Opening Reception: Kathy Vargas: Light Needs Shadow Needs Light…

As Kathy Vargas reflects on her remarkable decades-long career in the arts—as an artist, art administrator, mentor, activist, and curator—Light Needs Shadow Needs Light… serves as a meditation on the past, present, and future, exploring themes of life, love, and death. Through four distinct series of meticulously composed, hand-painted, silver gelatin photographs, Vargas weaves together the personal and the political, layering references to fantastical elements from her father’s Mexican folklore and her mother’s devout Catholic beliefs.

Each photograph serves as an example of the artist’s mastery of the darkroom and photographic process. The harmonious montage of layered exposures, recurring props, brushstrokes that infuse life into the images, and calculated scratches on the negatives invite viewers to investigate the magic in the in-between.