Tag Archives: photography

ConnectArte.Gestalt at MACBA and La Virreina

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For this year’s Slow Art Day, the project ConectArte.Gestalt hosted 2 events across the city of Barcelona, Spain – one at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) and the other at La Virreina. Both events had a Gestalt therapy approach and were led by Gestalt therapist and curator-producer Maribel
Perpiñá de Lama.

In this report, we’ll focus on the event at MACBA led by Perpiñá de Lama and focused on five artworks by Daniel Steegmann Mangrané from the exhibition “A leaf in the place of the eye”:

  • Systemic Grid 126 (Window) (2015)
  • La Pensée Férale (2020). These are seven photographs taken in the Tijuca National Park in Rio de Janeiro, one of the most biodiverse and endangered rainforests in the world.
  • Breathing Lines (2020/2023)
  • Landscape of Possibilities (2016/2023)
  • Orange Oranges (2001)

The exhibition explores themes of impermanence, collective emotions, perception, fragility, time and space.

Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Systemic Grid 126 (Window), 2020

Landscape of Possibilities (2016/2023) and Breathing Lines (2020/2023)

Poster.

During the session, Perpiñá de Lama invited participants to slowly observe the artworks using nine principles from Claudio Naranjo‘s Gestalt approach:

  • Live now, worry about the present.
  • Live here, relate more to the present than what is absent.
  • Stop imagining, experience what is real.
  • Abandon unnecessary thoughts. Feel and observe instead.
  • Express rather than manipulate, explain, justify or judge.
  • Experience displeasure and pain as well as pleasure. Do not restrict your awareness.
  • Do not accept any “should” or “would have” more than your own.
  • Take full responsibility for your actions, feelings and thoughts.
  • Accept yourself as you are.

The event was successful, and several participants left positive feedback:

“This workshop was a very eye-opening experience for me. I had never reflected so much on my own shadow and how it affects my daily life. The artwork really helped me to connect with aspects of myself that I normally avoid.”


“I was amazed at how powerful art can be in exploring how we are in the present moment. Seeing the images and then sharing my reflections with the group really made me feel more connected to myself and others.”


“This workshop made me realize how much we have internalized our shadow and how they influence our
decisions and relationships. It was a reminder of the importance of confronting those parts of ourselves in order to grow and heal.”


“The combination of the images in the exhibit and the group reflections was very impactful. I felt very
supported by the group to explore and openly share my thoughts and feelings.”

At Slow Art Day HQ we appreciate the innovative work ConnectArte.Gestalt and Maribel Perpiñá de Lama are doing and look forward to what they come up with for Slow Art Day 2025.

-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

New Bedford Whaling Museum Hosts First Slow Art Day

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For their first Slow Art Day, the New Bedford Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Massachussetts, invited visitors to look slowly at their collection “Framing the Domestic Sea: Photographs by Jeffery C. Becton.” Becton’s layered visual images feature the maritime world, and highlight contemporary environmental concerns.

The museum took a simple self-guided approach to their Slow Art Day, which is a great way for any museum or gallery to participate.

They designed a simple and attractive flyer with slow looking prompts (featured below – feel free to copy) and also set up a QR code that took visitors to a discussion about the exhibit by the artist and his wife.

SLOW ART DAY FLYERDownload

We are glad to welcome the New Bedford Whaling Museum to the Slow Art Day movement and look forward to what they come up with for 2025.

-Johanna, Ashley, JJ, and Phyl

P.S. Stay up to date with events at the New Bedford Whaling Museum via their Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok page.

Slow Yoga and Photography at MOMus Thessaloniki

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For their sixth consecutive Slow Art Day, MOMus-Museum of Photography in Thessaloniki, Greece, hosted yoga and slow looking with a focus on the photography of the Greek photographer Elli Sougioultzoglou-Seraidari (1899 – 1998), also known as “Nelly,” or by her studio stamp name “Nelly’s.”

