Inverness artist shares COVID-19 perspective in juried online exhibit

Robin Booth's COVID-19 artwork is featured in the "We Are All Contagious" international online exhibition, running through Aug. 31.

Booth, of Inverness, is the only Illinois artist in the special exhibition curated by Nato Thompson, artistic director of the Philadelphia Contemporary and sponsored by UMASS Dartmouth University Art Gallery.

"It is meaningful to be in this timely COVID-19 exhibition and to represent my hometown. As one of the 38 artists, we all have the opportunity to provide needed perspective about our collective experience during this evolving pandemic with recent increases again in a number of states."

Booth added, "This exhibition is a useful way to support one another through this difficult time. We are all in this together. I agree with the curator's remark about what the future will look like may be uncertain, but this exhibition gives insight as to where we are or have been. And, I remain hopeful about the future."

Booth's artwork features her latest experimental photography.

"My photos were 'painted' by rain during a Chicago storm. I shot them through my windshield in front of a Trader Joe's grocery store. The distorted and fragmented images of people became a lens into hearts and minds as people in masks or gloves rush to and from the store."

Booth is interested in pushing the boundaries of street photography, but also to document this time.

"I wanted to show COVID in a new way since we have never seen this before. People ask how I created these unique images. It was with a camera and some luck during the fleeting rainstorm."

The photos are a departure from her other street photography also just accepted in the juried international Urban Photo Awards in Trieste, France.

The "Contagious" exhibition was conceived by gallery Director Viera Levitt as a response to the current health crisis and to provide a socially distanced, online gallery platform for artists and the audience to think creatively about the current situation.

The online exhibition may be viewed through Aug. 31 at www.umassd.edu/cvpa/galleries/online.

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