Everything Under the Sun: Cyanotype and Lumen Prints by Fruma Markowitz

No camera, no darkroom, no chemicals in two of the three steps. You lay a plant on treated paper, put it in the sun, and wait a quarter of an hour.

Fruma Markowitz's first solo show at The Meetinghouse gathers cyanotype and lumen prints, most of them made during her 2022 artist residency at Weir Farm National Historical Park in Wilton. While she was there she kept a visual diary of one lumen print a day, and built a collection of cyanotypes from the wildflowers and invasive plants growing on the farm. She also photographed Julian Alden Weir's barn studio and home, intending eventually to make a handmade artist book setting his work beside hers: two artists working the same landscape, separated by process and by a century. This show is where that project starts.

What you are actually looking at. Cyanotype uses two iron salts to make an emulsion that is sensitive to ultraviolet light. Botanical cuttings are laid on paper painted with the solution, covered with glass, and left in the sun for ten to fifteen minutes, then washed and dried. Lumen prints are made the same way but with no chemistry at all, using old analog black-and-white darkroom paper as the surface, which is what produces the unexpected colors.

The opening reception is Sunday 18 October, 2 to 4pm, in the downstairs gallery, and it is the one time you can talk to the artist about any of it.

Good to know. The show runs 18 October to 22 November. The gallery is open Tuesday to Sunday, 8am to 4pm, and closed Mondays. Free.

Where to go. The Meetinghouse Gallery, 602 Ridgebury Road, Ridgefield.

Before you go. Details change. Confirm the date, time, price, ticket availability and any audience advisory directly with the venue before you travel. Listings are compiled from information published by the venue and are provided as is, without warranty of any kind. Community Stroll is not the organizer of this event and accepts no responsibility or liability for any loss, cost, injury or disappointment arising from errors, changes, cancellations, or from your attendance.