Sougioultzoglou-Seraidari is best known for her photos of Greece between the First and Second World Wars, which shaped the Western imagination of that country. After the outbreak of World War II, she lived in the US where she continued her photography before eventually returning to Greece.

Elly Sougioultzoglou-Seraidari (Nelly’s) The Old town of Chania, Crete, 1928
© Benaki Museum Photographic Archives
Elly Sougioultzoglou-Seraidari (Nelly’s) From the series “Easter Parade,” New York, April 1956
© Benaki Museum / Photographic Archives
Elly Sougioultzoglou-Seraidari (Nelly’s). From the series “Constructions and Buildings in New York,” April 1956 © Benaki Museum / Photographic Archives

For the Slow Art Day event, photographer and certified yoga teacher, Ioanna Fotiadou, first led participants in a short yoga practice aimed at all levels of experience. She guided them to move slowly and remain in the yoga positions while focusing on the present moment.

Slow Art Day Yoga session at MOMus

This was followed by a slow viewing of selected works from the exhibition, which participants observed for 10 minutes each. At the end of the session, they discussed their experience with the museum curators while drinking coffee and enjoying views of the sea.

Participants looking slowly at photography in the exhibition.
Group discussion for Slow Art Day.

At Slow Art Day HQ, we love that yoga, mediation, and mindfulness continue to be a part of our movement – such as the one held at the Swedish National Museum in 2023 or in Ireland in 2024 at West Cork Arts Center.

We also love the passionate participation of MOMus Thessaloniki in Slow Art Day and look forward to seeing what they come up with for Slow Art Day 2025.

-Johanna, Ashley, Phyl, Jessica Jane

P.S. Stay up to day with events at MOMus Thessaloniki via Facebook and Instagram.

First Official Slow Art Day in Bordeaux

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On April 13th, Simone Raskin, art consultant and trainer at the Gallery L’Art de Regarder, organized the first official Slow Art Day in Bordeaux, sponsored by the Mairie de Bordeaux (the Bordeaux Town Hall) and hosted at the Espace Saint Rémi.

The Espace Saint Rémi was a church before the French Revolution and has over the centuries transformed into what is now a cultural center for exhibitions. Since 1991, the space has hosted a yearly photography exhibition titled Itinéraires des Photographes Voyageurs, which was created and organized by Nathalie Lamire-Fabre and Vincent Bengold as part of the first Mois de la Photo de Bordeaux (month of photography in Bordeaux).

The slow looking focused on the following 6 works from the photography exhibition:

  • Patrick Cockpit, “Pasaran, une dystopie franquiste” 
  • Lise Dua, “Les loyautés & Une vie”
  • Charlotte Auricombe, “Cau Del Llop” 
  • Benoît Capponi, “Toutes les heures blessent”
  • Sladjana Stankovic, “La Douce“
  • Thierry Girard, “The Tenjin Omuta Line” 
Photo credit: Simone Raskin

The Slow Art Day event was not promoted separately, so Simone greeted the 250+ visitors with an explanation of slow looking, and invited participants to sit in chairs that were arranged in front of the works. She provided them with the following prompts to guide their experience:

  • What’s going on in this picture?
  • What is it that attracts you in this particular photography?
  • What is the mood of the photo?
  • What are the colors? What do they evoke to you?
  • What is the composition of this photo?
  • If you were to say one word about this photo, what would it be?
  • Does it remind you of a painting, a souvenir, a memory, a personal experience?

Below are some of the works in the event:

“Pasaran, une dystopie franquiste” by Patrick Cockpit

“Les loyautés & Une vie” by Lise Dua

“Cau Del Llop” by Charlotte Auricombe

“La Douce“by Sladjana Stankovic

“The Tenjin Omuta Line” by Thierry Girard

Simone reported that many of the participants thanked her for the event, and they were quite appreciative for the prompts that she provided. Several mentioned that they would try slow looking at future museum visits.

At Slow Art Day HQ we are so glad to hear that the event was so well-received and look forward to whatever Simone Raskin, Mairie de Bordeaux, or Espace Saint Rémi plan for Slow Art Day 2025!

