Exposure.” Photo by Jane Rushefsky
Jane Rushefsky wanted to think locally and artistically in organizing “Double Exposure,” an art show and fundraiser for Ohr Kodesh Congregation.
“The concept is really trying to nurture local artists who are well-known in their specific fields, but sometimes their art work gets lost in the larger exhibits,” she said.
The two featured artists, one a painter, the other a photographer, are showing selected works in the Chevy Chase synagogue’s Annette M. and Theodore N. Lerner Lobby through March 2.
Henry Friedman is an optometrist by day and a photographer in his spare time. The Silver Spring resident, who attends Temple Shalom, focuses on architectural landscapes and develops his own gelatin silver prints in his basement laundry room turned dark room.
While his scenes often capture built moments — streetscapes, dilapidated houses, a New Mexican mud sanctuary as well as natural settings — they also speak of texture, contrast, form and function in their silvery black, white and gray presence.
Painter Michael Shibley, a retired architect, has painted much of his life, but in the past seven years he has been able to expand his scope and focus. His watercolors, too, capture a city’s landscape or streetscape, its pedestrians, built spaces, tree-lined avenues and flower-filled balconies. Shibley, a Takoma Park resident, is not Jewish but his wife and son are and he frequently visits Jerusalem, where his son is serving in the Israel Defense Forces. Thus, a broad horizontal oil painting of the entry to the Old City at the Jaffa Gate, the sandy yellowish Jerusalem stone is enlivened by the multicolored wares in shop windows and the brightly clad pedestrians.
Though Friedman and Shibley did not know each other prior to Rushefsky’s pairing them off for “Double Exposure,” the two found a way to play off each another artistically. Photographer Friedman sent Shibley two of his prints, which Shibley then painted, in a sense colorizing what was rendered in black and white. The two paired photo and paintings are “Tree Lined Drive — Point Reyes,” depicting a lovely canopy of trees in late summer in California and “Dixie Liquors,” a local landmark at the edge of Georgetown, that shows a narrow two-story house; in color, Shibley’s version shows the turquoise shutters and awning, while Friedman’s captures a more monochromatic, desolate look.
By the way, those paired works are the only ones marked not for sale. Shibley and Friedman are trading: Friedman gets Shibley’s oil painting and Shibley gets Friedman’s gelatin print of Point Reyes. They’re both very pleased.
“Double Exposure,” through March 2, Ohr Kodesh Congregation, 8300 Meadowbrook Lane, Chevy Chase. For information: (301) 589-3880.
