During FotoFest, Houston's all-out photography extravaganza, I had a solo exhibition at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft & led a workshop at the Museum of Printing History.

HCCC Curatorial Assistant, Ashley Powell, posted this interview on the HCCC blog

Many thanks to all who made my visit successful & memorable!

I've curated FLOCK, a show welcoming Spring, featuring birds, color & exuberance to greet spring. FLOCK includes bodies of work by seven artists (think of each artist's offerings as a species): Cliff Baldwin (Aquebogue NY), Chris Chase (Richmond VA), Veva Edelson (Penland NC), Mary Holland (Richmond VA), Alyssa C. Salomon & Steve Pittelkow (Providence Forge VA & Saint Paul MN), & Jennifer Watson (Richmond VA).

Where I live, Spring rolls in creatures first, then plants. The days are tiicked off species by species, bird by bird. Glory.

at Quirk Gallery, Richmond VA
March 1 through April 28, 2012 at Quirk Gallery
quirkgallery.com

Steve Pittelkow & I contributed 15 of our marbelized cyanotype collaborations, including brand new work. Each pass in his marbeling tray gets wilder & wilder.

Alyssa Salomon - The Handmade Print
February 4 - April 8, 2012
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft
www.crafthouston.org

This fall marks the 10th Anniversary of Art-o-mat machine #33 in Richmond VA. Alyssa has been the project's Richmond "District Manager" & the Visual Arts Center of Richmond is our permanent home.

To celebrate this decade of vending real art by real artists in Richmond, the Visual Arts Center will mount an Art-o-mat extravaganza starting December 1, 2011, with a visit & presentation by Art-o-mat creator, Clark Whittington; an opening reception; a continuing exhibition; AND a special loading of our machine with art by celebrated Richmond artists including Caryl Burtner, Paul DiPasquale, Sarah Hand, Sue Heatley, Mary Holland, Aimee Joyeaux, Dawn Latane, Michael Lease, Alyssa C Salomon, Frank Saunders, Chuck Scalin, Mim Golub Scalin, Noah Scalin, Robin Silberman, Ed Steinberg, Georgianne Stinnett, & CLARK WHITTINGTON.

Art-o-mat - Real Art by Real Artists. Still $5.
Why go 'round artless?
www.artomat.org

If you are in Charlottesville for Look3 next weekend or in town anytime through June 25th, check out my exhibition at Chroma Projects, 418 E. Main on the Mall. The gallery looks great. I'm in a gallery behind Look3 featured photographer Massimo Vitali.

Chroma Projects

You're invited to Art & Coffee on Tuesday, May 24, at 9:30 AM, at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond, when Alyssa Salomon recounts the history of the Art-o-mat, a recycled cigarette machine that dispenses original works of art in cellophane the size of a pack of cigarettes. The Visual Arts Center of Richmond proudly houses Virginia’s first permanent Art-o-mat machine. Salomon will show examples of work produced for and collected from Art-o-mats, and instruct the audience on how they, too, can make art for Art-o-mats around the country. Please join us for this exciting opportunity to learn about our own historical Art-o-mat machine and the process for making dispensable art!

The event is free & open to the public.
Visual Arts Center of Richmond
1812 West Main Street, Richmond VA
visarts.org

I was awarded the Portfolio Prize for the collaborative work with Helen Hiebert exhibited in Photo Alchemy at 23 Sandy Gallery, Portland OR

You can check out the beautiful catalogue and all the excellent work in the show online here > 23 Sandy Gallery

Look for my work soon in Diffusion Magazine - a publication dedicated to "unconventional photography".

As part of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Traveling Exhibition Program, Alyssa C. Salomon's eight panel, fifty foot long project, Nothing But Blue Skies will be installed at Richmond International Airport, Richmond VA, March 1 to June 27, 2011.