– Jessica Jane, Johanna, Ashley, and Phyl

Slow Art Day across the U.S. East Coast

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Slow Art Day 2024 is coming up this Saturday, April 13 and yet again there are an amazing variety of museums, galleries, churches, cities, sculpture parks joining us from around the world (see the full list) – including across the East Coast of the United States.

To name just a few across the East Coast…

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Met Cloisters will be hosting again in New York City.

Mass MoCA will be hosting again in North Adams, MA while the Worcester Art Museum will yet again produce a Slow Art Day in that city. The beautiful and wonderful Athenaeum will be hosting in Boston. Connecticut and New Jersey supports several locations including the Grounds for Sculpture.

Philadelphia has a nascent citywide including The Barnes Foundation, Glenn Foerd, and the Magic Gardens.

In Washington D.C., the National Museum of Women in the Arts is hosting yet again (they are one the founding museums for Slow Art Day). Virginia and North Carolina have multiple locations across those states while Florida hosts *7* different venues including the Frost Art Museum and the Lowe Art Museum both in Miami.

Here are a few locations –

Mass MoCA

This year, Mass MoCA has created two ways to experience Slow Art Day:

  1. Slow Looking Tours
  2. A paired audiowalk they are calling “Where I End & You Begin,” which requires advance reservations.

The museum has had a close relationship with artist James Turrell and with the now-deceased Professor Arden Reed who wrote a terrific book, “Slow Art : The Experience of Looking, Sacred Images to James Turrell”, which talks about Slow Art Day (and for which I gave a blurb on the back cover).

James Turrell, “Once Around, Violet (Shallow Space),” 1971.

Barnes Foundation

The Barnes always produces a thoughtful and interesting Slow Art Day (and we are in conversations with them about a conference – stay tuned for more details).

This year, when participants arrive, they will receive a list of five paintings for self-guided slow looking. They will be encouraged to spend an hour or so looking, and then will be invited to a discussion in the Herbert and Joyce Kean Family Classroom. That discussion will be led by Barnes senior instructor Michael Williamson.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Before the Bath (detail), c. 1875. BF9. Public Domain.

National Museum of Women in the Arts

We love the National Museum of Women in the Arts – they are founders of the Slow Art Day movement and they have led the global re-awakening to the centuries-old role of women artists.

Their event this year is sold out. So, if you live in Washington, DC then plan ahead for their Slow Art Day 2025.

Deborah Butterfield, Big Horn, 2006; Cast bronze, 92 x 114 x 41 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Jacqueline Badger Mars in honor of Wilhelmina Cole Holladay; © Deborah Butterfield; Image courtesy of L.A. Louver

Boston Athenaeum

The Boston Athenaeum, which combines a library, with a museum and cultural center, is hosting Slow Art Day in their landmark building.

They will be focusing on a single painting by Boston artist Allan Rohan Crite.

Worcester Art Museum

Our friends at Juniper Rag are co-sponsoring a Slow Art Day at the Worcester Art Museum. The WAM will be focusing their slow looking event on the new Terrain Exhibition, which features 21st-Century landscape photographers and how these contemporary artists use different photographic processes to explore the idea of landscape.

Frost Art Museum

For their *13th* Slow Art Day (Frost is one of the founding museums of this slow looking movement), Frost will feature performances by Miami-based artists Smita Sen (pictured on the right – below), who explores the relationship between the body and memory through sculpture and technology, and Agua Dulce (left – below), a Miami-based artist who uses organic materials to blur the line between the mystical and mundane.

These are just a few of the hundreds of places hosting events around the world this year.

And, of course, you can run your own personal Slow Art Day anywhere anytime. 

We hope you have a wonderful Slow Art Day 2024.

– Phyl 

P.S. If you have not yet registered your Slow Art Day with us, then go to this page.

P.P.S. Our 2023 Annual Report is out. Read it and get inspired!

Slow Art Day Comes to the ‘Heart of the World’

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Slow Art Day has come to the Sierra Nevada Santa Marta in Colombia, known as the ‘Heart of the World’ to the indigenous communities who inhabit the coastal mountains and valleys.

