Opening Reception with the Artsts:
Sunday, May 8, 2005 (2-5 PM)

Curated by Maria Rosa Jaral

The Bath House Cultural Center presents Silent Dialogue, an art exhibition featuring photographs by Carolyn Brown, Gabrielle Castañeda Pruitt, June Van Cleef, David Glosson, April B-Lan Kao, Sandra A. Moreno, Yasuko H. Robinson and Marilyn Waligore.

An opening reception with the artists will be held on Sunday, May 8, 2005 from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM. The reception will also feature a live jazz concert by Brian Allen and Reuben Radding. The exhibition, the reception and the concert are free and open to the public.

This exhibition was curated by María Rosa Jaral as part of the Bath House Cultural Center’s Gallery Apprenticeship Program, which is funded in part by the Texas Commission on the Arts.

The images in this exhibition vary in style and technique, ranging from traditional gelatin silver prints that were printed in a darkroom using chemicals to color digital prints, which were captured in mega-pixels and printed electronically. The variety of styles and printing systems was intentionally sought after by the curator, who wanted to present a show that reflected the current reality in today’s artistic photography. That reality includes the art of those who capture images on film and those who have adopted the new digital photographic media.

The concept of communicating without words was fascinating to Ms. Jaral. Often, she engaged in situations where the images she captured as a photojournalist had to make a clear and loud statement. Unlike other forms of artistic expression such as theater or music where a multi-sensory message is conveyed, photography or any other type of visual art is a silent transmitter of ideas. Visual art, nevertheless, is an effective tool to communicate and provoke reactions from the viewers. Many of the artists who were selected for this show prominently used portraiture in their work. The curator gathered a collection of photographs that depicted a wordless conversation between the photographed subject and the viewer. Frequently, the people portrayed in the image look back at the viewer with an expression in their faces and a particular body language that is at the same time inviting and intriguing
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In the tradition of photographers like Edward Weston, Tina Modotti and Mariana Yampolsky who traveled to Mexico to photograph the people and the traditions of the land, most of the artists in this exhibition have visited and photographed Latin America with a great deal of respect, admiration and sensitivity. Carolyn Brown, the acclaimed Dallas architecture photographer leads the way with her exquisite color photograph “The Keys to the Mission,” a print that shows only a set of keys in the hands of an old man, which happens to demonstrate that sometimes eye contact between subject and viewer is not even necessary to achieve effective communication.

The curator, María Rosa Jaral, a native of Mexico, is an art photographer who lives in McKinney, Texas. Ms. Jaral earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Dallas. Ms. Jaral has exhibited her photographs extensively in galleries such as Photographic Archives, 14th Street Gallery, Art Centre of Plano, Hall of State at the Texas State Fair and the Bath House Cultural Center, among others.

About her reasons for choosing photography as her career, Ms. Jaral says: “Photographing people and buildings is my passion. I never thought that photography would be the career I would pursue; however, after my first class I found the path for my future: photography. As a photographer, I have achieved many of my artistic goals. I have participated in different group exhibitions. On the professional side, I have worked as photography assistant at the Public Relations Department at Collin County Community College for three years and as a photojournalist for a variety of publications.”
Ms. Jaral believes that working at the Bath House Cultural Center as an apprentice will contribute to achieving her artistic and personal goals.

Ms. Jaral curated the Silent Dialogue photography exhibition at the culmination of a four-month gallery apprenticeship at the Bath House Cultural Center. The Gallery Apprenticeship Program was implemented in 2003 by the cultural center as a way of giving artists and art students an opportunity to gain hands-on experience in gallery management by working with the Bath House Cultural Center’s manager, the Curator of Exhibitions and experienced outside curators in the coordination of visual arts exhibitions and programs during the center’s gallery season.