Miami, April 4, 2022 — The Gallery at Miami Dade College (MDC)’s Padron Campus will showcase a photo exhibition by Palm Beach County artist Rod Faulds, April 4- 29. The opening event, which is free and open to the public, will be held on Wednesday, April 13 from 12 -1 p.m. The opening event is part of the annual Poetry Crawl.
Faulds creates images assembled from multiple photographs into abstractions, somewhat reminiscent of paintings that also retain strong photographic qualities of light and representational detail. These colorful hybrid images will be displayed on a wallpaper like background of discarded geological maps and other found two-dimensional materials. Faulds use of such trashed materials relates to his photographic images which often include repeated or temporary elements in urban and suburban environments – temporary construction scrim or fences and highway road stripes – that most people would not think were worthy visual subjects. These photographic constructions are also a form of digital collage or photo montage, the latter a traditional dark room technique to combine photographic images.
Faulds also uses magazine and other pre-existing photographs in his work and credits the work of Robert Heinecken (1931-2006) to be a strong influence. Heinecken was a photo-based artist who used magazines and found photographs in his work to comment and subvert popular media images, and to enact his philosophy that with so many photographs in the world there was no need to make new ones. There is also a long history of photographic abstraction and Surrealism that Faulds channels by combining recognizable images into formations that no longer resemble our normal waking perception.
For over 40 years, Faulds has been a museum administrator, exhibition designer, educator and most recently a producing visual artist. As an undergraduate studio art major Faulds became very engaged in assisting with university art gallery exhibitions. This interest led him to earn a Masters of Arts degree in Exhibition Design at California State University, Fullerton. After directing a small New England Museum and art center he held positions at Williams College, the Guggenheim Museum and The Brooklyn Museum. After deciding to return to an academic setting in 1997 Faulds took on directing the University Galleries at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. About ten years into this position Faulds challenged himself to begin making art again as a side activity that his recent retirement from FAU is allowing him to pursue full-time.
In 2014, Faulds’ work was featured in a one-person exhibition at the Hollywood Art and Culture Center. His work has been included in group exhibitions at the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County; Palm Beach State College, Eissey Campus; Paducah School of Art, Kentucky; and The Arts Warehouse in Delray Beach among others. The artist’s website presents numerous examples of his photo-based art: https://www.rodfaulds.com/.
WHAT: Hybrids and Detritus: An Installation by Rod Faulds
WHEN: April 4-29. Gallery is open Wednesday 12-1 p.m. Visits any other day by appointment only. Opening event on Wednesday, April 13, from 12 -1 p.m.
WHERE: MDC Padron Campus Gallery, 627 SW 27th Avenue
For more information about the exhibition, contact Karen Chavez at 305-237-6070, kchavez@mdc.edu.