The Directors’ Show – Summer 2018 Show: David DeMelim with guest artist John deMelim
The exhibition features a selection of work from David DeMelim, Director of the RI Center for Photographic Arts with an emphasis on Rhode Island imagery. The exhibit presents a varied collection of familiar places in a unique presentation including images from the streets of Providence to the Narragansett Seawall. David’s work is experimental in nature, stretching conventions, crossing and recrossing the boundary between photography and printmaking. The exhibit will include a selection of new work as well as High Contrast photography of Providence architecture.
John deMelim
By special invitation we are featuring the work of John deMelim as guest artist, showing his never before exhibited photography.
Guest artist, John deMelim is exhibiting a selection of new work, photo screen prints, and photographs never previously exhibited. Photography has always played an important role in John’s work facilitating his preference for mixed media and multiple imagery. On sabbatical from Rhode Island Collage where he was Professor of Art, he took the opportunity to concentrate on photographic studies for the year. This is the Sabbatical Photography show that never was.
John deMelim as an artist is primarily known for his focus on serigraphy and working with found materials, both in collage and sculpture. Mixing media and images has been central to his work from the beginning and continues to be a vital part of his most recent work included in this show. In speaking about his work, he comments…
“One is visually assaulted by a million different realities, they collide, merge, blend, overlap, crumble, flash, disappear – from which truth, or some semblance of it, assembles momentarily in the conscious as one montage of a living experience.”
David DeMelim
The Director, David DeMelim is a Rhode Island based photographer exploring the intersection of art and technology. Studying photography with Bart Parker was followed by a career in print production and prepress affording early access to computer imaging systems. David is the director of the RI Center for Photographic Arts as well as being an active member of numerous local arts organizations including the Art League of RI, Newport Photo Guild and 19 on Paper. His studio practice specializes in photographing artwork for reproduction and book production. Current personal work explores how we process visual information and record memories.
Artist Statement
Working both on the street and in the studio my interest is to extend the expressive range of digital image making. Much of my work seeks to capture the human experience, not by capturing a single instant, but by capturing the world as we experience it – in a continuous stream of images. In the work presented here I have made use of multiple exposures assembled in a panoramic format, to condense an event or experience into a single image.
Working in this built panoramic format is an attempt to create an image based on how we see and experience the world. My goal is to create an image, not a series of images, that captures an event in a more complete way than a single photograph can. I am not interested in capturing the decisive moment, but in recording the flow of events that make up our daily lives. These images are, in effect single, frame movies or storyboards condensed into a single box. To view these images is to playback a memory, to experience the event as if you were there, presented with different points of view to process and explore. My interest is not in showing what something looks like, but in trying to convey the feeling or energy of what it was like to be there.
David splits his time between design and photography projects while also serving as the Managing Director of the Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts. All proceeds from sales of work in this exhibition will go to supporting the Photo Center.
Exhibit Dates: August 16th through September 14th
Opening Reception: August 16th 5:00 – 9:00pm
Marlin Moore says
David,
Peter and I would like to be added to your mailing address in hopes we will get back from our home in Pennsylvania to see the exhibition of your Dad’s work. Both your parents were proud of you and we are happy you are doing this. We also appreciate the picture of John that you included in your note.
Marlin Moore
Marlin Moore says
David, please add Peter and Marlin Moore to your list for exhibition of John’s work.
Peter and Marlin Moore says
Please add our names to list.