Reviews and NewsReviews and News
March, 2008, “Looking Now: BMA Digital Photography Project” Peggy Fox is one of 20 photographers asked to respond to images from the collection with an image of their own, as well as mentoring a teen in producing an image. Her piece, produced while traveling was, "Angkor Wat: A model of the Universe".
"Inspired by Callahan’s Chicago, which consists of images of windows in a positive/negative grid, I began composing my image with the doors of Angkor Wat. Angkor is built on a model of the universe, and I integrated the layout of the temple by arranging the doors in such a way that roughly recalled the order of the temple plan. Believed to be the largest religious structure in the world and containing layers of meaning, Angkor parallels the four ages of classical Hindu thought. While walking through the inner entrance and through the courtyards to the central tower, which represents Mount Meru, one metaphorically travels back to the creation of the universe." - Baltimore Museum of Art
In January, Peggy Fox attended Review LA where she showed her Portfolio to museum curators, gallery directors and magazine editors, where the work was well received.
Also in January, Peggy Fox finished a private commission, “The Taj” , a two by eight foot collage using photographs, transparencies on aluminum and mirrored mylar in collaboration with the owner/ designer, and using the architectural elements of his dwelling as well as other imagery, as abstraction.
Peggy Fox has received two individual Artist's grants in Visual Arts from the Maryland State's Arts Council in 1999 and 2005.
The Donald S. Levinson Art Collection at Sheppard Pratt Health Systems in Baltimore purchased Fox's "Marching thru Zion". The digital print has become part of their permanent collection.
Artist Reviews
"“Mixed Messages” with Peggy Fox & Nancy Wilson at Gallerie Francoise ESF, November, 2007...Fox is more of a photographer than not with more than a dozen images on display; however, it appears that every image has been altered in some form with multiple exposures, hand-coloring and -tinting, collaging images, then re-photographing, or adding layers andtextures to negatives during the printing process."Burrs Heart" and "Where Spider Woman Lives"are surreally documented landscapes photographed from atop a cliff edge in New Mexico. The images themselves appear to be totally artificial, like small models that have been made in the studio and photographed as real places. It is difficult to tell exactly what gives the images this deceitful appeal. Their strange earthy tones appear to have been tinted and hand-colored but are so flawless that it is next to impossible to understand exactly where they have been manipulated, and the images are so bizarre to begin with that it is impossible not to question their validity. Similarly, Fox's photographs of koi ponds in China are as beautiful as they are mind-boggling. She created this series of works by taking eight pictures of koi swimming, then combining the images into 13 different compositions. What results are dense blue-black watery backgrounds with bursts of color as the koi appear near the surface. The scale of the fish change within each combination, creating depth and layering. The final prints are like firework bursts in the sky and left me wishing that they were printed much larger." - Jason Hughes - City Paper Art Critic
"Peggy Fox's "Lost in the Cosmos", at the Johns Hopkins Hospital Metro station, and Ellen Burchenal's "Wave", at the Shot Tower/Market Place Metro station, both fit into the category of contemporary public art. Fox's busy "Lost in the Cosmos" will wake you up. It's a visual kaleidoscope, incorporating images of people, transportation (train, car, plane, bicycle), star charts and constellations, even a nursery rhyme: A big cow jumps over the moon.
Fox has said there's a narrative to all this. To me it's about the human urge to challenge frontiers, appropriate to an institution where people challenge medical frontiers, will stimulate the imagination of some and strike others as visually chaotic and jangling. Both artists are good, and both have taken legitimate, if quite different approaches. But considering their creations as works of art, Peggy Fox's has much more interest." - "Aesthetics Go Along For Ride At Metro Stops" - John Dorsey - Sun Art Critic"Collage artist Peggy Fox has conjured up a galaxy of intriguing images to engage passengers at the new Johns Hopkins Hospital metro stop. Fox won the commission for the mural through an open competition in 1987, shortly after work on the subway extension began." - "Underground Art" - Megan Hamilton - Freelance Writer
"The theme of "The Figure Within" at the Halcyon Gallery makes this show sound intriguing. Peggy Fox's photographic works have considerable presence, and her figures neatly turn the tables on this show's title. In two of her three works here, the setting is the representational part, and the figure is the abstract part: It exists as the visualization of an idea and not as the representation of a human." - "Abstraction And The Human Figure" - John Dorsey - Sun Art Critic
"When Peggy Fox takes a black-and-white photograph, her work is just beginning. She proceeds to paint the photo, incorporate some computer-manipulated imagery, and add other bits of collage material. There is enough representational imagery in Fox's photos to make their more abstract painterly passages seem like expressive underscoring of figurative material." - "Medium Is The Message" - Mike Giuliano - Baltimore City Paper - Art Critic
"The work of Peggy Fox and Jack Radcliffe demonstrate the flexibility inherent in the photographic medium. Peggy Fox's manipulated photographs vibrate and resonate with layers of meaning and visual metaphors...creating exciting, powerful images. Once upon the image, we are further drawn into the layers of color and meaning Fox has so adeptly built. Her powerful visual vocabulary engages and then captures us, forcing our imagination and intellect into unknown, but exciting dimensions." - "Maryland Photographers: Recent Works By Peggy Fox And Jack Radcliffe" - Cynthia Wayne - Curator of Exhibitions - Albin H. Kuhn Library and Gallery