---

Master & magnificant papermaker Helen Hiebert & I will teach From Pulp to Print at Penland School of Crafts, Summer 2001 during 5th Session, July 24 to August 9. Penland has released preliminary course information with registration & full catalog available in early January 2011.

For the Summer 2011 Penland course list click here

Can't wait. Penland is magical & Helen & I have lots of tricks & curiosity up our sleeves.

----

I'm going to offer The ABC's of Alternative Photographic Processes at the VMFA Studio School, Saturday May 7, 2011, 10am to 4pm.

For more information or to register, call the VMFA Studio School at 804-367-0816.

Course information available online at http://www.vmfa.museum/Learn/Adults/Studio_School/Photography/Spring_2011.aspx

---

Nice article by RVA MAGAZINE about TELL ME AGAIN, THE WORLD WILL BE BEAUTIFUL
click here

Thanks, Tony!

----

TELL ME AGAIN, THE WORLD WILL BE BEAUTIFUL

On Thursday September 30, 2010, from 6 to 8 PM the gallery will host a preview and an artist talk. These works will be at the Page Bond Gallery, 1625 West Main Street with an opening reception, Friday October 1, from 7 to 9 PM. The exhibition will remain on view through Saturday, October 30, 2010. For more information visit Page Bond Gallery

---

BUSINESS PRACTICES FOR PROFESSIONAL ARTISTS
Saturday, October 2, 2010 10am to 2pm
Instructor: Alyssa C. Salomon
This workshop provides artists, photographers, craftspeople and writers with a basic introduction to recordkeeping, business planning, income and sales tax reporting, local licensing requirements, and where to seek additional information. Time will be available in class to answer student questions of general interest to the group. Please bring a lunch.

MY VISUAL BLOG: SAY IT WITH PICTURES
Two Saturdays, October 9 & 16, 2010 10am to noon
Instructor: Alyssa C. Salomon
Let pictures posted on a blog tell your story. Blogs are perfect for documenting long-term activites. Subjects include family, home renovation, studio practice, gardening, travel, and much more. Using digital images to build a narrative and the Web site blogspot.com, participants will set up a blog that can be accessed and maintained from any computer. Instruction includes basic image transfer, editing, and discussions regarding narrative structure. Students should have access to and basic familiarity with a digital camera and bring a jump drive.


To register for either class, call Virginia Museum of Fine Art Studio School, 804-367-0816.

---

Summer Solstice, the annual summer group exhibition of gallery artists, will open at the Page Bond Gallery, 1625 West Main Street, Richmond VA, with a reception honoring the artists, Wednesday, July 7, 2010 from 7 to 9 PM. The exhibition will remain on view through Friday, August 30, 2010.

I have a piece, entitled "In light and water we are cleansed", in the show - another preview of work for my solo show at the gallery this fall.

More information and images are available under Current Exibition here

--

Start the New Year with a bit of fun & creative experiementation ... and THINK BLUE

Alyssa Salomon will be a featured artist during this month's Second Friday Art Sampler at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond, January 8, 2010. Students will get an introduction to cyanotype photography, and have a chance to make cyanotype prints on a variety of paper and even fabric.

For more information or to reserve a seat in this free two-hour workshop call 804.353.0094.

--

New Work by Alyssa C Salomon is included in COLD PRESS at Page Bond Gallery

The Page Bond Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of prints by national and international artists including Polly Apfelbaum, John Baldessari, Ross Bleckner, Mel Bochner, Caio Fonseca, Helen Frankenthaler, Lucian Freud, Mary Heilmann, Ellsworth Kelly, Patsy Krebs, Martin Puryear, Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra, Julião Sarmento, Joel Shapiro, Amy Sillman, Donald Sultan, Terry Winters, and Peter Wüthrich. In addition, recent work by gallery artist will be on display, including William Berry, Katherine Kadish, Ann Lyne, Kristi Hager, Kris Iden, Kathleen Markowitz, Holly Morrison, Ruby Palmer, Curtis Ripley, Alyssa Salomon, Tanja Softic, Duston Spear, Peri Schwartz, Robert Strini, Soonae Tark, Randy Toy.

