Agnes (gallery)

Agnes was a Birmingham, Alabama photography gallery from 1993 to 2001. Shawn Boley, Jon Coffelt and Jan Hughes opened the gallery with the mission of attempting to raise awareness of social issues — such as cancer, AIDS, death and dying, the environment, homelessness, ethics, racism, classism, imprisonment — through photojournalism, film, video, poetry, and book arts. Controversial, Agnes was picketed on several occasions, one of which resulted in a "USA Today" article on December 5, 1994.

Notable exhibits

Melissa Springer's "Julia Tutwiler Prison Series" was Agnes' first exhibit. After eight years and 77 exhibitions the gallery closed in 2000. Alexandre Glyadelov's [ [http://www.msf.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/uploads/ligne_directe/LD77_fr.pdf PDF link] ] "Homeless in Bosnia" with Médecins sans Frontières was the gallery's last exhibit.

Agnes worked with [http://www.thebody.com/visualaids Visual AIDS] striving to increase public awareness of AIDS through the visual arts and [http://www.atlantaphotographygroup.org/gallery/biographies/vaknin_uri.shtml "The Electric Blanket"] . Agnes hosted its first "World's AIDS Day" in 1992 with "A Day without Art" commemorated annually on the first day of December. [ [http://www.iceflow.com/daywithoutart/worldaidsawareness89.html "A Day Without Art"] .]

"UPsouth" curated by Anne Arrasmith, traveled to several venues across Birmingham, AL, including "Space One Eleven," "Birmingham Civil Rights Institute", the "University of Alabama at Birmingham", "Visual Arts Gallery," and Agnes itself. [ [http://www.spaceoneeleven.org/press_releases.html Press release] ] It showed the work of artists Emma Amos and Willie Birch and writer Bell Hooks, as well as Ann Benton, Priscilla Hancock Cooper, Karen Graffeo, Lee Isaacs, Mary Ann Sampson, Jess Marie Walker and Marie Weaver. [Weaver lists this in her [http://main.uab.edu/show.asp?durki=11809 résumé] .] .

Artists

Agnes artists list included: Sara Garden Armstrong, Pinky Bass, Sadie Benning, Ruth Bernhard, Mare Blocker, Cal Breed, Elisa Bryan, Kevin Bubriski, Dan Budnik, Denise Carbone, Jim Cohen, Liesa Cole, Clayton Colvin, Paul Caponigro, Danah Coester, Randal Crow, Craig Cutler, Craig Daniels, Mark Dauber, Jurgen Dopatka, Al Edwards, Roberta Eichenberg, Timothy Ely, Paulo Ferrario, Mitchell Gaudet, Nina Glaser, Alexandre Glyadelov, Alice Goodwin, William K. Greiner, Kelly Grider,Jerry Griffies, Robert John Guttke, J. D. Hayward, Susan Hensel, James Herbert, Jenny Holzer, Davi Det Hompson, Christina Hope, Shig Ikeda, Sally Johnson, Adrian Jones, Steven Katzman, Susan E. King, Janice Kluge, Jim Koss, Cam Langley, Ruth Laxson, O. Winston Link, Miranda Maher, Patrick Martin, Spider Martin, Matuschka, Ian McFarland, Bart Michiels, Dana Moore, Julie Moos, R. J. Muna, Hermann Nitsch, Ray Lewis Payne, Liz Phelps, Jim Pitts, Vicki Ragan, Patricia Richardson, Tut Altman Riddick, Stewart Riddle, Iris Rinke-Hammer, Anita Ronderos, Jessica Rosner, Ed Ruscha, Lori Salcedo, John Patrick Salsbury, David Sandlin, Elise Mitchell Sanford, Claire Jeanine Satin, Stephen Savage, Virginia Scruggs, Joel Seah, Volker Seding, Vincent Serbin, Robert A. Shaefer jr., Susan Share, Carolyn Sherer, Jack Spencer, Maggie Taylor, Jason Thrasher, Arthur Tress, Thomas Tulis, Jerry Uelsmann, James Vella, Adriene Veninger, Joe Veras, Linda Voychehovski, John Wawrzonek, Nancy Webber, Randy West, and Timothy Wolcott.

External links

* [http://www.thebody.com/visualaids/web_gallery/2005/coffelt/statement.html Visual AIDS]
* [http://www.spaceoneeleven.org/press_releases.html "UPsouth" with Space One Eleven]
* [http://www.visualaids.org Day Without Art]

Notes