallery

EXHIBITION PREVIEW

SPECIAL MENTIONS  

About the Jurors

Mia Dalglish and Lisa Woodward work collaboratively as Co-Curators for Pictura Gallery, a non-profit contemporary photography space in Blomington, IN. Mia is an alumna of the Indiana University Photography Program. Upon graduation she worked at the International Center for Photography. Lisa is an alumna of the Rhode Island School of Design in photography. They have worked together for 13 years, producing a wide range of exhibitions and advising photographers through different phases of their careers. Together, they serve as guest critics for university classrooms and as portfolio reviewers for international conferences, festivals and competitions such as Review Santa Fe, Fotofest, Photolucida, and Les Rencontres d’Arles. Pictura is housed in the FAR Center for Contemporary Arts, offering new educational programs and pursuing the intersection of photography and other art forms, such as dance, performance, music, and poetry.