Site Unseen Exhibits Artworks Off Their Pedestals

Baltimore (5/12/13)—Experience Site Unseen, Gregory Vershbow, Saturday, July 6, 2013–Sunday, September 8, 2013, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Wednesday–Sunday at the Walters Art Museum. The exhibition of photographs explores the interactions of art objects within environments and circumstances ordinarily beyond public view. Vershbow captures the appearance of works of art off their pedestals, dismantled, wrapped, and stored. Site Unseen features large-scale prints of photographs shot at the Walters Art Museum in 2012 and other museums and monuments in the United States and abroad from 2010-2011.

“Vershbow’s work imbues unassuming moments in the lives of objects with a sense of drama,” said Marden Nichols, assistant curator of ancient art. “These photographs implicitly contrast the calibrated stage set of the museum gallery with the inadvertent showcase of the storeroom.”

The exhibition highlights the engagement of a contemporary artist with historical works of art from the Walters’ collection. It also offers a rare glimpse into areas of restricted access, such as storage facilities and conservation laboratories. Vershbow’s images demonstrate the unexpected visual impact of sites unseen by museum visitors.

Gregory Vershbow was born in Washington, D.C., in 1982. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2010. His work consists of photographic series and narrative books that combine his photography with original drawings and text. He has exhibited in solo and group shows on the East Coast of the United States and in Europe. Numerous museums have collected Vershbow’s art, including the Art Institute of Chicago, J. Paul Getty Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the National Academy of Sciences.

Site Unseen at the Walters Art Museum will be the first museum exhibition dedicated to his work.

Hours/Admission

Site Unseen, Gregory Vershbow is free. Museum hours are 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday and Thursday evenings from 5–9 p.m. General admission to the Walters’ permanent collection is free. For more information, go to www.thewalters.org.

About the Walters Museum

The Walters Art Museum is located in downtown Baltimore’s historic Mount Vernon Cultural District at North Charles and Centre Streets. At the time of his death in 1931, museum founder Henry Walters left his entire collection of art – including a legendary collection of illuminated medieval manuscripts that is a national treasure – to the city of Baltimore. Between 1895 and 1931, Walters collected around 730 codices.  Its permanent collection includes ancient art, medieval art and manuscripts, decorative objects, Asian art and Old Master and 19th-century paintings.