Polk Museum of Art Hosts New Exhibit Highlighting the Surreal Photography of Jerry Uelsmann

2 Nov. 2009

Starting November 14, Polk Museum of Art will host The Surreal Photography of Jerry Uelsmann, on display in the Dorothy Jenkins Gallery until January 17, 2010. Uelsmann is widely known for his beautiful, haunting, and surreal photo montages. This exhibition will encompass his fifty year career.

CONTACT: Meredith Spresser, Public Relations & Marketing Manager, 863-688-7743 ext. 235, MSpresser@PolkMuseumofArt.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 10/27/2009

Polk Museum of Art Hosts New Exhibit Highlighting the Surreal Photography of Jerry Uelsmann

Artist to Speak at Reception for the Exhibition on November 13

LAKELAND, FL. - Starting November 14, Polk Museum of Art will host The Surreal Photography of Jerry Uelsmann, on display in the Dorothy Jenkins Gallery until January 17, 2010. Uelsmann is widely known for his beautiful, haunting, and surreal photo montages. This exhibition will encompass his fifty year career.

"Jerry Uelsmann's work is extremely innovative," said Daniel E. Stetson, Executive Director of Polk Museum of Art. "He is truly one of the masters of darkroom photo manipulation and implied narrative photography. We are excited to give him this fifty-year survey exhibition that he deserves. It is rare that one has an opportunity to engage with a true genius of an art form, and in my estimation Uelsmann is genuinely one.�

Uelsmann does not use any type of photo manipulation tool such as Photoshop, but instead creates his masterpieces in a darkroom by assembling several negatives and using up to 7 enlargers. His photography connects with its viewers emotionally and psychologically. The photographs go beyond what the mind can comprehend and into the flowing imagination where anything is possible.

Jerry Uelsmann received a B.F.A degree from Rochester Institute of Technology and a M.S and M.F.A from Indiana University. In 1960, he began teaching photography at the University of Florida but is now retired from teaching. In the past 50 years, he has become well known throughout the world with 100 individual shows in the United States and abroad. He also received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

The Surreal Photography of Jerry Uelsmann is sponsored by Food Partners - Webb Tanner and Deanna Rhodes-Tanner, Kerry and Buffy Wilson, and Polk County Tourism and Sports Marketing. The exhibition will include pieces drawn from Polk County collections, the Harn Museum of Art, and Polk Museum of Art's Permanent Collection.

An opening reception for the exhibition will be held November 13, 6:00- 8:30pm, and will feature a lecture by Jerry Uelsmann at 6:00pm. Admission to the reception is free for Museum members and $10 for non-members. For more information about the exhibition or reception, please call 863-688-7743 or visit www.PolkMuseumofArt.org.