THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY NOTE:​

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The Chazan Gallery at Wheeler is pleased to present Elemental Forms / Broken Earth, featuring the work of BC Crane, Denny Moers, and Jonathan Sharlin from November 20 to December 13 (extended), 2025.

 

In their exhibition statement, Elemental Forms: mercurial water / transcendent trees, the artists BC Crane and Denny Moers write: “Since its inception, Photography has evolved through scores of processes and techniques from analog to digital. Within the present moment, there is an urge to experiment with combinations and hybrids of these seemingly radically different approaches to image making. Our work for this exhibition is based on an evolving dialogue between the transformative experience found in the digital/mixed media art of BC Crane’s mercurial rhythms of light and movement through water, with Denny Moers’ alchemical darkroom-based monoprints revealing the internal life and complex structure of trees. We seek to make visible the invisible, using diverse processes connected through an understanding that all art is emotional at its core, and that the fluidity of water and our majestic tree forms the essence of our fragile landscape.

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BC Crane studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, the Harvard School for Film and Visual Studies, and the School of Visual Arts in New York City. A lifelong learner, she continues to expand her artistic practice through seminars and internships with distinguished photographers. Her work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums, including the Van Buren/Brazelton/Cutting Gallery in Cambridge; the Castle Gallery in New Rochelle, NY; Thread Waxing Space and B4A Gallery in New York City; the Danforth Museum of Art; Gallery Z; the Krause Gallery; the Jamestown Arts Center; the Warwick Museum of Art; the Mystic Museum of Art; the Newport Art Museum; and the Art League of Rhode Island. She has also participated in major art fairs and photography events such as the Affordable Art Fair, the Houston FotoFest, and the Center in Santa Fe. Crane’s work has received numerous awards and is featured in both private and public collections, as well as in publications such as The Art of the X-Files by Chris Carter, Carole Kismaric, and William Gibson. Her ongoing long-term project documents religious festivals around the world, from Lourdes to the Maha Kumbh Mela in India. She currently divides her time between Wakefield, Rhode Island, and New York City.

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Denny Moers is known for his highly imaginative, technically innovative monoprints created by controlling the action of light on the chemical-sensitized photographic paper during the print developing process, giving his black and white photographs an extraordinary range of tonalities. He has photographed subject matter as diverse as New England architecture, medieval wall frescoes and tomb reliefs, contemporary construction sites, and western landscapes and dwellings. His current work is on evanescent structures and landscapes. Denny Moers received his MFA from the Visual Studies Workshop. During the 1980’s he worked as Aaron Siskind’s first assistant and printer. He received a RI Pell Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2003 and the RI Council on the Arts Fellowship in Photography 4 times. His photographic monoprints have been exhibited worldwide and are included in over 30 public and private collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Houston Museum of Art, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, Yale University Art Museum, and the Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City. Recent publications include a new biographic film, Casting Deep Shade by David H Wells, a book of the same title in collaboration with CD Wright was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2018, a featured chapter in the ‘Experimental Photography Workbook’ by Christiana Anderson, published in 2012, and the portfolio Between Now & Then - A selection of book covers with a foreword by CD Wright, published in 2006. His work has graced the covers of over 25 books. Mr. Moers’ artwork is represented by the Robert Klein Gallery, Boston, Mass., Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago, IL, and Thomas Meyer Fine Art, San Francisco, CA.

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In his statement, Jonathan Sharlin writes: “Things die, decay, and decompose. It is the natural progression of life. If, in the past, large masses of earth moved at a glacial pace, now the glaciers themselves are melting before our eyes. Hillsides are falling into the ocean, and winters are becoming unnaturally mild. Rising water levels are drowning saplings, and homes on the coast are in peril, and forest fires seem to be causing greater damage than ever before. Even casual observations cannot ignore our changing landscapes. With my work, I can stretch out time, compress space, and change the balance. At its heart is the inherent contradiction of aestheticizing a place of battered beauty. Is there room for optimism? The possibility of repair, a course correction? In Judaism, there is a concept called Tikkun Olam. It is an aspiration to behave and act constructively and beneficially. To repair the world.”

 

Jonathan Sharlin has approached photography from many angles over his 50-year career. He has incorporated the medium in a variety of ways, from photo-drawings to photographic installations. Each series is a process of discovery, distillation, and commentary on issues of personal importance. Jon has been the recipient of over 10 grants from the Rhode Island Council for the Arts, in addition to grants from the Rhode Island Foundation and New England Foundation for the Arts. His books include ‘Cast a Cold Eye’ (an end-of-life transcript of his mother), Cyan Press, 2008. His 2016 Blue Sky publication, ‘Ancient Stones of Scotland,’ has a foreword by Jo-Ann Conklin, Director of Brown University’s David Winton Bell Gallery. He is currently working on two series that explore the contradictions between beauty and the harsh realities of climate change: “Broken Earth” and “Erratics”. Jon received his BA from Goddard College and his MFA from Visual Studies Workshop. He has taught at numerous colleges, including Tufts, Rhode Island College, Roger Williams University, and RISD. His work is included in several public and private collections, including the Fogg Museum, the MFA of Houston, the RISD Museum, the Polaroid Collection, the Fidelity Collection, the Rose Art Museum, and Brown University.