Jamie Tracy’s Color Fields showing in North Wing Gallery at Renaissance Center
Release Date: 10/11/2007. Expired: 12/1/2007
Color Fields, a collection of work by photographer Jamie Tracy, invites comparisons to well known color field painters through the use of macro photography to create abstract images from surfaces and objects.
The Renaissance Center in Dickson will display Color Fields in its North Wing Gallery Oct. 31-Dec. 1. An opening reception will be 6-7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2.
Tracy, an adjunct instructor of photography at Manatee Community College in Bradenton, Fla., strives to bring photography to the level of “high arts,” usually considered to consist of painting, printmaking and drawing. His body of work in Color Fields is often a rich and subtle transition of hue and tone, moving from one field of color to the next.
Many times that line is clear and hard drawn across the surface of the image while others are smooth gradients blending seamlessly behind Plexiglas mounts. He speaks of his reference, passion and respect for color field painters such as Mark Rothko and how their work had an early effect on his art-making, as it still does today.
“Photography has historically fought its way into the fine arts,” said Armon Means, curator for The Renaissance Center. “Though if you ask, most fine art photographers today would still say that battle is ongoing. Jamie Tracy takes that concept and uses it as a driving point in his work while at the same time allowing a peaceful reconciliation to the battle.”
Many of Tracy’s photographs represent places and things with extreme personal connections, although the full subject of that connection remains unrecognizable upon casual inspection.
“It is not uncommon to have one art form inspire another, but to so directly approach it in the final outcome of the second work is less seen,” Means said. “The photographs by Jamie use the direct visual language of color field painting while molding it into photography via the use of the camera, a steady hand, composition and precision color balancing in the final image.”
A large format print that appears to be a gently shifting color field of shades of yellow is, in fact, an extreme close-up photograph of a section of surface in the bathroom where Tracy’s great-grandfather passed away.
Another large format print uses macro photography and a finely lined depth of field in focusing to turn the surface of a billiard table into a green field that appears to stretch to an invisible horizon.
“Jamie gives you the two sides of the coin – conceptual and representational – within the same artwork,” said Means. “The role of photography may still be up in the air as far as the ‘high arts’ are concerned, but it is a battle that Jamie prefers to bring to harmonious balance, rather than a screeching halt.”
Tracy began his formal art instruction in medical illustration at the Cleveland Institute of the Arts, but changed his field of study to photography. He says that precision he learned in creating medical illustrations has carried over into his photography as he attempts to create photographs that at first appear to be abstract images, but through titling and closer inspection present a precise image viewed with a different perspective.
Tracy served as the juror for the 9th annual Renaissance Regional Art Exhibit at The Renaissance Center, tackling the daunting task of reviewing more than 200 entries to select 50 pieces to be displayed.
The Renaissance Center’s galleries are open 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday and admission is free.
For more information on Color Fields or other exhibits at The Renaissance Center, contact Means at (615) 7640-5545 or armon.means@rcenter.org, or visit www.rcenter.org.
The Renaissance Center is a fine arts education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.
Visit the Visual Arts Gallery page for more about the gallery.