Opening reception: May 24, 2019, 6-9p
Closing reception: June 28, 2019, 6-9p
On Display until: July 12, 2019
WHQR Public Radio is excited to announce the MC Erny Gallery at WHQR will host the opening reception on Friday, May 24, from 6 – 8 pm for Time's Place: Photographs of Doug Dupuis, Jennifer Mace and Melissa Wilgis. The show explores the past and present in both technique and imagery. Photographic methods include digital, medium format film and cameraless photograms, while subjects include abandoned boats, moonlight shadows and antique lace. At the receptions, guests are invited to meet the artists and the WHQR staff and on-air personalities while enjoying great food and wine. There is an additional reception on Friday, June 28, 2019, and the show will remain on display until July 12, 2019. A portion of the proceeds from any sale of art benefits WHQR.
Jennifer Mace
Jennifer Mace has been creating photographs since 1988. She earned her BFA in 1994 from Colorado State University in Fort Collins and earned her MFA from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia in 2003. She has been teaching photography at Cape Fear Community College since 2008. Her artwork has been shown in regional and national venues.
Mace’s work in “Time’s Place” is the culmination of analogue photographs of her downtown neighborhood taken at night. Under the cloak of darkness, the neighborhood intrigues her and while it may appear dangerous or suspicious, for Mace it's engaging and beautiful. She likes to explore the working class neighborhood, including many properties that are vacant, in disrepair or have been damaged by Florence.
Melissa Wilgis
Melissa Wilgis is a fine art photographer specializing in photograms, shadowlike images made by placing objects between light-sensitive paper and a light source. Her work here includes both cyanoptype and cyanotype over silver gelatin photograms.
Antique garments, vintage glassware and natural objects are among the varied subjects in her work. Wilgis collects specimens of frogs, lizards, dragonflies and butterflies while fiddle-head ferns and wildflowers plucked from the side of the road are pressed under books in her studio. The ocean offers sea whips, crab shells, seahorses and seaweed, dried in the sun. Wilgis’ compositions are usually simple but thoughtful, and can be viewed as ethereal, playful, dark, joyful, morose, hopeful or nostalgic. The simplicity of her work encourages the viewer to use their own history, experiences and imagination to complete the story within Wilgis’ photograms.
Doug Dupuis
Doug Dupuis has been a resident of Wilmington, NC for the past twenty five years. As a traveling sales rep for the eastern parts of North Carolina and southeast Virginia, he enjoyed finding treasures of urban and rural decay - objects that were rapidly losing their battle to time and Mother Nature. He began photographing these old abandoned buildings, factories, cars and other relics to preserve a little bit of history. His favorite subjects include old churches, empty downtown storefronts, schools, and especially, old muscle cars.
Two years ago Dupuis began concentrating on his photography full time with the help of his wife Melissa Dupuis. He has shown in galleries and participated in festivals and contests locally, statewide, and in Virginia, South Carolina and Tennessee.
