Photograph by Adam Finkelston
Jan. 20, 2023–The Potter Art Gallery at Missouri Western State University will host “Passages,” an exhibition of photographs by Adam Finkelston, from Jan. 25 to Feb. 28. There will be an opening reception with the artist from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25 in the gallery inside Potter Hall. The reception is free and open to the public.
“Passages” is an ongoing series of photographs exploring the psychology of space and environment. Drawing from surrealist influences such as DeChirico, Magritte and Chagall, the still-life arrangements explore special relationships, depth perception, psychological states and tensions surrounding agency and predetermination.
Several of the images are printed in the kallitype process, an “alternative” and historic hand-printed photographic process that uses a silver nitrate and ferric oxalate sensitizer. The hand-printed aspect of the images emphasizes the act of agency and control over the image symbolizing, by extension, agency over our lives.
Finkelston is an artist, educator, and publisher based in Prairie Village, Kansas. His work has been exhibited in several solo and group exhibitions and is included in publications on alternative process photography by notable authors, Jill Enfield and Christina Z. Anderson.
Finkelston has taught art at various levels since 2004. Currently, he is a guest lecturer in printmaking at the Kansas City Art Institute as well as a teacher and visual arts department coordinator at Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village. In addition to teaching, Finkelston is the owner and publisher of, The Hand Magazine: A Magazine for Reproduction-based Arts, through which he has curated and juried numerous exhibitions.
Finkelston has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute, a Bachelor of Arts in Art Education from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, a Master of Arts in Photography from UMKC, and is currently pursuing his Master of Fine Arts in Photography and Integrated Media at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The Potter Art Gallery is open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, with no admission charge.
Missouri Western State University is a student-centered learning community preparing individuals for lives of excellence through applied learning. Missouri Western is located in St. Joseph, Mo., and is committed to the educational, economic, cultural and social development of the region it serves. Visit missouriwestern.edu.