MAY NEWSLETTER: A FOCUS ON PHOTOGRAPHY AND UPCOMING PROJECTS

CATCHING UP WITH GLENN SHEPARD

What is your connection with the Linda Matney Gallery and John Lee Matney?

I have known “Lee” since second grade and we have been friends ever since. Lee was always an avid photographer and had his own darkroom in the basement of his house. He taught me how to shoot, develop and print black and white film when I was about twelve years old. Lee’s first photos were artistic closeups of everyday objects, which his father referred to jokingly as “doorknobs.” His instinct of using the camera to look at the world in new ways was an influence on me since the very beginning.We both worked on the school newspaper and I remember he took dramatic photographs of the remarkably professional theater productions at our school’s drama department. Lee’s mother Linda was a kind and generous woman, she always had a smile on her face and a meal on her table. She had excellent taste in art and antiques, and she and my mother were dear friends. We both lost our mothers in their prime, and that has been another bond in our friendship over the years. I was happy when he opened his own gallery and named it after his mother. We went our separate ways after college, but always stayed in touch. And when Lee moved back to the Tidewater area after living many years in Athens, we renewed our friendship whenever I was home visiting my parents. We have collaborated on several creative projects over the years, including gallery exhibits of my photographs and collection of ethnographic objects from the Amazon, fund-raising events for indigenous causes and a prize-winning avant-garde film. READ MORE

Pictured: Glenn Shepard, Taking aim. Manu National Park, Peru, 1992., View on Artsy. Proceeds on all photographs benefit a community health and hygiene project, including vital Covid-19 prevention, in the same native communities where these photos were taken

Recently, work from John Lee Matney’s photography practice was featured in the book Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music and Changed American Culture by Grace Elizabeth Hale (debuting March 23, 2020).

We have released this image and others on Artsy as limited edition prints. A portion of the proceeds benefit charities in the Williamsburg community.

PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE COLLECTION OF MARGO ROSENBAUM

We have a large number of images by Margo Rosenbaum available.

Based in Athens GA, Margo Newmark Rosenbaum is a celebrated photographer and musician. Born on February 17, 1939, she earned her bachelor’s degree in painting and drawing from the San Francisco Art Institute in California and her master’s degree in the same field from the University of Iowa. In 1966 she married Art Rosenbaum, also an artist and musician. She moved with her husband in 1976 to Athens, where he began teaching in the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia.

Over the years, Rosenbaum has collaborated with her husband on numerous projects, most notably photographing folk musicians as he recorded their performances. Later she began working in large-scale digital photography, displaying images taken in Ecuador and Japan at the 2010 exhibition New Work by Art Rosenbaum and Margo Newmark Rosenbaum in Athens.

Rosenbaum’s photograph Doc and Lucy Barnes with Kids Singing (1977) is part of Georgia's State Art Collection.

Pictured: Margo Rosenbaum, The Reverend Howard Finster, Photograph, 11 x15

NEW ART BY ZUZKA VACLAVIK

Zuzka Vaclavik is a dual citizen of the United States and Slovakia as her parents escaped from Communist Czechoslovakia in the early 1980s. She grew up in Germany where she took art lessons from a Czech painter. Her passion and curiosity for new experiences led her to pursue her development as an artist in the Far East.  Zuzka lived in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia for two years before beginning her graduate school studies. Vaclavik has exhibited her work in New York, California, Cambodia, Germany, Austria, and across the United States. Critical reviews/publications of her work can be found in The Atlanta Journal Constitution, New American Paintings, and in Germany through Sudwest Presse. 

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES ARE AVAILABLE HERE OR CONTACT US  ABOUT SPECIFIC PROJECTS

Support the gallery and our artists with a sponsorship toward a future purchase while we wait for the Coronavirus situation to dissipate. Contact us about specific work or sponsor the gallery here.  Art is still available to be picked up or shipped.

TENTH ANNIVERSARY YEAR

LINDA MATNEY MEMORIAL COLLECTIONS

SHOP OR VIEW ON ARTSY

RECEPTIONS AT THE GALLERY HAVE BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
APPOINTMENTS AND PRIVATE PRESENTATIONS ARE AVAILABLE. SHOP WORK ON ARTSY, CALL/TEXT (757) 675-6627 OR EMAIL US AT CURATOR@LINDAMATNEYGALLERY.COM

FEATURED ART IS NOW AVAILABLE

See LindaMatneyGallery.com for a complete list of participating artists. Writers Emily W. Pease, Heather Rounds, and Tom Heacox are also featured. View or shop the exhibit on Artsy here.

UPCOMING EXHIBITS

WE ARE RELEASING A LIMITED NUMBER OF PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS TO COLLECTORS IN ADVANCE OF THE UPCOMING EXHIBIT FOR ART AND MARGO ROSENBAUM. CALL FOR MORE INFORMATION.

A NEW EXHIBITION DATE WILL BE ANNOUNCED.

WE ARE RELEASING A NEW PAINTING IN ADVANCE OF OUR UPCOMING EXHIBIT, MILES CLEVELAND GOODWIN’S FROM THE SPIRIT.

A NEW EXHIBITION DATE WILL BE ANNOUNCED.

Linda Matney Gallery is dedicated to hosting exhibitions of innovative emerging artists, as well as displaying the work of more established national and international artists, including works of painting, installation, video, photography, sculpture and performance. Named after Linda Matney, who lost her battle with cancer in 2001, John Lee Matney and the Matney family have established a research-based contemporary gallery that develops thematic group shows and collaborative art projects with international and American artists in Virginia and elsewhere.

In its ten years in the community - Linda Matney Gallery has focused on the work and ideas of some of the most significant and provocative artists of our time including Alison Stinely's Gilded Splinters in 2018 that faced censorship before finding a home at the Matney Gallery in the #metoo movement as well as A Celebration of Female Artists in 2017 that showcased local female artists and the motivations and challenges they faced in their work. With a global curiosity, the Gallery has brought exhibits and artists from all corners of the world including Transposition: Asian Cultures and Transposition at the Highpoint - a collection of works curated in conjunction with Landmark Arts & Cultural Exchange, showcasing contemporary artists to travel between countries and facilitates for meaningful cultural exchange.

Thank you for considering the Linda Matney Gallery

John Lee Matney, Curator

Linda Matney Fine Art Gallery
5435 Richmond Road, Suite A
Williamsburg, Virginia 23188