Garibaldi-Meucci Museum Holds Artists' Reception for THE ART COUPLE Exhibition, 1/25

On Saturday, January 25, the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum will hold a artists' reception for the opening of "The Art Couple: Photographs by Vincent Verdi and Ann Marie McDonnell." The reception will take place from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and admission is free.

In 1990, Ann Marie McDonnell was welding in the metal shop at Brooklyn College in pursuit of her Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture. Downstairs, Vincent Verdi was working as the staging and lighting director in the TV center. When they first met in the college's Whitehead Hall there was an instant attraction... and 21 years later they are still married. Over the years their collaboration has deepened, growing from a personal connection into a creative one. Coming from very different artistic backgrounds, they have brought their disparate creative visions to photography, where their interests and art intersect and influence each other.

Vincent's landscape and portrait photographs will be featured in "The Art Couple." Greatly influenced by his experience as a staging and lighting designer, his photographic work manipulates lighting in both pre- and post-production to create his narrative scenes. Experimentation and happenstance are important parts of his process, and by changing locations and time of day he creates great dramatic effects. Vincent will also exhibit some of him infrared photographs including "The Art Couple," a humorous, other-worldly and retro photograph of him and Ann Marie for which the show was named.

Ann Marie's contributions to the show will include still-life photographs using flowers, which reflect her early life as an abstract painter. She not only paints the backgrounds, but also the flowers themselves to create the painterly effect of the photographs. "There is an experimental quality about the process that harkens back to the way I used to paint. I love the process and enjoy going into the studio each time without knowing exactly what will be the outcome," she says.

After the opening, "The Art Couple" may be viewed during regular museum hours, with paid museum admission, until the closing event on Saturday, April 13, 2013.

For more information visit www.garibaldimeuccimuseum.org or call 718-442-1608.