ATHENS– The Alabama Center for the Arts will present Soloman’s House, a photography exhibit by Alabama artist Sarah Cusimano Miles. The show will open on July 10 and run until August 28 and be held in the Center’s main gallery located at 133 2nd Avenue in Decatur. A reception is planned for Thursday, Aug. 21 beginning at 5:30 and with an artist lecture at 6pm. It is open and free to the
Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) with artichoke,
public.
Miles is a native of Gadsden, Alabama where she is an exhibiting artist, photographer, and educator. Her work has been published and exhibited in venues both national and international, from the Alabama Museum of Natural History to the Borges Cultural Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as well as being in a number of private and corporate collections. Miles has also received awards from the National Society for Photographic Education, the Center for Fine Art Photography, the Worldwide Photography Gala, and PhotoNOLA. In 2012 she was named to the Top 50 in Critical Mass from Photolucida.
Lilac-breasted roller (Coracias caudate) with kumquats
Miles teaches at Jacksonville State University where she has contributed to the transition of the traditional film-based photography program to a digital-based curriculum. She has a BFA from Jacksonville State University, and a BS in Psychology and an MFA in Photography from the University of Alabama.
The photographs in the body of work, Solomon’s House, explore the collections repository of the Anniston Museum of Natural History in Anniston, Alabama. The specimens are taken from the dark storage where they reside, on shelves, in bottles, and in drawers, and bathed with light to illuminate the often disturbing and exquisite elegance of the accumulated and
Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) with specimens
warehoused organisms. By portraying these objects through the tradition of the still life, the artist explores ideas of cultural decadence and beauty in stasis.
The title, Solomon’s House, references a work by Francis Bacon published in 1627 called The New Atlantis. In it, he wrote of a fictitious utopian science facility he called “Solomon’s House” that embodied the growing scientific ideals of the 17th century.
The Alabama Center for the Arts is a collaborative project between Athens State University and Calhoun Community College. The Center opened in 2012 and combines the two institution’s art programs. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, 8:00 am to 8:30 pm, and Friday from 8:00 to noon.
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