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The Lycoming Art Gallery invites Williamsport and the surrounding communities to explore a powerful and moving collection of photography by internationally recognized documentary photographer Vincent Cianni. The exhibit, titled “Vincent Cianni: A Survey,” will be open to Lycoming students, faculty, and the general public beginning Friday, March 1, with a reception beginning at 5 p.m., and a gallery talk slated for 5:30 p.m., with gallery hours extended until 9 p.m. for that evening.
The exhibit features work from four of his major projects titled “East Berlin: And the Wall Comes Down,” “A Journey through the Early Years of AIDS,” “We Skate Hardcore,” and “Gays in the Military.” A series of early black-and-white photographs and Polaroid SX-70s will be exhibited to understand the sources of subject matter in the photographer’s early work and its impact on the development of his documentary practice. Much of his featured work focuses heavily on social justice issues. He also examines economic disparities between the East and West in post-communist Germany in his collection titled “East Berlin: And the Wall Comes Down.”
After completing a Bachelor of Science in Community Development at The Pennsylvania State University, Cianni went on to pursue his Master of Fine Arts in Photography at the State University of New York New Paltz. He currently teaches photography and theory at the Parsons School for Design. Founder and director of the Newburgh Community Photo Project, a community-based organization that teaches photography and civic engagement to local citizens, he shares his passion for and knowledge of photography both within academia and within the Newburgh community.
Cianni’s first monograph, “We Skate Hardcore,” was published by the New York University Press and the Center for Documentary Studies in 2004, and was awarded the American Association of University Presses Best Book Design Award. “Gays in the Military,” his second monograph, was published by Daylight in 2014. It was featured on the Katie Couric Show and reviewed in The New York Times Sunday Review, Slate.com, LA City Watch, and TruthDig.
His photography has also been featured in Double Take, Aperture, The New Yorker, Photography as Activism; New York 400: A Visual History of America’s Greatest City; and The Polaroid Book: Selections from the Polaroid Collection of Photography, among others.
Cianni will serve as the outside juror for the 2019 Lycoming College Senior Show, which opens April 12.
The Lycoming College Art Gallery, located in downtown Williamsport at 25 W. Fourth St., contributes to the city’s arts culture and provides a way for the College to become more involved with the community surrounding it. Lycoming art students have the opportunity to interact with visiting artists, as well as learn first-hand the inner workings of a gallery.
The gallery is open Wednesday through Friday, 4 – 8 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. and 5 – 9 p.m. For more information, please visit the gallery online at: https://www.lycoming.edu/art/gallery.html or send an email to dirocco@lycoming.edu. The gallery is closed during academic breaks.