Donna Ferrato, 1st Safe Night Philadelphia Shelter Women Against Abuse, 1986, archival pigment print. Gregory Allicar Museum of Art, CSU gift of Adam Raben, 2021.7.14.
The Gregory Allicar Museum of Art (GAMA) celebrates recent donations of modern and contemporary photography to the museum’s permanent collection in Widening the Lens: New Gifts of Photography. Opening October 16, the upcoming exhibition showcases eleven artists whose works exemplify the breadth and depth of gifts lately presented by various donors, all of whom were directed to the museum by Summit Art Advisory, LLC.
Walter Iooss, Michael Jordan, Highland Park, IL, 1992, archival pigment print. Gregory Allicar Museum of Art, CSU, gift of Dipti and Nishant Pandya, 2021.5.24.
Widening the Lens is free to the public and will be on display in GAMA’s Works on Paper Collection gallery until December 19, 2021. The exhibition spotlights a representative selection of 166 total photographs given to Gregory Allicar by a number of collectors in late 2020. Each gift was facilitated by Summit Art Advisory—part of Summit Fine Art Services—based in Kearny, New Jersey. The art group specializes in collections management, including art handling and database creation, and connects collectors with dealers, galleries, and museums around the country. “The recent gifts given by this extraordinarily generous group of donors are truly transformative for the museum’s holdings,” says GAMA Director and Chief Curator, Lynn Boland.
“This exhibition will be the first of many to draw on this collection of world-class photographs.” Widening the Lens features a broad range of styles and subjects by artists from three countries, with work spanning the 1950s through the twenty-first century. Walter Iooss’ award-winning sports photography shows the emotion and athleticism of Billie Jean King in 1979 and Michael Jordan in 1992, while Joyce Tenneson’s ethereal landscapes from 2016 focus the lens on trees and animals.
Other acclaimed photographers include Donna Ferrato and Peter Turnley, both of whom have documented the human condition in groundbreaking photojournalism over the decades. Ferrato’s 1980s-90s series “Living with the Enemy” stares down the consequences of domestic violence as seen in 1st Safe Night Philadelphia Shelter Women Against Abuse (1986). Similarly, Turnley documents Nelson Mandela just after his release from prison in 1990 and covers immigration on the Texas-Mexico border in 2006.
Joyce Tenneson, Framed Birch Trees, 2016, archival pigment print. Gregory Allicar Museum of Art, CSU, gift of Martha Judy, 2021.4.16.
Displayed alongside Ferrato, Iooss, Tenneson, and Turnley are Kristin Capp, Larry Fink, Sally Gall, Ralph Gibson, Alen MacWeeney, Raphael Mazzucco, and David Seltzer. The thematic scope of works in Widening the Lens: New Gifts of Photography is a dynamic look at these recent gifts, and the exhibition ultimately honors the support and generosity of GAMA’s community. Major support for Widening the Lens is generously provided by the FUNd Endowment at Colorado State University, Colorado Creative Industries, the City of Fort Collins Fort Fund, and the Lilla B. Morgan Memorial Endowment, a premier supporter of arts and culture at CSU.