Monica d. Church, Man Sleeping, Dutchess County Fair, Rhinebeck, NY, August 2010
Monica d. Church studied printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design and has spent the past two decades creating prints, paintings, installations, and, most recently, photographs. Relatively new to photography, Church brings a painterly sensibility to the medium, minimizing traditional photographic concerns like composition in favor of color and texture. Her photographs reference the color-field paintings of Helen Frankenthaler and Robert Motherwell in particular, finding a dominant hue that relegates the other visual information in the image to secondary status. The greenish glow of Man Sleeping, Dutchess County Fair, Rhinebeck, NY, August 2010, for instance, is itself the focus of the photograph, the visual point—not the sleeping man or the advertisement that makes up the back wall of the tent. Church manages to pick up layers in her photograph that are seemingly invisible or unavaible to other photographers.
The photographs in “Walk on By…” were taken over the last two years in Dublin, Miami, New England, and at locations across Dutchess County, including Poughkeepsie, where Church lives. “Walk on By…” is her first solo photography show. Church’s photographs are included in several publications, including Learning to Love You More, edited by Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher, and The Teacher’s Guide for The Fog of War: An Errol Morris Film. “Walk on By…” an exhibition of photographs by Monica d. Church, will be shown at the James W. Palmer III Gallery at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie through December 17. Portfolio: www.monicachurch.org.
