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The Lycoming College Art Gallery invites the Williamsport and surrounding communities to visit and enjoy its latest exhibition, “Entangled with Justice,” featuring work by Andreas Rentsch, assistant professor of photography at Lycoming College. The exhibition will be featured in the College’s art gallery from Dec. 1 – Jan. 27. A reception will be held Dec. 1 from 4 – 8 p.m., with a talk by the artist at 5:30 p.m. The reception and exhibition are free and open to the public.
Rentsch’s passion for capturing and experimenting with light in photography began during his childhood, from the time he took his first picture at the age of 12. He cites the origins of photography—drawing with light, light recording, and documenting with light—as inspiration for the experimentation that he employs within his current work. “Experimentation and chance have become important tools in my research,” said Rentsch. “A large part of my methodology has been to abandon a considerable amount of control and allow the material to take over in some unexpected and unpredictable ways.”
Rentsch’s work is also impacted by a moral sensibility that he attributes to his upbringing on a prison compound, where his father worked as a warden. The first 18 years of his life included daily interactions with convicts, fostering in him a sense of empathy for the human condition that continues to work its way into his art and his life. According to Rentsch, “Entangled With Justice” contributed to his ongoing exploration of the connection of fate, geography and politics in the direction of justice.
He is the recipient of two fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and two grants from the Polaroid Corporation. His photographs have been exhibited worldwide and are represented in many museum collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston; the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Va.; the Musée de la Photographie in Charleroi, Belgium; the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland; the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin, the Swiss Foundation for Photography, and the Polaroid Collection.
Two of his Polaroid negatives from “Entangled With Justice” series are included in the Polaroid Project, a two-year traveling exhibition with stops at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas; the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Mass. and three photography museums in Europe.
Rentsch studied at Les Écoles d’Arts Appliqués in Vevey, Switzerland and earned his Master of Fine Arts in studio art from Stony Brook University.
The Lycoming College Art Gallery, located in downtown Williamsport at 25 W. Fourth St., contributes to the city’s arts culture and provides a way for the College to become more involved with the community surrounding it. Lycoming art students have the opportunity to interact with visiting artists, as well as learn first-hand the inner workings of a gallery.
The gallery is open Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, 4 – 8 p.m., and Saturdays 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. and 5 – 9 p.m. For more information, please visit the gallery online at https://www.lycoming.edu/art/gallery.html or send an email to dirocco@lycoming.edu.