FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
MAGGIE: PHOTOGRAPHS BY EMMET GOWIN AND ELIJAH GOWIN OPENS AT THE PAGE BOND GALLERY JANUARY 9, 2009
The Page Bond Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of photographs by father and son collaborators, Emmet Gowin and Elijah Gowin.
“Margaret Ennis Booher Cooper, affectionately known as Aunt Maggie, is 98 years of age. She lives alone in the same house she and her husband, Willie Commodore Cooper, moved into when they were married in 1930… I don’t know if Elijah consciously knew he was continuing the portraits of Aunt Maggie started by his Dad around 1961. Maggie is an interesting and unpredictable person, so it is not a surprise that both Emmet and Elijah saw something universal and magical in her. As Elijah constructed vignettes in our back yard in Danville and placed Aunt Maggie in them, I knew that she had arrested his attention, too. Emmet continues to photograph Aunt Maggie, from time to time—it is a love story by now.
She is now nearly 100 years old. Her heart is generous and her mind still alert. Her life is a living guidepost, showing us how to live with grace and humility. Aunt Maggie is the only one left who remembers using these curious family instructions to find loved ones living in the country. Though they seem old fashioned and unnecessary now, they help me retain my sense of place: follow the telephone wire east out of town, keep to the left at the fork, and take the first road after the barn with the bonnet.”
Edith Gowin.
These works by Emmet Gowin and Elijah Gowin will be on view at the Page Bond Gallery, 1625 West Main Street, with an opening reception honoring the artists, Friday, January 9, 2009 from 7 to 9 PM. The exhibition will be on view at the gallery from Thursday January 8 through February 11.
Emmet Gowin received his MFA in 1967 from the Rhode Island School of Design, where he studied with Harry Callahan. Throughout his career Gowin has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship (1974), two National
Endowment for the Arts Fellowships (1977, 1979), the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts from the State of Pennsylvania (1983), the Friends of Photography Peer Award (1992), and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts (1993). For nearly four decades, Emmet Gowin’s work has been included in exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad. His solo shows include those at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1971) and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1983). Gowin’s first midcareer retrospective was organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and later traveled to seven venues (1990-93); his first European retrospective appeared at the Espace Photographie Marie de Paris (1992). The Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., presented a traveling exhibition that included eight total venues across the country (2002-04).
Elijah Gowin received a BA in Art History from Davidson College in 1990 and a MFA from the University of New Mexico in 1996. He has taught photography and digital imaging since 1995 and is presently an Associate Professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City where he directs photographic studies. Gowin is a recipient of the 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship. His work is included in national collections including, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Center for Creative Photography, Michener Museum, Houston Museum of Fine Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Art, and Capital One.
