Opening Day Talk: Peter Barberie and Martha Posner

Peter Barberie is the Brodsky Curator of Photographs, Alfred Stieglitz Center, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Since 2005 he has organized more than 25 exhibitions and edited and authored six books and numerous other publications, many of which manifest his efforts to connect the museum with broad public audiences. His projects include Long Light: David Lebe (2019), a survey of Lebe’s experimental photography and pioneering work as a gay artist with AIDS; Paul Strand: Master of Modern Photography (2014), an in-depth retrospective of Strand’s photography and films that traveled to several European venues; and Zoe Strauss: Ten Years (2012), a mid-career survey of Strauss’s photography and her closely related efforts at public engagement. His most recent project, Richard Benson: The World Is Smarter Than You Are (2021), examined Benson’s photographs in the context of the artist’s printing, teaching, and writing.

Martha Posner (born 1956) is a painter and sculptor who lives and works on a farm in Martins Creek, Pennsylvania. She takes much of her inspiration from the 250 acres of surrounding forest, fairy tales and mythology, and her many barnyard creatures. She has had solo exhibitions in the United States and abroad at Centro Cultural de Cooperacion, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Heidi Cho Gallery, New York City; The Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania; The Hunterdon Museum of Art, Clinton, New Jersey; Albright College Museum, Reading, Pennsylvania; The Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama and The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Ohio, among others.

Her work is held by numerous private and public collections including The George Gund Foundation, The Allentown Art Museum, The Butler Museum of Art, Youngstown, Ohio; and the Great Northern Corporate Center, Cleveland, Ohio. She has received the Mary H. Dana Award from Rutgers University, The Experimental Printmaking Award from Lafayette College as well as Fellowships from The Ragdale Foundation and The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. A retrospective of her work titled Brutal Beauty was exhibited in 2020 at the Sordoni Art Gallery in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.