Sights of Construction Opening
November 9, 2013 at 7:00 p.m.
ACND Gallery of Art at Archbishop Curley Notre Dame Prep
4949 NE 2nd Avenue
Miami, FL 33137
www.acnd.net

The dust and debris, delays, and detours that are everyday annoyances for people en route to work on South Florida’s highways are seen quite differently by Silvia Lizama, Chair of the Department of Fine Arts and Professor of Photography at Barry University. Equipped with a white hard hat, camera in hand, and an artistic vision, Lizama has created a series of photographs that challenges our perception and turns what we associate as stressful into something serene. She invites the viewer to: “take a moment to really look around — to see what’s in front of us; to see what’s in the shadows; to see the special places.”

This show is the second photography exhibit presented by the school, as part of its 60th Anniversary Alumni Artist Series titled, Through the Lens. Lizama graduated from Notre Dame Academy (the girls’ high school before it merged to become Archbishop Curley Notre Dame) in 1975.

The photos will remain on view through January 24, 2014 with additional gallery hours offered during Art Basel Miami Beach and Miami Art Week 2013. Regular gallery hours are Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Other hours are available by appointment by calling 305.751.8367 or emailing news@acnd.net. The exhibit is free.

“The environment Silvia creates is one of contradictions: destruction and recreation; past and future; monumental stateliness and ugly ruin; life and death,” comments Tracie Heller, exhibit curator and Assistant Professor of Photography at Barry University. “The absence of people and plant life, and the monumentality of the man-made structures, add an air of abandonment, like that of an ancient ruin.”

Earlier construction site images were shot in black and white, using a medium format film camera, and then the surfaces of the printed images were hand colored with photographic oils. Images in the latter part of the series are digital and colored using digital manipulation software.

“Tropical sunrises and sunsets add a dimension of reverence and splendor to the work,” adds Heller. “Now working digitally, she has applied her hand coloring sensibilities to the images using digital manipulation software to create the surreal hues of the sky and land.”