Photographer Natasha Johl organized this first Slow Art Day at Sonidoselva, a cultural center in Minca. After giving a short speech describing the simple methodology of slow looking, Johl invited participants to look slowly at her photography exhibition Dream Weaver, which presents a series of photographs taken over nine years that represent the ordinary, simple, and often overlooked moments of life.

In a world where images shout at the viewer, I believe there is a dignity in silence. 

Natasha Johl
Generous Dreamer Unframed Giclee. Natasha Johl.
As we Watch Unframed Giclee Print. Natasha Johl.

The main subject of her photos are the indigenous group of the Arhuacos, which descend from the Tairona, an ancient South American civilization that now reside in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The Arhuaco have developed an understanding of the earth, which gives equal measure to the human mind and spirit and the forces of nature.  

Natasha Johl (on the left) and members of the Arhuacos (on the right).
Slow Art Day visitors engaging in the exhibition (we love the light in these photos).

We at Slow Art Day HQ love that slow looking at art has made it to the ‘heart of the world’ and we look forward to seeing what Johl and her colleagues put together for Slow Art Day 2024.

– Jessica, Ashley, Johanna, and Phyl

Something Old, Something New at Angel Ambrose

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For their second Slow Art Day, Angel Ambrose Fine Art Studio in Bloomington, Illinois invited visitors to consider the well known wedding rhyme “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue” as part of the city-wide Slow Art Day in this famous Route 66 town.

Angel invited visitors to her studio to look slowly at a selection of works that corresponded with the rhyme:

– Something Old: an “old” painting from Angel’s BFA show at Illinois State University

– Something New: a selection of new artworks by Angel

– Something Borrowed: an Ansel Adams photo on loan from a private collection

– Something Blue: a painting titled “Magnificent Blues,” on loan from the private collection of Wendy Knight Ives (pictured below).

Something Blue: “Magnificent Blues,” on loan from the collection of Wendy Knight Ives.
Something New: Artwork by Angel Ambrose

Angel also shared a slow looking activity on Facebook for online participants.

Give yourself 3-5 minutes of silence to focus on one piece of art. Think about these prompts as you view the selected art, (and answer them for yourself afterwards if you wish):

For your head (objective thought/intellect) you can consider any of the following:

  • What did you see? What decisions did you notice that Angel made in her painting—line, color, texture, form, repetition, contrast, etc? Was there a color scheme/theme apparent? Notice the paint—can you see individual brushstrokes, or a smooth surface, or perhaps another tool was used to apply the paint? How was movement used in the artwork? Was the piece representational, abstracted, or somewhere between? Why do you think Angel chose this format?

For your heart (feelings/emotions), consider the following:

  • How did you feel when you looked at the work? Did the colors evoke any emotions? What did these feelings make you think about? Did your mood change after looking at the artwork? Did you experience any personal significance to the piece?”

Angel reported that the event was a success, with many new visitors and lots of great conversations.

At Slow Art Day HQ we love how this and the other galleries in Bloomington have been pioneering citywide events. (Note: rumors are that a state-wide Slow Art Day is now being considered in Illinois!)

Best,

– Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

BYU Museum of Art Hosts Virtual Slow Art Week

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For their second year hosting a Slow Art Event, the Brigham Young University Museum of Art decided to host a week of virtual activities.

Led by Director of Education, Philipp Malzl along with student educators Joseph Rowley, Susannah Kearon, Sophie Houghton, Kate Daily, and Alexa Ginn, the social media-based event encouraged viewers to slow down the fast pace of internet/social meldia viewing and contemplate a work of art for 60 seconds or more.

YouTube videos were created highlighting works on display at the museum, and prizes were offered for commenting on each video. Each of the five videos is below:

Some of the comments received include:
“I definitely am the type to often rush through art museums and only stop to look at paintings that I have seen before. Once I stopped to look at this for longer I realized just how liminal the composition is, and how much darker it felt when I just spent time with it for a moment. Super cool!”

