Saturday: Summer Photo Show 2012 @ Lunch Box Gallery

Miranda Maynard's "Glitter" was selected for Lunch Box Gallery's Summer Photo Show 2012.

Lunch Box Gallery, always one of my favorite Second Saturday Art Walk stops, will open its Summer Photo Show 2012 during Second Saturday Art Walk. The exhibition will feature photography by 14 artists who were selected from a call to national and international artists who work in photography or mixed-media art that utilizes photography as a form of expression.

Lunch Box gallerists Elaine Minionis and Rudolfo Vanmarcke were seeking "insightful conceptual ideals materialized through exceptional craftsmanship, which are intended to represent fascinating takes and points of view in photography nowadays." They were as interested in the thoughts behind the images as the appearance of the images.

From John William Keedy's series, "It's Hardly Noticeable"

The resulting show will include conceptual and documentary photography,  narrative photography, photo-essay, iPhoneography and photo-collage and touch on a number of topics ranging from obsessive-compulsive tendencies to the mistreatedment of young Muay Thai boxers from a Bangkok slum.

John William Keedy will exhibit three works from It's Hardly Noticeable. In this series, the New York artist indulges his own anxieties by exploring the world of a character who struggles to achieve balance while caught between his desire to act on his compulsions and blend in with those around him. New Jersey artist Aimee Hertog also explores identity issue. Her works in the show focus on the difficulty women have constructing and retaining identities in a culture that favors traditional gender roles by manipulating wedding gowns and superimposing them onto claustrophobic two-dimensional photographic landscapes.

Ted Oonk, whose from work stems from her fascination and discontent with how society deal with deviations from the norm and how imagery contributes stigmatization, will exhibit two works from "The too-aesthetic database" a photographic series on her sister Pim who has Down Syndrome. Another artist, Sarah Tortora, sets out to frustrate viewers' ability to establish a narrative by photographing unrelated objects and then adding anonymous subjects.

"Build a Better Man" by Tracy J. Thomas

Tracy J. Thomas's works in the show were shot and edited on iPhone4. The California-based photographer juxtaposes pre-1940s photographs with her own background elements to create new works, many of which are imaginative and fun. If you're bored and looking for a hefty challenge, go to her online i-Phone art gallery and try to pick out just one favorite work. I like "When Puppies Fly" ... no, "Umbrella Girl" or "When Houses Go to Heaven" ... no it's definitely "Out for a Spin."

Other artists in the show include Noah David Bau (Boston/Bangkok), Amy Leibrand (Ohio), Miranda Maynard (North Carolina), Lissette Schaeffler (Miami), Dafna Steinberg (Washington DC), Luisa Mesa (Miami), Troy Colby (Kansas), Ramesh Pithiya (Washington DC) and Naimar Ramirez (Puerto Rico).

The show will open 5-10 p.m. Aug. 11 and run through Oct. 6. Regular hours are 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday at The Lunch Box Gallery 310 N.W. 24th St., Miami. Call 305-407-8131.