Augusta Sparks Farnum, a fifth generation photographer from New England, moved to Walla Walla with her husband after completing a photography degree from Bard College and spending time studying at the Lacoste School of the Arts in Lacoste, France. In Walla Walla, Farnum founded the Carnegie Picture Lab, whose mission is to nourish creativity by supporting and enhancing art education for elementary school children in the Walla Walla Valley. For more than twenty years she has been exhibiting her work in New York, Massachusetts, and Washington State. The central series of photographs at Foundry Vineyards evoke a sense of curiosity and wonder. There is a kind of “magical realism,” as Farnum puts it, in these pieces that will captivate the viewer with the feeling of movement and also stir questions about what is unseen.
Kim Nemeth, an Ohio native and art history graduate of College of Wooster, is a self-taught weaver. Her interest in the medium began during her AmericCorps internship at the historic Kirkman House, a late 19th century Victorian house museum, where many of the volunteers shared an affinity for textiles. Nemeth writes, “I became fascinated with how simple threads of yarn could become durable, usable materials.” In 2012, Nemeth founded her own business woven where she sells beautifully woven wearable and functional items such as scarves, ponchos and wraps. The work in this exhibition is curated so that some are hung from the walls while others float in the central space of the gallery. The floating works give the viewer the opportunity to have a three-dimensional experience of transparency, texture and movement.