June 16, 2006
The Coleman Center for Arts and Culture is pleased to announce the opening of Transcendence, new photographic works by former resident artist Jeff Nilan. The show will be on display at the Coleman Center from June 16th to July 29th, and a closing reception will be held on July 29th from 7 to 9 PM.
Nilan’s work uses alternative photographic processes: slated paper prints and cyanotypes, printed with litho-crayon rubbings as negatives. He makes gravestone-style rubbings of entire buildings found on his family’s farm in Cass County Iowa, where he has been photographing for the last ten years. The rubbings are used as negatives to make cyanotypes and salt prints that are seamed together, becoming a one to one “fingerprint” replica of the structures his work strives to document and preserve.
Transcendence depicts outbuildings and various small structures found on his relative’s farms in Cass County, Iowa. Nilan begins by making gravestone style rubbings with crayons and paper that are used as a photographic negative. These negatives are then used to print a life size “fingerprint” reproduction of a building facade.
Nilan shared his process in a series of community Workshops. Participants began by making the gravestone style rubbings of parts of building and object surfaces of their own choosing, and then learned how to make the cyanotype images, which are printed and developed with natural sunlight and water. In phase two of the project, participants met for the cyanotype printing demonstration and received instruction on printing their own images.
While working in York Nilan made a piece of art from local signage that will be donated to the Coleman Center upon completion, and also continued work on in-progress pieces of his own. Inspired by the photographs of William Christenberry and Walker Evans, Nilan was also influenced by the now famous famous Gees Bend quilters, and remarked on the palette of the South that seemed present in York from the bright sky to blocky colored train cars that whiz by the Coleman Center on a daily basis.
Nilan’s work, which reflects the identity of the rural landscape, was on display at the Coleman Center from June 16 to July 29th, 2006, and displayed several pieces that were completed during his residency at the Coleman Center.
Nilan says, “For me, standing in the presence of these small structures evokes the religion, stoicism, beauty and sadness of a rural society confused about its place in our contemporary culture. The prints become a way to covey what I experience when I look at the vernacular forms of this region.”
Nilan traveled to Sumter County earlier this summer for a residency at the Coleman Center where he led photographic workshops, worked with local artists, and made a piece of art from local signage that will be donated to the Coleman Center upon completion.
Inspired by the works of Walker Evans and William Christenberry that were created in West Alabama from the 1930s to the 1960s, as well as by the now famous Gee’s Bend Quilters, Nilan’s residence at the Coleman Center earlier this summer allowed him to explore his own artistic motivation, as well as teach new processes to others.
The pieces that hang sparsely in the Coleman Center gallery are a mix of objectivity and emotion. The meticulous process Nilan uses seems to capture every small line and detail, but the pieces also communicate a great love and reverence for the landscape they originate from.
Nilan, whose photographs and artists’ books have been shown throughout the United States, will return to the Coleman Center for the closing reception of his exhibition on July 29th from 7 to 9 PM at the Coleman Center’s gallery on Avenue A in York. Please come and meet the artist and enjoy food, drinks, and music!
For more information please contact the Coleman Center at (205)392-2005, email info@colemanarts.org, or visit our website at http://www.colemanarts.org.