"Untittled #1" from the Borrowed Light Series, by Gwen Laine

Ironton Studios and Gallery presents an exhibition by Marina Graves, Gwen Laine, and Ron Pollard for which the artists employ light as both an element of expression as well as a medium. Through similar and dissimilar approaches, each artist commingles the permanent with the transient to arrive at divergent meanings.

Marina Graves studied art at the Art Students’ League and Pratt Graphics Center in NYC in the 60’s where she also had several exhibits and a studio on into the late 70’s. Recently returning to studio-based works, she continues to draw on her interests in color, abstraction, constructivism, and, somewhat paradoxically, the natural world.

Gwen Laine has been making photographs since she was 15. While the product of her efforts is photo-based, she approaches her art as a sculptor, often first constructing that which she later records with the camera.

Ron Pollard’s photographs in this exhibit are from a book being developed by Elaine Freed on Bauhaus architect Jan Ruhtenberg. The photographs depict a house east of Fountain, Colorado that was recently abandoned and exists in a state of stasis. The images reveal an isolated and surreal collision of Colorado prairie cowboy culture and strict German Bauhaus discipline.