Focusing on the Human Condition: Humankind at Main Line Art Center

Featuring accomplished photographers Donald E. Camp, Lydia Panas, and Lori Waselchuk, Humankind presents works that uniquely address the human condition through qualities and genres inherent to the photographic tradition: social responsibility, portraiture, and the photo essay.  The exhibition runs in Main Line Art Center's award-winning galleries Feb. 20-March 20.

This exhibition celebrates in depth projects by artists whose work creatively engages the world of contemporary photography while deepening connections to the history of the photographic medium.  With his forceful, yet intimate images of the human face, Donald E. Camp’s work encourages audiences to explore the dignity and nobility that can be found in each of us.  Camp’s photography seeks to contrast broadly held stereotypes and acknowledge the struggle against ignorance and intolerance as a universal one.  Lydia Panas invites the viewer to look beyond the family relationships depicted in her photographs and to explore the deeper, universal questions of how we feel.  Her photographs portray families of all forms in verdant landscapes while also giving subtle clues to that which lies beneath the surface in all of us.  Lori Waselchuk’s photographs powerfully illuminate the ways in which our humanity percolates through the dark and light moments of our lives.  Her work is emotional, interactive, and storytelling, and strives to nurture empathy in the viewer, despite our diversity. 

Humankind is presented in collaboration with Main Line Art Center’s new Digital Media program beginning in April with the Spring session.  As part of the Center’s ongoing effort to provide students with the latest advancements in arts education, the new curriculum will highlight digital media as a medium unto itself and will enable more traditional media, such as painting, ceramics, and jewelry, to incorporate the digital arts.  The new technology will engage students of all ages and in all levels of Main Line Art Center’s programs, including Accessible Art programs for children, teens, and adults with disabilities.  With the launch of the new program, Main Line Art Center is now the only art center in our region with facilities that include both a traditional wet dark room for photography and a digital imaging studio.

The Art Center will host a free public reception on Friday, February 21 from 6 to 8 pm featuring samplings from the center’s official wine sponsor, Barefoot Wine & Bubbly, and food courtesy of Di Bruno Brothers.  An artist talk and book signing will be held on Wednesday, March 19 from 6 to 8 pm.  Books from each of the artists will be available for purchase. The gallery at Main Line Art Center is free and open to the public Monday through Thursday from 10 am to 8 pm, and Friday through Sunday from 10 am to 4 pm.

Donald E. Camp began his career as a talented photojournalist for 10 years before seeking his degree in Fine Arts.  After obtaining both his BFA and MFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, Camp quickly established himself as an important new voice in contemporary art.  Camp’s work is widely acclaimed and has been honored with a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts.  Camp is also the subject of an American Artist Oral History at the Smithsonian Institute, and his work is included in a number of important public and private collections including the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. 

Lydia Panas is an award-winning photographer who started her career with a Psychology degree from Boston College.  From there her studies led her to a BFA in Photography from School of the Visual Arts and then a MA in Photography from NYU’s International Center of Photography.  Her work is widely recognized and has recently been exhibited at the National Gallery in London. She was one of nine artists selected by Houston FotoFest curators for the prestigious International Discoveries Exhibition in 2007 and won first prize for the Publisher’s Choice Singular Image at CENTER, Santa Fe, NM.  Panas has been exhibited in prestigious museums and galleries throughout the United States, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston; Brooklyn Museum; and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago.  Her first monograph was released in the United States in March 2012, and was named one of the PDN’s Books of 2012 as well as a Top Coffee Table Book by the Daily Beast.

Lori Waselchuk is a documentary photographer whose photographs have appeared in magazines and newspapers worldwide, including Newsweek, LIFE, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. She has produced photographs for several international aid organizations including CARE, the UN World Food Program, Medecins Sans Frontieres, and the Vaccine Fund.  Waselchuk has received many prestigious awards including the 2014 Leeway Foundation’s Transformation Award, the 2012 Pew Fellowship for the Arts, and the Aaron Siskind Foundation’s 2009 Individual Photographer Fellowship.  She has also received a 2008 Distribution Grant from the Documentary Photography Project of the Open Society Institute, the 2007 PhotoNOLA Review Prize, and the 2004 Southern African Gender and Media Award for Photojournalism.  Waselchuk was also a nominee for the 2009 Santa Fe Prize for Photography, a finalist in the 2008 Aperture West Book Prize, and a finalist in the 2006 and 2008 Critical Mass Review.  Her work is exhibited internationally and is part of collections including the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Portland Museum of Art and the South African National Gallery.  Waselchuk created two traveling exhibitions of her photographic documentary, Grace Before Dying (Umbrage Editions, 2011) that has been shown in over 60 venues in the United States since 2009.

Amie Potsic began her tenure as Executive Director of Main Line Art Center in July of 2012.  Prior to that, she served as Director of the Career Development Program at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists (CFEVA) in Philadelphia where she curated exhibitions and planned professional development programming for emerging and professional artists. Potsic has curated over 70 exhibitions at venues including The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and Moore College of Art & Design. Potsic is also an established photographic artist who has exhibited her work nationally and internationally.  In addition, she is currently Chair of the Art In City Hall Artistic Advisory Board to the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Arts, Culture & the Creative Economy.

Main Line Art Center is a welcoming and inclusive creative home where everyone is encouraged to create, experience, and discover the value of art.  Committed to making art more accessible, the Art Center has over 75 years of experience presenting art programs for individuals of all ages and abilities, including a unique series of Accessible Art programs for children and adults with developmental and physical disabilities, at-risk youth, and low income families.  Throughout the year, Main Line Art Center presents innovative, contemporary art exhibitions in their award-winning gallery, as well as exhibitions that celebrate community.  Last year over 16,000 people chose Main Line Art Center as their home for creativity. 

Main Line Art Center is located at 746 Panmure Road in Haverford, behind the Wilkie Lexus dealership just off of Lancaster Avenue. The Art Center is easily accessible from public transportation and offers abundant free parking. For more information about Humankind, please visit www.mainlineart.org or call 610.525.0272.