PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION BY SOUTHPORT RESIDENT AND CONNECTICUT ARTS LEADER TO OPEN JULY 19 AT EXPOSURE GALLERY
The variety and depth of the contributions to the arts in Connecticut by Southport resident Lawrence Russ have been remarkable – as a writer, an educator, a performer, an administrator, and an advocate. Now, in the last four years, he
has emerged as a photographic talent, winning a place for his work in some of the State's and the region's most distinguished juried exhibitions. Last year, he gained representation by a commercial gallery, the Exposure Gallery at One Whitney Avenue in New Haven, and on July 19, from 6-9 p.m., the Gallery will hold a reception for the opening of "Surreal Earth," an exhibition of photographs by Russ and George Fellner.
In the last four years, Russ's photographs have been chosen for three of the last four Art of the Northeast exhibitions held by the Silvermine Guild of Artists (open to all visual artists in the New England and tri-state area states, as well as Pennsylvania) and in the Shoreline Arts Alliance's notable IMAGES photography exhibition. When work of his was selected for the Silvermine Guild's SPECTRA National Photography
Triennial by the Polaroid Collection's Curator, Barbara Hitchcock, Russ was also invited by Silvermine to deliver the Gallery Talk for the exhibition. At the end of that talk, the Silvermine Gallery's Director, Helen Klisser During, told the audience: "At the risk of offending those here who
have also spoken at Silvermine, I have to say that this was the best program that we've ever had." In last year's Annual Open Juried Competition of the Housatonic Museum of Art (similarin scope to Art of the Northeast), juror Judy Kim, the Curator of Exhibitions for the American Federation for the Arts, chose four of Russ's photographs for the show and awarded him the First Honorable Mention. These are only some of the most notable exhibitions and jurors making a place for his work in the last few years.
Some of Russ's other accomplishments that our readers may have learned about in past years include his receipt of a Connecticut Commission Artist Grant for Poetry, his successful campaign for the passage of an Art Preservation and Artist Rights Act, his innovative and inspiring poetry programs (which, the New York Times reported, had "broadened the audience for poetry" in Connecticut), his groundbreaking work in historic preservation law, and his role as the author of the principal catalogue essay and the creator and performer of an inventive dramatic program in connection with the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art's acclaimed "Art at the Edge of the Law" exhibition.
