ATHENS — The Dairy Barn Arts Center has honored some of the nation’s best contemporary photography, presenting $8,000 in cash and prizes at the October 2 opening reception of its biennial juried exhibition, WideOpen: Light + Time.
Jurors selected eight works from 79 photographs chosen out of 212 entries submitted by artists from across the United States for special recognition. Brad Vest took top honors, earning both the Terry and Lyntha Scott Eiler Award for Best of Show — including a $1,000 prize — for his piece Derrick and Ivy, plus the Ohio University Alumni Award for AJ & Son, which carries a solo exhibition in the VISCOM FOCUS gallery and a lecture opportunity at Ohio University. Dan Westergren received the WideOpen Best in Show award for Polar North, Polar South.
Andrew O’Malley took the Emerging Vision Award for Crossing Over, Steve Goff earned the Masterful Perspective Award for Indian Head Trail #3, and Sam Berger won the Technical Excellence Award for Eclipse Phases. Juror’s Awards went to Mark Clavin for San Mateo Creek and Marcia Shubert for Blindsided.
This year’s theme, Light + Time, asked artists to explore the fundamental elements of the photographic medium — light as material and time as duration, interval, memory, or transformation. The exhibition is presented in partnership with Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication, with support from Sony Electronics, the Ohio Arts Council, and other sponsors.
WideOpen: Light + Time runs through November 29 in the Sauber Gallery at the Dairy Barn, 8000 Dairy Lane in Athens. Admission is free and open to the public.