Rousseau on Goodwin and Shapiro at Iona Center

By Dr. Claudia Rousseau

Something like a retrospective of the photographs of Lee Goodwin is now on view at the Iona Center in NW Washington. Goodwin, who was named “Artist in Residence” there for this year, is widely known for his photos of the area, especially the Potomac and the C&O Canal area.

The photos in this exhibit include both the gelatin silver prints that he was creating until a couple of years ago, and his new archival digital prints, many in color.

The subject matter remains the same: familiar places made to look very unfamiliar, exotic, desirable. One delicately colored photo of a figure reading a newspaper on an early foggy morning on the Mall looks like an impressionist painting. Another, taken after the first snowfall this past winter, is a study in perfection. Taken just at dawn, the rising sun is framed in the center of trees covered in white. All the photos are both sensitively and expertly composed, using features in the landscape to create unusual effects.

Goodwin’s photos are accompanied by sculptural work by 98-year-old special guest artist Marilee Shapiro. Shapiro has been working in bronze for decades, and many of her more recent works are figurative, naturalistic, expressive, and rather small.

They are all displayed in vitrines. Yet, to her great credit, recently, when working in bronze became too much of a burden, this Washington DC artist reached out, took a Photoshop class, and hired a private tutor to teach herself everything about the program and its potential to transform imagery.

Creating large sheets of paper printed with exotic patterns created in Photoshop, Shapiro wraps these around shipping tubes. The results are reminiscent of those “rain maker” cylinders that sound as they are turned. These don’t make that lovely sound, but are fine, inventive works just as they are.

Iona Center
4125 Albemarle St. NW
Washington DC 20016

Patricia Dubroof, Gallery Director. Call for information: 202-895-9407