Cold Press opens at the Page Bond gallery, 1625 West Main Street, with an opening reception honoring the artists, Friday, December 11, 2009 from 7 to 9 PM. The exhibition extends from Wednesday, December 9 through Saturday, January 30, 2010.

Cold Press reflects the creative and continuous expression of artists represented by the Page Bond Gallery as well as other gallery favorites. During the season of giving this group exhibition highlights the importance of art, with an emphasis on works on paper, and the creativity of the human spirit.

For more information on any of these artists or the Page Bond Gallery and the artists represented, please call Page Bond or Allison Fiebert at 804 359 3633 or visit www.pagebondgallery.com. Email Page Bond Gallery.

--

Art on a slow simmer
A thoughtful convergence of international work in Horazdovice

May 7, 2009
By Mimi Fronczak Rogers

Prague Post

"Slow art" is how gallery director Barbara Benish characterizes the work in Galerie Califia's latest show, "Hand-Werk," calling to mind the Slow Food movement of leisurely braises and simmers - honest ingredients cooked with care. With so much contemporary art the aesthetic equivalent of a McDonald's hamburger, a show like "Hand-Werk" invites viewers to slow down and savor some soul-satisfying work that blends strong concept with painstaking process.

Yet "Hand-Werk" has a completely contemporary sensibility, and art-savvy viewers will notice elements of deconstruction and irony along with feminist art practices. This group show brings together four contemporary artists from the United States, one artist from Germany and one from the Czech Republic - the only man in the show. ...

American Alyssa C. Salomon, who lives in Virginia, is a standard-bearer for darkroom magic in the digital age. Her captivating photographs are made using the 19th-century cyanotype process, which yields mysterious deep-blue images. The artist embraces arcane and time-consuming processes (she mixes and applies the chemicals herself), and her resulting pictures are poetic and haunting. ...

Hand-Werk
at Galerie Califia Ends May 10. Horažovice Chateau, Horazdovice, south Bohemia. Open Thurs.-Sat. 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

--

February 5, 2009 - I've been awarded a 2009-2010 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship in Photography for current work in the cyanotype medium. This is my second VMFA Fellowship and a tremendous honor.

--

Penland School of Craft - Summer 2009
I'll be teaching a jazzed up historic process class at Penland in the beautiful mountains of western North Carolina, Session 5, July 19 - August 4, 2009.
Among my goals is to have us print cyanotypes on eggs as well as have each student make at least one 20 x 30 print from a contructed negative!

For more information visit Penland.org

--

Page Bond Gallery is featuring a selection of my large cyanotype works & a pair of daguerreotypes with a solo installation in the gallery's Library January 8 through February 28, 2009.

During the same run, PBG is exhibiting MAGGIE: Photographs by Emmet Gowin and Elijah Gowin. Margaret Ennis Booher Cooper, affectionately known as Aunt Maggie, is 98 years of age. She lives alone in the same house she and her husband, Willie Commodore Cooper, moved into when they were married in 1930. Father and son, Emmet and Elijah, have made extensive bodies of images of and around this deep and mysterious woman.

--

I'll be running my two-day Cyanotype Wonder Weekend workshop at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond June 6 & 7, 2009.

Think BLUE! Explore ways to make photographic prints through the 19th century cyanotype process with & without cameras. The course will include methods for creating negatives, procedures for mixing & applying your own chemistries & toning for colors from blue to red to yellow. Cyanotypes offer rich options for photographers & non-photographers to make images on paper. Most chemistry will be provided although students are expected to supply paper & other materials. Great for photographers, printmakers, & anyone interested, working at all levels.

Information & registration available soon at www.visarts.org
or by calling 804.353.0094.

Alyssa Salomon teaches "Mirror with a Memory", a daguerreotype making workshop, Friday, October 10 to Sunday, October 12, 2008 at the Visual Arts Center, Richmond VA.

