Curators’ Statement

Propeller Art Gallery is delighted to present Reality Vanishing in Plain Sight; A Curated Show of Altered Images, an exhibition of images that contain photographic content and have been transformed by an artist to reveal rich artistic meaning. Reality has been artfully transformed into understanding.

Belief in the authenticity of a photographic image, in the idea that it presented a true picture of what was in front of the lens, was common in the 20th century. In our time we have come to understand that photos are usually sculpted when they are taken—we can think about wedding photos in this context, or Weegee’s true crime pictures—and increasingly manipulated in the printing process.

Our artists in this exhibition are gifted in many stages of the photographic art process. There were a number of strategies used to achieve the artists’ goals. For some, such as Daniela Tiger, the use of cotton as a medium of presentation provided the capacity for surface transformation and ultimately a warm and appealing image. Valerie Ashton’s use of found objects such as cardboard as media of presentation connect the image with the environment and make a political statement.

Many of the works you will find in the exhibition are collages that create meaning out of the juxtaposition of various images. Matthew Grimm’s ‘Where is My Mind?’ points to a number of possibilities. Shelly Wildeman’s ‘Hanlan’s Beach’ provides us with layers of images of happy summer recreation. And many are single images that were manipulated and transformed to create a diminished realism and more meaning. Some of these works challenge us to bring our meaning to the image. Images by Mike Steinhauer and Ulla Djelweh are in this category.

The visitors to this exhibition will find themselves at the leading edge of the photographic arts.

​There are 24 artists in the show. We have been drawn to all of them for their imaginative and pleasing presentations of the new age of photography. We are very happy to share them with you.

Peter Friedrichsen, Tom Taylor, and Jack Wayne, Curators ​