Fall 2008 Exhibitions
September 10th to October 19th, 2008

First Floor Galleries:
Bioforms: A Multimedia Installation by Lisa Murch

Second Floor Galleries:
Southwest Alaska: A World of National Parks and Wildlife Refuges
The Photographs of Robert Glenn Ketchum

An Aperture Traveling Exhibition
Support provided by The Honickman Foundation, Philadelphia, PA

Bioforms: A Multimedia Installation by Lisa Murch

Lisa Murch is influenced by her undergraduate studies in entomology, biology and zoology. She creates sophisticated and intricate sculptures and site installations using craft based processes with common materials such as paper, wire, thread, yarn and found objects. Her delicate works transform these mundane materials into extraordinary constructions, often influenced by the history of the setting. She explores the complex relationships between organisms and their environments and is inspired by natural forms and processes, making references to plants, seeds, wings, birds and insects. At the Philadelphia Art Alliance, Murch will create a site-specific installation that incorporates some of the original vegetation such as the wisteria vines planted in the PAA garden when the building functioned as a residence for the Wetherill Family. Throughout the installation, the living vine will incorporate insects that resemble the properties of its leaves and flowers.

Murch received an M.F.A. from Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia and a B.A. from Denison University, Granville, OH. Murch also studied at the Marschutz School of Painting and Drawing in Aix-en-Provence, France. Recent solo exhibitions include: Solo Series 2007, Abington Art Center, Jenkintown, PA (2007); Natural Artifice, Schuylkill Center, Philadelphia (2005). Group exhibitions include: Celebrating Winter through Nature, Wave Hill, Bronx, NY (2007); Philagraphfika Invitational Exhibition, William Penn Foundation, Philadelphia, PA (2006);  Survive, Thrive, Alive, Wave Hill, Bronx, NY (2006); Kites: Art Takes Flight (Commission),Main Line Art Center, Haverford, PA (2006); Inside/Outside: Passages (Outdoor Installation and Indoor Exhibition), Abington Art Center, Jenkintown, PA (2005); Night of 1000 Drawings, Artists Space, New York, NY (2004); Dear Fleisher, Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia, PA (2004); On Color: The Green Show, The Esther Klein Gallery, Philadelphia, PA (2004); NANO Show, Nexus Foundation for Today’s Art, Philadelphia, PA (2004); and Unearthed,  The Schuylkill Center, Philadelphia, PA (2003). Murch has received several fellowships and grants including The Independence Foundation Fellowship (2006), The Leeway Foundation Window of Opportunity Grant (2004); and the Prince of Whales Foundation Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia (2002).

Southwest Alaska: A World of National Parks and Wildlife Refuges
The Photographs of Robert Glenn Ketchum

An Aperture Traveling Exhibition
Support provided by The Honickman Foundation, Philadelphia, PA

Covering an area larger than the state of Washington, southwest Alaska is a vast watershed that drains from the summits and uplands of the Alaska and Aleutian mountain ranges, west to Bristol Bay and the Bering Sea. A tundra and forest landscape, it is crossed by hundreds of rivers and scattered with thousands of lakes, including Iliamna, one of the ten largest freshwater lakes on the planet. Home to three national wildlife refuges, two national parks (Katmai and Lake Clark), and Wood-Tikchik, the largest state park in the United States, the habitat supports a great array of wildlife including caribou, moose, eagle, and brown bear. It is also the most productive salmon fishery in the history of the world.

Southwest Alaska is a unique opportunity for an East Coast audience to experience the unique beauty of the region while reflecting on what is at stake in Alaska and the future of these territories, specifically with regard to land use and habitat protection. This exhibition will be a compelling look at a current flashpoint in the environment debate and will be a must-see event in the fall. 

The photographs in this exhibit have been selected from Robert Glenn Ketchum’s comprehensive 2-book Aperture release, Rivers of Life: Southwest Alaska, The Last Great Salmon Fishery and Wood-Tikchik: Alaska’s Largest State Park the most complete photographic archive ever created of this area.

Ketchum’s fine photographic prints are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, the National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY, the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, and many others. Large collections of his prints have been established for scholarly research at the Amon Carter Museum of Art, Fort Worth, TX, and The Huntington Library, Collections, and Botanical Gardens, in Pasadena, CA.

Archived Exhibits

ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM INTERVIEW AT THE ART ALLIANCE

To celebrate the opening of his exhbition, Southwest Alaska: A World of Parks and Wildlife Refuges at the Crossroads, at the Art Alliance. photographer Robert Glenn Ketchum spoke with Professors Harris Fogel and David Graham in September 2008.

In a wide-ranging interview with a man that Audubon magazine named as one of their 100 champions of conservation, "who shaped the environmental movement of the twentieth century," Professors Fogel and Harris ask Mr. Ketchum the tough questions. For example, does the sheer beauty of his Alaska photographs distract from his advocacy message that the photographed landscape is endangered?

Listen to Ketchum's response and more, here.