Rough Beauty by Dave Anderson Open Nov. 10 in Staniar Gallery
Rough Beauty, an exhibition of photographs by Dave Anderson, will be on view in Staniar Gallery on the campus of Washington and Lee University November 10 through December 12, 2008. The exhibit chronicles Anderson’s photographic documentation of the town of Vidor, Texas.
Between fall 2003 and early 2006, Anderson made 50 trips to Vidor, a hard-scrabble community in southeast Texas reviled for its history of Klan activities. Rough Beauty reveals the lingering effects of this history in a town struggling to create a new identity from a difficult past. Anderson’s photographs also bring to light the resiliency and hidden beauty within this community.
Anderson and Rough Beauty have received international acclaim and have been profiled on NPR and on Canadian television. Rough Beauty was the winner of the Santa Fe center for Photography 2005 Project Competition.
Primarily self-taught, Anderson has worked for the past three years as a full-time fine art and commercial photographer. In this short time he has been recognized as “one of the shooting stars of the American photo scene” by Germany’s fotoMAGAZIN and named to the “PDN 30” list by Photo District News, the much anticipated annual list of 30 emerging photographers.
His work has been featured in numerous magazines including Esquire, Stern, ESPN, Photo District News and British Journal of Photography. Various pieces are also in the collection of museums including the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the George Eastman House, the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans.
Anderson will give an artist’s talk at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 12 in the Wilson Hall Concert Gallery. The talk will be followed by a reception in the Wilson Hall Lykes Atrium. The public is invited to attend both events.
During the exhibition, Anderson will spend a week in Washington and Lee University’s Art Department as a Visiting Artist.
Staniar Gallery is located on the second floor of Wilson Hall, in Washington and Lee University’s Lenfest Center for the Arts. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For additional information call 540.458.8861.
