THE SPACE BETWEEN
The Space Between
Surface gallery is proud to present The Space Between, a curated photography group exhibit.Given the prompt "The Space Between", 10 art photographers captured their own interpretations of this phrase. Subject matter and technique approaches vary greatly and capture the attention of the viewer with dynamic subject matter in the style of each artist.
Photographers featured include Nate Cuccaru, Allison Daniel, Robert Gray, Abigail Kreuser, Heather Oekleus, Karen Scheffe, Richard Seldomridge, Denny Welker, Nancy Welker, and Marisa White.
About the artists:
A Tennessee native, she got her BFA from Austin Peay State University and after she walked at graduation she packed her car up and headed out west. After three years here, she started Stellar Propeller Studio out of her bedroom office. It has now grown into a household name for photography in the Springs, especially among local businesses, nonprofits, and corporations. While Allison pays the bills with commercial photography, her true passion is fine art and her work is often driven by a quote from her favorite photographer, Duane Michals: "I believe that art should touch. I believe that it should move one towards a greater consciousness of what one's life is all about."
Robert loves to experiment with his art. Although his portfolio is vast in its diversity, his main focus is helping people work through their past traumas through the creation of tableaux. Street photography is also a huge influence in most of his artistic storytelling. He has been known to use whatever medium necessary to tell his story.
Robert’s passion for helping people has led him to work with various mental health groups throughout Colorado. Anywhere from teaching photography and workshops to public speaking at Events and Symposiums.
Robert has received several awards including Top 100 Best New Photographers of 2015, 27 features in Fine Art America as well as numerous guest appearances in art galleries, magazines, and international art catalogues.
Abigail Kreuser: Nature is a huge part of my life; it keeps me balanced and it feeds my soul. I have learned to capture it in a way that feels meditative for me, so when I cannot be in it, I can still enjoy it.
Abby received her BFA in Fine Art Photography from Rochester Institute of Technology and also studied photography and graphic design at Colorado Mountain College. Upon Graduation in 2003 Abby began Kreuser Gallery which at that time specialized in “people.”
In 2011 her gears shifted, and she opened a physical Gallery location at 218 West Colorado Avenue in the Arts Depot District. In February 2019 she moved the Gallery to its current location at 125 E Boulder Street 80903 in Downtown Colorado Springs.
Abby has curated over 400 exhibitions in the Rocky Mountain Region and her art has been featured at G44 Gallery, The Manitou Art Center, Soiree, Cottonwood Gallery, Phantom Canyon, Smokebrush, the Warehouse, Marika’s, the Perk Downtown, Lincoln Rose Gallery, Surface Gallery, The Philanthropy Collective and many other locations
Heather Oeklkaus: Heather Oelklaus is a Colorado artist whose work explores themes of memory, identity, and transformation. Using various photographic techniques, she creates pieces that invite the viewer to delve deeper into the complexities of the human experience. Drawing on personal experiences, Oelklaus’s work is both introspective and universal, encouraging reflection by the viewer. With a focus on process and materiality, she seeks to create works that are both visually striking and emotionally resonant.
Karen Scheffe:
Karen Scheffe-Mitchell was first exposed to film photography by her grandfather in Swink, Colorado. She was steadily inspired by her great-grandfather, Ralph Kenagy's, historical photography. Both shared a curious passion for the art form, carried forward through a natural progression of mostly self-taught digital photography in the early 2000s. Later, in New York City, Karen's grassroots approach was stretched and refined by two years of classical photography training and post-production experiential education.Karen is inspired most by the textures, cultures, and the taste of the places she's traveled. She gravitates toward otherwise ordinary moments- they resonate and stir something innately within her; she likes to tell the story of the moments that pass quickly, but that shift her soul. Her career is centered around the medium of photographs, the experiences of her journey, but particularly of the beauty she sees in another's moment - their intention, their invitation to see the world the way they're experiencing it.
While her fine art print collection is rarely shown, she hopes to captivate and move one toward another through the movement of lines, feelings, and essence.
Richard Seldomridge: Richard Seldomridge's early work began in his 20's while spending summers living in the mountains of Colorado. It was there that he first experimented with landscape and documentary photography. Later, he expanded his self-taught career into product and architectural photography. Regardless of subject, his vision has been to discover and highlight the beauty in everyday settings. He has been featured on covers for And Sons magazine, and published in Springs Magazine and Building Design & Construction Magazine.
Dennis Welker: “My objective in – Photo Fine Art – is to combine the quiet complexity of color and form to stimulate ones’ visual awareness. The quest for the ultimate capture of the ultimate image is a motivation that cannot denied.”
My passion for creative fine art photography has always been a vocation. During the last 35 years, I have traveled the Southwestern regions of the US, New England, Mexico, and Alaska building an extensive library of images that I am now being able to share with the public. My creative photographic library has evolved with technology over the years and contains images captured on transparency film such as; 35mm, 120 and 4x5. Over the years, I transitioned from film formats to high-resolution digital capture. To achieve the highest quality of fine art photography, I personally print all my photographs. The final creations are presented on various archival media including photographic paper, watercolor paper, and canvas.
Nancy Welker: Nancy Welker resides in Canon City, CO. She has decades of experience and an extensive background in the fine arts arena, especially with Southwestern art and jewelry. Nancy spent many years as a Gallery Director for several prominent art galleries in New Mexico and Arizona. Her love of the creative arts and being involved in the art community for many years continues to inspire her to capture the stunning environment we live in.
She co-owned, with her husband, print and frame galleries in Colorado and New Mexico. After selling their business in New Mexico and moving to Canon City, Nancy has had the time to pursue her love of nature and capturing its beauty through the camera lens.
Nancy presents her interpretation of fine art through photography and video. Her style incorporates the realism of scenic landscapes, macro close ups and still life photography. Her portfolio of images clearly represents years of living in the picturesque Southwestern region of the U.S. She personally oversees the printing of her art. She uses various archival media for presentation including photographic paper, watercolor paper, and canvas.
Nancy hopes that you will embrace her fine art photography and feel the emotion that she did when she captured the images in nature.
Marisa White:
Marisa S White is an award-winning artist best known for seamlessly stitching multiple photographs together, weaving personal narratives through surreal and fantastical imagery. The use of surrealism in her work isn’t to call upon the dream world, but to hyperbolize emotions and experiences that aren’t always so easy to put into words.
Marisa grew up in Houston, Texas and would often wander the galleries of the Menil Collection. This is where she was introduced to surrealism. Seeing the works of René Magritte, Giorgio de Chirico and Max Ernst opened her eyes and imagination to new possibilities. She spent the next several years painting clouds on everything.Originally a drawing and painting major, Marisa fell in love with photography in college and eventually began incorporating it into her work, creating mixed media collages. In 2012, she was introduced to photoshop at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography, and her artistic world forever changed.Marisa has received numerous accolades for her art, is collected internationally, and has exhibited across the US and in Europe; most notably at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, California.In 2023, Marisa, along with two other artists, co-founded True North Art Gallery, a fine art cooperative space highlighting creative talent in the Pikes Peak region.