Feature Image: Annual AZPA Meeting © Neil Miller
Wrapping up the largest exhibition to date by AZPA, the 2024 Members Exhibition closed May 10 at the Mood Room, Park Central Mall. The exhibition committee hosted a wonderful reception for members and guests who enjoyed the early time to chat and view the exhibit. I continue to be impressed with the number of non-members (or soon to be) at these open events. It speaks well to the members working on engagement and outreach.
President Neil Miller gathered the crowd to let Richard Laugharn introduce Grant Becker as the newest beneficiary of the Student Grant Award. He is a recent B.F.A. recipient from Arizona State University. Becker brought examples of his recent work in sculptural landscape from his series Invisible Realms. Grant alters the traditional view of landscape by selective filtering the visible wavelength to render an otherworldly color palette. This new color scheme is then enhanced by fashioning neon tubes over the image that accentuate the remaining wavelengths. You can see the full body of his work on this site.
The closing reception included recognition of the exhibition award winners. The juror Michelle Nichols-Dock was unable to attend, but John Wagner as the recipient of the Jurors Award of Distinction gave a recount of his working methods. He referred to his style as intuitive image making. Working in the darkroom to transform his prints, they have an ethereal quality that we were able to see in the show. He felt it was important to be in control of every decision from negative processing to framing to ensure his vision was an integral part of each image. Amy Dangerfield and Chris Palmer (also juror’s recognition awardees) gave brief comments on their artwork in the exhibit and how their photographic experiences evolved.
The evening was capped off by a succinct Board report that could be easily summarized as everything is up. Kathy Morgan (financial and membership) highlighted graphs that showed significant increases in the past year for both membership and revenue. Nancy Miller (Marketing and Communications) revealed the increased traffic and connectivity trends across social media platforms this year as well. Fred Ullrich (Programming) reviewed the variety of events from studio visits with artists and curators to online exhibits and professional seminars via Zoom. Rick Gayle (Community Engagement) highlighted the expansion of both partnerships and mutually beneficial alliances.
It was a very positive report from the Board on the whole, and the event was a great way to close the season before summer heat hibernation begins.
Robert Galloway
Contributing Writer
Bob Galloway began a serious interest in photography after he saw photographs of an early performance art piece and realized the photographs had a more lasting impact than the event itself.
Originally from Ohio, he received a Bachelor of Fine Art in Art from Ohio State University and then moved to the desert in 1979 to pursue a Master of Fine Art in Photography at Arizona State University. Bob is an emeritus professor from Mesa Community College where he taught photography for 39 years.
In addition to teaching, he was an arts administrator for the Maricopa College District for five years, creating the first district wide literature journals, music competitions and art exhibits.
Bob is very encouraged about the embrace of local arts at a grassroots level and hopes to assist in that growth and development. His photographic experience and interests have been wide ranging. Currently he has been looking at how we are using the desert environment as a performance space.
“It’s really difficult to have a bad day when you wake up in the morning and get to talk about art with people.”
Contact Bob