RIT’s SPAS Gallery Goes ‘Way Out West: Desert Landscapes’

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Michelle Van Parys

Cactus Fence, Arizona 2004

There’s an uneasy alliance between the Old West and the New West: The old is home on the range to cattle, cowboys and Native Americans, the new is burgeoning population centers including Phoenix and Las Vegas and environmental damage that such development can inflict.

The School of Photographic Arts and Science Gallery at Rochester Institute of Technology hosts the exhibition Way Out West: Desert Landscapes by noted photo-based artist Michelle Van Parys from March 27 to April 17. Van Parys will be presenting an artist lecture at 5 p.m. on Thursday, April 9, at the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science auditorium, followed by an exhibition reception in the SPAS gallery beginning at 6 p.m.

Van Parys is a professor of photography at the College of Charleston, and the exhibition Way Out West: Desert Landscapes is drawn from her new book of the same title, published by The Center for American Places in 2009. The exhibition features 32 works, offering a compelling view for those who know the West well and for those who are getting to know its myriad landscapes for the first time.

SPAS Gallery, located on the third floor of the Frank E. Gannett Building, is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call 585-475-2884.

Note: The School of Photographic Arts and Sciences Gallery at Rochester Institute of Technology is the primary venue for photography in western New York State. It offers an academic calendar of exhibitions by visiting artists, faculty and advanced students, artists’ talks, master classes and portfolio reviews. For information, call Therese Mulligan, administrative chair of photographic arts in RIT's School of Photographic Arts and Sciences at 585-475-2884.