C.J. Pressma
Retrospective Exhibitiion 1962 - 2006

Retrospective One:
Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft
June 5 - August 1, 2009

Retrospective Two:
PYRO Gallery
May 22 - July 4, 2009

The artist reception for both exhibits will take place on First Friday June 5.

Opening Reception Friday, June 5, 5-9 pm
First Friday Trolley Hop June 5, 5-9pm
First Friday Trolley Hop July 3, 5-9pm

In conjunction with the 2009 Visual Arts Festival that is celebrating the Center for Photographic Studies, C.J. Pressma, the founder of the Center, is having a two-part Retrospective Exhibition.  C.J. Pressma Retrospective One 1962 – 2006 will be exhibited at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft from June 5 through August 1.  C.J. Pressma Retrospective Two – Recent Work will be exhibited at PYRO Gallery from May 22 through July 4.  The artist reception for both exhibits will take place on First Friday June 5.

Retrospective Two – Recent Work is an exhibition of photographic images primarily created in 2008.  These images are composed of very small sections of rust, peeling paint, scratches, and graffiti on various surfaces including metal, wood, asphalt, concrete.  Prints are then made at many times life size to help loose a scale reference for the viewer.  In essence these images are primarily about the formal elements of visual art – line, form, color, texture, etc.

These photographs demonstrate Pressma’s interest in Abstract Expressionism and more particularly his admiration for the great 20th Century master photographer Aaron Siskind.

 In all of Pressma’s earlier work there is an attempt to free the viewer from the artist’s interpretation. It is thus so with these abstractions.  Pressma writes:  “I am always more interested in hearing what a viewer brings to my work.  That is why in these abstract pieces I try to loose references to scale and in some cases to seeing the work as vertical or horizontal.”