The Colorado Photographic Arts Center (CPAC) and Photolucida are thrilled to announce the exhibit Alone Together: Critical Mass 2023 Top 50 at CPAC’s new space in Denver, February 23 – April 13, 2024.
“For years, I’ve wanted to bring Critical Mass to Denver,” said Samantha Johnston, CPAC Executive Director & Curator, who also served as one of the 2023 Critical Mass jurors. “With our new, larger space, it’s finally possible for us to bring this important international exhibition to Colorado. We are humbled to be the only gallery in the U.S. to have this honor.”
The show is special for two reasons, Johnston says.
“First, the photography is world-class. Every artist in the Critical Mass Top 50 deserves a solo exhibition,” she said. “Second, Colorado is home to a thriving community of photographers, many of whom aspire to be successful at the international level. The Critical Mass exhibition is an opportunity to see – up close and in person – a selection of photographs that 200 influential art-world professionals think is worth exhibiting, publishing, and collecting.”
What kind of photographs can visitors expect to see in Alone Together? While subjects and styles vary, the common thread is “alone-ness” – not to be confused with loneliness, says Curator Daniel Boetker-Smith, Director of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Photography. His selection includes one image from each of the Top 50 artists’ portfolios.
“For most photographers, the act of making an image, the moment itself, is one of ‘happy solitude’ (to borrow from Raymond Depardon). Photography gives us the opportunity to embrace alone-ness, in that moment a split second of silence, a decision, an intake of breath and the release of the shutter. Simultaneously photographs always exist in a state of flux, they do not exist in isolation, they oscillate through space and time being read, re-read and interpreted. The photographer, the subject, and the photograph itself are all alone together or somewhere in-between.
Each photograph in this exhibition provides space for you to ponder, to observe and to be alone in your thoughts. In doing so I ask you to occupy a spot in front of each image, pause, and consider the space each image provides, what does it mean to you? Where does your mind go when you consider the alone-ness presented here?”
Learn more: cpacphoto.org/alone-together
EXHIBITING ARTISTS
Streetmax 21, Tracy Barbutes, Lynne Breitfeller, Jo Ann Chaus, Diana Cheren Nygren, Lynne Breitfeller, Cathy Cone, Leah DeVun, Jesse Egner, David Ellingsen, Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo, Argus Paul Estabrook, Marina Font, Adair Freeman Rutledge, Jesse Freidin, Eva Gjaltema, Zoe Haynes-Smith, Sarah Hoskins, Shao-Feng Hsu, Allison Hunter, Lauren Semivan & John Simon, Michael Joseph, Roshni Khatri, Kazuaki Koseki, Jaume Llorens, Simone Lueck, Krysia Lukkason, Aimee McCrory, Diane Meyer, Frankie Mills, Kevin Bennett Moore, Lisa Murray, Bob Newman, Lou Peralta, Walter Plotnick, Ann Prochilo, André Ramos-Woodard, Nathan Rochefort, Ruddy Roye, Mateo Ruiz Gonzalez, Claudia Ruiz Gustafson, Daniel Sackheim, Leah Schretenthaler, Lindsay Siu, Stephen Starkman (tribute), Jamey Stillings, Nolan Streitberger, Krista Svalbonas, Rashod Taylor, Grace Weston, and Michael Young.
