"Chameleon" and "Two India" at The Modbo and SPQR

The Modbo and SPQR, the Arts Alley District, proudly present March’s first Friday opening. The Modbo will host “Chameleon” by Erin Jones, while photographers Matthew Schniper and Anthony Delao Adams present “Two India” at SPQR. The opening reception for this show is on March 7th from 5:30 pm til midnight. Closing on March 28. The Modbo and SPQR are located at 17b and 17c East Bijou, 80903. More info at themodbo.com or at 633-4240, themodbo@gmail.com.

In the Modbo:

“Chameleon” by Erin Jones, is a collection of paintings and intaglio etchings that investigate camouflage and adaptation among people, environments, and objects. Erin Jones, 23, is a Colorado Springs native. She graduated from Palmer High School, having taken Advanced Placement and IB Classes in art. Her first and most prominent art pursuit began with FutureSelf in 2003. She studied countless art media under dozens of local artists as a student while also moving forward in the program as volunteer, artist assistant, event coordinator and teacher, until the program's end in 2011. Erin worked extensively with local artist and mentor Spica Stolfus and the Black Kiowa Gallery from 2006 to present. There, she executed dozens of art projects, shows, and installations throughout the community. From 2007-2008, Erin worked at the Smokebrush Foundation of the Arts as a gallery assistant and an assistant curator. In 2008, she was accepted into the highly esteemed annual juried art exhibition “Wunderkind” at the Business of Art Center. This exhibit spotlights 12 of the top high-school art students in the Pikes Peak region. Erin fell in love with oil paint in 2010 while studying under Brett Andrus at The Modbo/ SPQR galleries. Heavy participation in the Arts Alley District with Brett and Lauren Andrus has provided Erin with ample amounts of gallery exposure and recognition throughout the community. In an attempt to broaden her horizons in art and travel, Erin applied last year to the Aegean Center for the Fine Arts and was accepted alongside 26 participants worldwide to undergo an intensive abroad study in Italy and Greece for the fall of 2012.

In SPQR:

Two India: photography by Anthony Delao Adams and Matthew Schniper, capturing recent travels in India with Yobel International. (10 percent of proceeds will be donated to Yobel International.)

For two weeks in January, 2014, Anthony Delao Adams and Matthew Schniper participated as volunteers on a Yobel International Exposure Trip to Kolkata and Darjeeling, India. In the northern, tea-growing region, they helped teach a business-development curriculum aimed at empowering rural communities to transform their communities under their own power and leadership, to create true self-sufficiency and thereby less dependency on foreign aid. As part of the mission-oriented outreach work, they also visited the largest red light district in Asia, called Sonagachi, touring the production facilities of partnering fair-trade organizations who work to get women out of the sex trade and into dignified, sustainable labor. The images in this exhibit are not directly related to that mission, but were captured in the same locales, as both photographers interacted with the vibrant landscape and its captivating people. The intent is to provide two unique visual narratives and entry points into the complex and often confounding landscape that is India. This is each photographer’s first time to exhibit in a gallery setting.

Bio:

Matthew Schniper has been an arts editor and food critic at the Colorado Springs Independent since 2006. He graduated from Colorado College in 2001 with a creative writing and film degree, having grown up in Birmingham, Alabama. He has traveled through more than 35 countries, spent many years inside the restaurant industry, and enjoys organic gardening, beekeeping and outdoor pursuits in addition to photography. He recalls taking volumes of awful pictures on many a disposable camera, Polaroid or cheap point-and-shoot before getting his first 35mm film camera, an Olympus OM-2N, for a high school photography class. Years later, he would go through a few cheap point-and-shoot digital cameras before moving into a starter-level Canon Rebel XTi. Currently, he shoots on a Canon EOS 50D, affectionately nicknamed “Ginger Snap” by its former owner. Visit schnippic.com, a perpetual work in progress, to view more of his photography.

Anthony Delao is a local travel and portrait photographer focusing on everyday life. Undisturbed, as it is, in the midst of what may appear to be mundane or uninspiring at first glance. In 2009 a former boss placed an old camera in his hands, unintentionally sparking an interest in taking photos. However it was his first encounter with Thailand, in 2010, that really began his journey as a photographer and has allowed him to visit and photograph some of the globe's most interesting people and places. He spent the better part of his twenties living abroad and working in the non-profit realm, leaving him with the most insatiable case of wanderlust ever to strike a man and his camera. Today, he is a foodie and pastry junkie who dreams of shooting for a travel magazine, AFAR… one day.