Exhibition: A Corroboration in Photography and Paint: Voices from India
Photographer: Manuel Rivera-Ortiz of Rochester, NY
Painter: Bonnie Van Moorlehem of Minneota, MN
Curator: Edward Evans of Stroudsburg, PA (formerly of Marshall, MN) -------Location: Southwest Minnesota State Art Museum located in Bellows ----------------------Academic Hall.
Marshall, MN — Puerto Rican-born international photographer Manuel Rivera-Ortiz opens his latest exhibition—36 color images of India and its people from 2003-05 at the Southwest Minnesota State Art Museum located on in Bellows Academic Hall, 2nd floor and Founders Hall, 2nd Floor on the grounds of Southwest Minnesota State University. Rivera-Ortiz is a documentarian dedicated to picturing stories of hardship and hope in the third world. His photos marry journalism and the very personal experience of his childhood growing up poor in outposts throughout Guayama, Puerto Rico. His award-winning Cuba work is included in the two-year traveling exhibition/publication Viajeros: North American Photographers’ Images of Cuba running through April 14 at The Centre Gallery, Miami Dade College, Wofson Campus, Miami, FL. Images from Rivera-Ortiz’s first ever-documentary work in Kenya 2001 were recently added to the permanent collection of the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, NY. “Manuel Rivera-Ortiz: India” is made possible in part through the generous support of Grace Tillinghast, Community Affairs, Eastman Kodak Company. Selections from “Manuel Rivera-Ortiz: India” opens at various national and international venues including at Columbia University at the Joseph Pulitzer Graduate School of Journalism in New York City.
Bonnie Van Moorlehem graduated with a degree in psychology and studio art from Southwest Minnesota State University. Van Moorlehem is also a registered Horticulture Therapist.
Van Moorlehem digitally manipulated fifteen of Rivera-Ortiz's photographs to
create compositions for her paintings. The artist has also chosen a quotation from individuals such as Mother Teresa for each painting.
Van Moorlehem paints in an abstract mosaic style using lines and
colors to convey the emotions she is feeling while viewing Rivera-Ortiz’s photographs. Dark colors may suggest loneliness, poverty, or feelings of being overwhelmed. Whereas when she paints individuals, she may use a bright color to represent the life or flame representing the person (s).
The artist will borrow key words from the quotation to include symbolism in her paintings. For example the paintings “Net of Souls” has the lines of a net on the painting encompassing bright colors in between the net to represent souls. The artist uses many of the same colors in-between the net to represent that in many ways we are alike. Van Moorlehem stated that we have the same physical needs, similar dreams, and desires. The artist added different colors to the sections to represent that even though we are alike we are all unique individuals too. The quotation used for the Net of Souls is “Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.” ---Mother Teresa
Van Moorlehem states “Using photographs and quotations to tell other people's story challenges me as an artist to convey their message in an abstract painting.
The photographs are the voices from India asking us not to forget them. The paintings are for those who view Manuel-Ortiz’s photographs to challenge each person to reflect on their own lives and asking them how they respond and help others.
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