New Exhibits by Kegeles And Krifka At Gallery A3 in January
The Sky Below by Gloria Kegeles. Photo: Gallery A3
Source: Gallery A3
Gallery A3, 28 Amity Street, announces two new exhibits by Gloria Kegels and John Krifka that will open on January 6 and run through January 29. The gallery is open 3–7:00 p.m., Thursday–Sunday (check website www.gallerya3.com for expanded hours). There will be an opening reception on January 6, from 5 to 7:00 p.m. (check website to confirm) and an online art forum on Thursday, January 20, at 7:30 pm. Register for the forum at www.gallerya3.com.
The Exhibits
Abstract photographs by Gloria Kegeles, using vehicle surfaces at vintage car shows as her “canvas”, are displayed in At the Precipice. Back & Forth, by John Krifka, includes traditional still life and landscape paintings as well as digitally manipulated work.
At the Precipice, Gloria Kegeles
As a photographer, Gloria Kegeles turns a unique lens on vintage car shows. “I have always aimed at creating photographs unlike any I’ve seen before,” she states. This led to her long-standing fascination with capturing images that employ the reflective visual distortions caused by the high polish of restored vintage vehicles’ curved chrome and gleaming body surfaces. She sets her sight on reflections of elements both near (often including herself or the ground at her feet) and far (other people, other vehicles, trees, clouds, and power lines). She creates images without the use of computer manipulation or cropping—just full-frame “available light”.
In this world of shimmering reflected forms, disembodied images also appear and uneasy connections emerge. As she resumes taking photographs in the public space of car shows after a pandemic year off, Kegeles notes, “To me, the current images evoke feelings of discombobulation stemming from major global crises.”
A Massachusetts native, Kegeles took up photography in 1981 while living in Bloomington, Indiana, where first she modeled for photographer friends at the limestone quarry swimming holes there. (See the movie Breaking Away.) Shortly afterwards, she re-positioned herself behind the camera, initiating the quest for unusual images with long-exposure night photography taken from airplane windows. Untrained and convention-free, her journey began.
Back & Forth, John Krifka
John Krifka expects his work to be both “painted drawings” and “drawings painted”. Over time, his images of still life or landscape might either be realized by massing form or defined by line and graphics. The style can move back and forth through his picture plane as well as through the individual approach he puts forward with each canvas. He finds that working at a small scale on many pieces simultaneously, directing choices, gives him more options. “It allows me to lay them down when I’m undecided and continue with others as I find my way through to solutions,” he explains.
The paintings in Back & Forth encompass both past and present work. Sometimes styles will commingle, to emphasize an idea of what suddenly becomes important. Recently, Krifka is experimenting with digital manipulation applied to hand-painted reworking of previously finished paintings by filtering the original image through changing color, altering linework, or adjusting tonality. “Hopefully I can head toward abstraction by borrowing from the determination of realism,” he says. “I enjoy returning to my existing paintings and changing them by introducing a different medium or structure.”
John Krifka was born and raised in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He studied at the Art Students League, and lived and worked for 25 years in New York City before moving to western Massachusetts in 2001. He is also a registered architect.
Art Forum Online
In an Art Forum Online on Thursday, January 20, 2022 at 7:30 pm, Kegeles and Krifka will discuss their work. See the gallery website (www.gallerya3.com) to register for this online event, which is free and open to the public. This program is supported in part by a grant from the Amherst Cultural Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.