Just Do It

Amanda Means: Glass + Light

by Danielle Zimmerman

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Opening reception Fri., March 21, 6-8 p.m., runs through May 10, Gallery 339, 339 S. 21st St, 215-731-1530, gallery339.com

Proving that simplicity often has the most striking visual effect, NYC-based photographer Amanda Means works with a backdrop of darkness and uses light to play on the shapes and composition of everyday items. One series in her new exhibit, "Glass + Light," features close-ups of a solitary drinking glass. In some shots, the glass is empty, every scratch and blemish fully visible. In others, it's filled with water, tiny bubbles making their way toward the liquid's surface, or droplets of condensation running down the outside of the glass.

Her prints of plant materials such as stems, leaves and flowers place equally eye-catching white and gray shapes on a blanket of black. But perhaps most compelling are her Warhol-esque Polaroids of light bulbs, the same images repeated in super-saturated pink, green, yellow and blue — lending them a kind of glowing beauty you might not associate with functional household stuff. But that's exactly the point: By capturing the effects of varying colors and temperatures on all-too-familiar objects, Means shows them off in an intriguing new light.