The Exhibit
Walk of the Donan, a surreal work of photographic art by Sam Dobrow, has been curated for exhibition at CONTRIVE. Contrive is a nationally juried exhibition of photo manipulation and surreal photographic art. The exhibition is open to all photography that involves transforming or altering a photograph using either digital or physical methods, such as long or double exposures, compositing, or digital software as well as photography that is surreal in content. CONTRIVE is hosted by d’Art Center located in the NEON District of Norfolk, VA. The exhibition is open to artists living in the United States. It shall be juried by Amanda Bradley, d’Art Center’s Communications, Marketing, and Gallery Manager.
| Where: | d’Art Center, 740 Duke St, Norfolk, VA 23510 |
| When: | Saturday, September 14th 2019 – Tuesday, October 8th |
| Reception: | Thursday, September 19th 2019, 5:30-7:30pm |
| Admission is free. |
The Artwork
Walk of the Donan is one of several works of art from Sam Dobrow’s Zeutropia series. In this work of art, a mystical castle appears haunted by sprites as a suspicious figure approaches. Shrouded in fog with muted earth tones, the mood marries whimsy and mystery.
The Body of Work
The Zeutropia series is an evolving body of work imagined from Sam Dobrow’s photographs of historic places in Scotland, Portugal, and France. Colors and textures evoke moods reminiscent of the historical story from each location. Zeutropia is one of several series from Sam Dobrow’s larger body of work known as the Surreality Collection. The Surreality Collection embodies Sam Dobrow’s passion for science fiction and the vast unknowns of the universe. His surreal works explode from his imagination to create images of possible worlds and parallel universes where life may exist in contrast with our earthly existence.
The Inspiration
Sam Dobrow has always admired the paintings of Salvador Dali and Vincent van Gogh. Van Gogh’s ability to render moods with his use of color and texture inspired Sam to push the limits of traditional photography into a painterly realm. Dali’s surreal “melted” landscapes motivated Sam to create photo manipulations for the Surreality Collection. All the works in the Surreality Collection begin with a photograph that is melted into a hallucinogenic vision, digitally augmented, and “colored” to create a magical mood.
Experience CONTRIVE at d’Art Center
The d’Art Center is Norfolk’s thirty-year-old art center which includes working professional artist studios and provides a wide variety of exhibitions and programs open to the public.
Welcome to my world of fine art photography. Please take your time and browse through my many galleries. I have a diverse collection of beautiful photographic art. All my artwork begins in the camera before making its journey through my imagination where I process the image into something beautiful and sometimes quite surreal.