For more information and to register, call 804.355.0094 or visit
http://visarts.org/artclasses/fall/photo

Tomorrow is the first second Tuesday, and that means the debut of The Visual Arts Center of Richmond's new morning program, "Art & Coffee". Join VisArts at 9:30 for coffee, biscotti and "Every Picture Tells a Story: Reading Photographs," a talk by photographer and snapshot collector Alyssa Salomon, who will show examples from the medium's 170 years and discuss photography's formats, styles and uses.

For more information about this program or the Visual Arts Center visit
http://visarts.org

"And Now For Something Completely Different ... Your Guide to the Wildest Art Show in Town"
by Brendan Fitzgerald
C-ville Issue #20.22 :: 05/27/2008 - 06/02/2008, Charlottesville VA

Visit C-ville's website for the complete article featuring video of my piece and other work in The OtherShow.
http://www.c-ville.com/index.php?cat=121

Fitzgerald's review is excerpted below:

"'The Other Show,' the current art show at Piedmont Virginia Community College that runs through August 21, is based on the space between vision and revision, the move from a comfortable idea towards a less comfortable one. Curator and local artist Rob Tarbell collected 40 pieces of art from 20 artist -- one exemplary of each person's style, and another that strays from each person's norm. 'I asked fellow artists, "What do you do?" But I followed with "What else?"' Tarbell writes in a book accompanying the exhibit. 'And the answer was always interesting.' ...

"3. Radio, radio
When you first arrive at the Dickinson Building, remain in your car. Turn the radio frequency to either 98.9FM or 101.3FM and, for the next 10 minutes, keep your eyes closed as the radio broadcasts the noise of impending disasters -- wreckage by wind, water, fire, all of the natural elements.

The woman behind that sonic manipulation, 'Vague Apocalypse,' is Alyssa Salomon, and she is primarily a photographer. The northern portion of the PVCC gallery is filled with her daguerreotypes, photos developed on the chemical compound silver halide that bear names like 'Nothing, Blue Skies' and kinda resemble holograms.

Yet 'Vague Apocalypse' arguably nabbed Salomon more attention, including a 2007 'Best in Show' nod from the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia. Tarbell says that 'Vague Apocalypse' and the daguerreotypes are both examples of antiquated technology, outdated media, but that’s not the only connection between Salomon's work. While one radio transmitter hidden in the PVCC gallery broadcasts disaster after disaster, another plays Irving Berlin's 'Blue Skies.' This radio broadcast will continue, 24 hours a day, until the show ends in late August. Forecast: Blue skies, with a 50 percent chance of annihilation. You’ve been warned."

"And Now For Something Completely Different …", Brendan Fitzgerald.
C-ville. May 27, 2008

Art Papers. Review, Vittorio Colazzi. September 2006

"Magic Made with Mirrors", Harry Kollatz. Theresa Pollak Awards for Excellence in the Arts. Richmond Magazine, September 2006

Feature Portfolio, The Daguerreian Society Newsletter, September-October 2005

"Where's the fun in one-hour photos?" Jacob Spears, The Pitt News, September 22, 2005

"Playing With Light", Jessica Clarke, Daily News-Record, February, 11, 2005

"Loud and Clear", Steven L. Jones, -Style Weekly-, September 29, 2004

"Step Right Up", Paulette Roberts-Pullen, Style Weekly, November 20, 2002

"Alyssa C. Salomon, Daguerreotypist", Jessica Ronky Haddad, Style Weekly, January 8, 2002

"Daguerreotype update: Sunny North Side driveway", Roy Proctor, Richmond Times Dispatch, December 23, 2001

"Memorable Achievements", Deborah McLeod, Style Weekly, December 26, 2000

"Book Marks", Margaret Regan, Tucson Weekly, January 6, 2000

ART PAPERS, Review, Kerry Mills, November/December 1998