“I love this series of 60-second videos! It is meditative to watch. My daughters are watching them with me now. One daughter noticed the vertical lines of the figure and the basketball hoop, and how if you turned the painting upside down, those lines would still be in similar places. The other daughter noticed that the basketball hoop was a tin can with the bottom cut out.”

The Brigham Young University Museum of Art hosts slow looking tours on a quarterly basis, in addition to having a printed slow looking guide available year-round at the information desk.

We look forward to seeing what they come up with for Slow Art Day 2023.

– Robin, Ashley, Phyl, Johanna, and Jessica Jane

P.S. The museum can be found on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

Harn Museum Mixes Cookies and Tea with Slow Looking

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For their 7th Slow Art day, the Harn Museum of Art, located on the campus of The University of Florida in Gainsville, featured 5 artworks from their collection, including:

– Dogon Couple, by Kehinde Wiley
– Northeast Gorge at Appledore, by Childe Hassam
– Pli Selon Pli, by Akiyama Yo
– Waiting for the Signal, by Robert Fichter
– Horizontal Mask (korubla), by a Senufo artist

Host Allysa Peyton, Curator and Student Engagement Manager, and a group of University of Florida student ambassadors greeted participants with a flier that spelled out instructions, featured art works, and space to draw or take notes (see below).

Slow Art Day 2022 worksheet – Allysa Peyton
Harn Student Ambassadors welcome visitors.



The Harn instructed attendees to spend 10-12 minutes with each of the five featured artworks and encouraged them to not only draw or make notes, but also to reflect on the experience of looking slowly – and how what they see in the art may change over time.

After the slow looking session, everyone then gathered for tea, cookies, and discussion.

Educators and curators in the slow looking movement should take a look at their simple flyer (attached above) and consider copying elements of their approach for future sessions.

Akiyama Yo, Pli Selon Pli, 2002
Kehinde Wiley, Dogon Couple, 2008
Robert Fichter, Waiting for the Signal, 1981
Senufo Artist, Horizontal Mask (korubla), 20th century

The Harn Museum of Art has also launched a year-round program Art & Mindfulness, which incorporates slow looking and guided meditations in 40-minute workshops.

We at Slow Art Day HQ like the incorporation of drawing and notes – and especially appreciate the cookies and tea (yum, yum) at the end – and we look forward to seeing what they come up with for Slow Art Day 2023.

Best,

– Robin, Ashley, Phyl, Jessica Jane, and Johanna

P.S. The Harn Museum of Art can be found on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.

Observation and Introspection at The Erie Art Museum

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For their third Slow Art Day, the Erie Art Museum partnered with the Edinboro University of Pennsylvania Art Therapy Program to host a very interesting art therapy hybrid event celebrating the importance of observation, introspection, and emotionality when looking slowly at art.

Beatrice, photo courtesy of Averie Shaughnessy-Comfort

Each in-person visitor was given a journal in which to record their thoughts, observations, and ideas with the following attached label:


Through guided observation, visitors were asked to think about the following:

  • Spend a few moments being present with this piece.
    Pay attention to thoughts/emotions.
    As you gaze at the piece, notice your breath and your body.
  • Describe: What do you see?
  • Analyze: Think of 4 emotions or words that you associate with this piece.
  • Inquire: What does this piece tell you about yourself?
  • As you reflect on these photos, jot down a memory in this shared journal that comes to mind.

Out of Many, photo courtesy of Averie Shaughnessy-Comfort

For visitors who couldn’t make it to the museum, art therapy students at the Edinboro University of Pennsylvania held a Virtual Open Studio. An aspiring art therapist guided visitors through slow looking techniques.

At Slow Art Day HQ we love seeing the use of art therapy techniques for Slow Art Day and look forward to what the Erie Art Museum comes up with, perhaps again in partnership with Edinboro, for their fourth Slow Art Day

– Phyl, Robin, Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane

P.S. The Erie Art Museum can be found on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.