Photomontages of Mark Penland featured at Southern Light Gallery

The unusual two-dimensional photomontages of noted Metroplex artist Mark Penland will be on display Oct. 7-Nov. 16 at Amarillo College’s Southern Light Gallery.

Penland is a freelance photographer who serves as instructional associate in photography and photography lab manager at Tarrant County College’s Northeast Campus.

His exhibit at AC features work in which he uses photography, collage, and found objects to create small-scale works, then photographs or scans the resulting files and prints them with a large-scale inkjet printer.

“When I sit down to work on these, I almost never have a final image in mind,” Penland said. “The initial urge is strictly formal; shape, color, and line. Sometimes a narrative emerges and I will pursue it to the best of my ability, but often times they remain mysteries.”

Penland also participated in an electronic billboard art exhibition over the summer of 2022, which was sponsored by the City of North Richland Hills and was in evidence along the Loop 820 corridor. The project’s website points out the following about Penland’s work: “Using both historical elements as well as contemporary ephemera, Penland creates images that feel both familiar and evasive simultaneously.”

The Southern Light Gallery is located on the first floor of the Ware Student Commons on AC’s Washington Street Campus and is free and open to the public.

For more information about the Mark Penland photomontage exhibit or the Southern Light Gallery, please contact René West, associate professor of photography, at rwest@actx.edu or 806-345-5654.