Hahnemühle Award
Mark Armbruster (born 1970; lives Baltimore, MD) has a BFA in Photography from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore and an MS in Instructional Design and Technology from the University of Maryland, College Park. He has exhibited at Torpedo Factory, Alexandria, VA; Circle Gallery, Annapolis, MD; The Contemporary and Maryland Art Place, both Baltimore; Perspective Photo Gallery, Evanston, IL; The Delaplaine, Frederick; Overlea Arts Festival; Tamar Hendel Gallery; Silver Spring; Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Arts Center, Solomons; all MD. His work has been featured in F-Stop Magazine and Jpeg Magazine.
Statement from the Artist:
I use non-traditional landscape imagery as a backdrop for painted graphs and charts that represent data from studies on climate change and its effect on our environment. The landscapes are recognizable but taken from a vantage point that shows larger structures of globalized commerce, energy resources and industrialization at play in our own backyards. The photographs depict scenes of wild grasslands, seascapes, burnt desert forests, receding reservoirs, communities on the edge of the Chesapeake Bay and the dense urban infrastructure of Baltimore city. Visual data represented by dots, lines and patterns allow this imagery to show through and blend with the painted colors and textures. The graphs speak to phenomena like global sea level rise, greenhouse gas emissions, temperature extremes, drought, wildfires, and ground water loss. My titles derive from climate change denials made by politicians and leaders over the past decade, revealing their inability to care for our environment and alter its current course. The titles refer to the specific studies or climate issue represented in the images and are selected for their satirical tone and sometimes tragic and idiotic brutality.