Lee O’Neil Gallery showcases ‘The Print’
On Saturday, Jan. 28, The Lee O’Neil gallery hosted their third show, “The Print.” The exhibition ran from 7 to 9 p.m. and featured nine photographers work, each with their own unique process and presentation.
Since its opening in late September 2015, the The Lee O’Neil Gallery has hosted two other shows: their opening reception “color fields,” and “100 suns” which featured the work of fourth-year photography major and co-owner, Tommy Lee.
“The Print” features the works of Cameron Allen, Coltality (Colton Henderson), Jeff Doran, Ginx Hudgins, Kelia MacCluskey, Kory Jean Kingsley, Lee (Tommy Lee), Taylor Curry, and Gwen O’Neil.
“I guess the idea around the show is it’s all alternate process work,” said SCAD photography graduate and co-owner, Gwen O’Neil. “It’s not straight photography, there’s some kind of manipulation being done,” she explained.
The works varied in size and color but the most distinct differences — the story, process and technique — went beyond the visual representations. O’Neil and Lee explained that their long time friend and colleague, Henderson, was a part of their inspiration for “The Print.”
“It kind of started with Colton … he’s a great friend of ours, went to school together, graduated the same year. We have always loved his work. And we feel that he didn’t really get the recognition that he deserved at school,” said O’Neil. “We pretty much built the show around his work,” added Lee.
When asked by Lee and O’Neil what she could contribute to the exhibit, fourth-year photography major, MacCluskey replied, “I don’t really make abstract work but I have these plastic bag photos.” The photos on display were taken when she was traveling through France and London.
“I always like to have somebody read into the image more than being confronted by it,” said MacCluskey.”What other people would regard as ‘oh it’s trash throw the plastic bag away.’ I’m photographing this simple grocery store trip as a memorabilia,” she explained. “The commonplace, the benign, overlooked plastic bag,” MacCluskey said in regards to her abstract series of photos.
Allen is one of the few photographers in the series that did not attend SCAD.
“This particular series was something I made in high school,” said Allen, who’s work involved the manipulation of color, size and experimenting with textures. “I scratch the photographs, I do things like that to give it that texture you see,” said Allen.
Allen began experimenting with this technique in high school when he began working in a dark room. Although, some of his techniques led to more dangerous outcomes. “There was a point when I was actually mixing ammonia and bleach,” said Allen, explaining his experimentation with chemicals. Mixing ammonia and bleach results met in methane gas whic is highly flammable.
Unlike Cameron, Curry works with nature rather than chemicals.
“I call them ‘nature as the negative’ but the negative is when I do negative process,” said Curry. Currys’ polaroids, were one of the smaller-scale photographs in the exhibit.
“They’re flowers that I just found and placed them on top of the film and then the light exposed ontop of them. And then the shadows are created by the actual objects. All the colors are completely natural, from the actual flower,” said Curry, explaining the process behind his photographs.
Curry graduated from SCAD in 2012 with BFA in photography and is also a founding member of ‘Ain’t Bad’ magazine
“They’re not the norm photograph,” said O’Neil in reference to the photos in the exhibit “Each artist has a different process to their work. That’s what we found really interesting,” she added.
“The Print” will be on display in the gallery until Feb. 23. For more information on The Lee O’Neil Gallery visit their website or their Facebook page.
Written by Asli Shebe.
Photographed by Angie Stong.
Asli Shebe is a senior writing major from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She began working for District in 2014 as a staff writer, then copy editor, A&E editor, Chief Assignment editor and finally, Editor-in-Chief in 2017. Asli currently holds the record for obtaining the most job titles during her time at District. When she’s not writing for District you can find her biking around the Historic District of Savannah at odd hours of the day.
