Light Work has announced the exhibition “VisualBooks,” featuring work by Scott McCarney, which will run Nov. 1-Dec. 16. This unique and beautiful exhibition explores the book as a sculptural object that employs a variety of image-making processes. McCarney’s carefully hand-bound editions and found-altered books incorporate photographic imagery and utilize the space of the gallery to explore reading as display (on pedestals and shelves, hanging from the ceiling, mounted on the wall).
McCarney creates his sculptural objects and photo-based editions as one-of-a-kind, hand-made pieces, as well as small runs of print-on-demand books. According to Hannah Frieser, director of Light Work, “Scott McCarney rethinks the book form, considering books as a starting point rather than a mere vehicle for information and images.”
The gallery reception on Nov. 3 from 5–8 p.m. will celebrate the exhibition, and also serve as the kickoff event to the Society of Photographic Education (SPE) Northeast/Mid-Atlantic regional conference titled “Photographers + Publishing,” which will be hosted by Light Work and Syracuse University. Light Work is publishing a special conference edition of the award-winning publication Contact Sheet in a run of 250, which will include original art by McCarney.
McCarney’s work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Center for Book Arts and Printed Matter Inc. in New York City; Tower Fine Arts Gallery in Brockport, N.Y.; Minnesota Center for Book Arts in Minneapolis; University of the West of England; and other locations throughout the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and more. He received his B.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., and his M.F.A. from SUNY University at Buffalo and Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, N.Y.
He has received numerous awards, including the New York State Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (printmaking/drawing book arts) and multiple Special Opportunity Stipends from NYFA/Rochester Arts & Cultural Council. McCarney’s work is featured in many permanent collections, including those of the Getty Center in Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art Library in New York City and the Photographic Resource Center in Boston, among many others.
Also on view at this time is “2011 Light Work Grants,” an exhibition of work by the winners of the 2011 Light Work Grants in Photography Competition: Neil Chowdhury, Danielle Mericle and Ahndraya Parlato. In addition, “bobCollignon:Outdoorsman” is on view in the Community Darkrooms Gallery.
For more information, contact Jessica Reed at Light Work, at 315-443-1300 or jhreed01@syr.edu.
