“Matter Unmasked,” “Undercurrents” and “Members of the Wedding — A Fantasy Narrative”

FotoFest doesn’t officially start until March, but Hooks-Epstein Galleries is opening three participating exhibitions of photography today. “Matter Unmasked” features photographic collages by Kathryn Dunlevie, who fractures and then reassembles her photos to suggest the building blocks of matter. Les Longues Vacances is a serene beach scene reconstructed into a jagged jungle of palm trees.

Julie Brook Alexander’s “Undercurrents” uses multiple images taken around water layered over one another. Photographed at various sites, some of the shots are black-and-white, some hand-colored, and Alexander assembles pieces of each to suggest what she calls “a deeper meaning.” In Uncertainty #4, we see a colored stream from one photo flanked by ferns from a second photo and rocks from yet a third.

Fiction is the subject of Jim Falick’s “Members of the Wedding — A Fantasy Narrative.” His portraits suggest a story, an imagined narrative of ordinary people. “Members” features candid shots of people who seem to be in costume for a Renaissance fair, but to Falick, they’re members of a fictional wedding party. We see the bride’s father (a stately man in his fifties) and the groom’s aunt (a cross-looking woman wearing a pearl necklace), among others.

Today’s opening reception is 1 to 5 p.m. Regular viewing hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Through March 22. Hooks-Epstein Galleries, 2631 Colquitt. For information, call 713-522-0718 or visit www.hooksepsteingalleries.com. Free.
Tuesdays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Starts: Feb. 23. Continues through March 22, 2008