SOPHIE DELAPORTE – POSTMODERN MYSTERIES

Posted on 2016-05-30

Since the early 90s, when the artist would begin her formative and longstanding collaborations with cutting-edge British magazine I-D, Sophie Delaporte has remained dedicated to the “play” of photography and fashion in its most straightforward definition, emphasizing fun, freedom and theatricality. Yet Delaporte’s lighthearted view of the worlds she creates, in which women and men appear to happily vacillate between childhood and adulthood, are anything but straightforward. This immediately recognizable style of Delaporte—highly pictorial, and often employing lush color and sparkling humor— promises such multifaceted readings, that any sequence of images can be arranged and disarranged to pleasing effect: a dinner scene, framed in front of darkening windows and spotted with silverware that reflects the impossibly bright wine set in glass goblets, could be at once a poetical, beautiful meditation on the power of the woman in red at the head of this table, and also a charged scene from a contemporary iteration of Ubu Roi. “The mysteries are decidely postmodern,” writes Vicki Goldberg, “consisting of inexplicable actions, they involve no crime and have no solution other than anyone’s guess.” With an ever-refreshing perspective, along with the mastery of pretended improvisation and movement in a tightly controlled studio setting, Delaporte positions her work in the realm of surrealism, promising nothing but the surprise and delight of the imagination.

Opposite – Global Nonchalance, 2005

Exhibition runs through to June 11th, 2016

Sous Les Etoiles Gallery
560 Broadway #603
New York
NY 10012

www.souslesetoilesgallery.net

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KATHY RYAN: OFFICE ROMANCE

Posted on 2016-05-30

In the words of architect Renzo Piano, his New York Times building was “all about the light, and the vibration of light and shadow.” Working on the 6th floor of the building, Ryan admired how the light of New York City would stream in from the large clear glass windows and cast spectacular architectural shadows from the unusual ceramic rods that encase the building. In the fall of 2012, Kathy Ryan saw a zigzag of light on a staircase and grabbed her iPhone to take a picture. From then on, she was hooked. On a regular basis, she comes in early or stays late or returns on weekends to capture the luminous quality of the light. Among her favorite spots are an eastside corner on the 6th floor in the mornings and the west side of the building on the 15th floor at sunset.

Seeking beauty and poetry in the office space became a mission for Ryan, unexpectedly leading to a highly successful Instagram account (kathyryan1) with 96K followers ; a book, Office Romance (Aperture, 2014); and a new assignment from the magazine’s editor-in-chief Jake Silverstein to photograph the magazine’s staff and contributing writers and artists for the contributors page.

Opposite – 10:10 a.m., October 15, 2013

Exhibition runs through to June 19th, 2016

Howard Greenberg Gallery
The Fuller Building
41 East 57th Street
Suite 1406
New York
NY 10022

www.howardgreenberg.com

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KENNETH JOSEPHSON

Posted on 2016-05-30

Throughout his career, from his days as a student at the Institute of Design through his years as a teacher at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Kenneth Josephson has been a groundbreaking figure in photography. His work explores the inherent characteristics of the photographic medium, including the essential use of light and the concepts of photographic truth and illusion. Whether his works utilize a single negative, multiple exposures, collage, or a construction that is photographed, Josephson creates art that challenges our perceptions and invites us to consider different perspectives.

Opposite – Front Street, Rochester, NY, 1956

Exhibition runs through to June 11th, 2016

Gitterman Gallery
41 East 57th Street
Suite 1103
New York
NY 10022

www.gittermangallery.com

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ADRIANA ZEHBRAUSKAS – FAMILY MATTERS

Posted on 2016-05-23

According to Amnesty International, more than 27,000 people remain missing or disappeared in Mexico. In 2014 alone it reached 6000, a record. The real number is probably much higher; many cases go unreported for fear of retaliation and because of distrust in local and government authorities.

Working closely with the families of the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers School that went missing in September, 2014 in Iguala after being ambushed by the local police and handed over to a narco group, one thing became clear to me: not only had these familie’s future been stolen, but a memory of their past was also doomed to disappear. Apart from a few mugshots and cellphone images, very few of the Ayotzinapa families had pictures of their disappeared loved ones.

Exhibition runs through to June 6th, 2016

The Half King
505 West 23rd Street
New York
NY 10011

www.halfkingphoto.com

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CHIP HOOPER: CALIFORNIA’S PACIFIC 2ND SET

Posted on 2016-05-23

Chip Hooper once described his method: “the process of creating photographs is a contemplative one. It is an exploration of my feelings as much as it is an exploration of what I am seeing. The best images always happen when what I am feeling becomes one with what I am seeing.” The photographs presented in the Robert Mann Gallery exhibition, Californiaʼs Pacific 2nd Set, are perhaps the best embodiment of his process. These works evoke a visceral response, and when faced with a series of large-format photographs, it is hard not to be caught up in the whirlpool of emotion.

With the recent passing of Chip Hooper, Californiaʼs Pacific 2nd Set takes on new meaning. In his lifelong study of the worldʼs oceans Hooper sought the harmonizing moment where sea and sky become one. Two separate but equally majestic forces are seemingly joined infinitely when light unifies both bodies for one perfect moment. However in Moonlight, Hurricane Point the contemplative merging of sea and sky become the study of a finite moment. It is understood that this union, and really all serendipitous moments, are fleeting; the mirage will diffuse with time given the simple certainty that things change.

The ambiguous melding of the terrestrial with the cosmic become the visual representation of eternity and perhaps, for one man, a metaphor for mortality. The significance of subject matter is also transformed. If Hooper looked to capture what he was feeling, solitary waves in an expansive ocean and isolated rock formations become self-portraits. Perhaps most striking is Evening Clouds, where the moon fearlessly shines out of black night and is carefully cradled over a glassy sea by the exact horizon Hooper was fascinated with capturing. The contemplative response to the works of Chip Hooper is as important to the audience as it was to the artist.

Opposite – Cliffs, Pacific Ocean, 2012

Exhibition runs through to July 1st, 2016

Robert Mann Gallery
525 West 26th Street
2nd Floor
New York
NY 10001

www.robertmann.com

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JABER AL AZMEH – BORDER-LINES

Posted on 2016-05-23

Where his previous series Wounds (2012) tackled the emotional ramifications of the uprising in Syria, and Ba’ath (2014) addressed the lack of freedom speech as the conflict unfolded, Border-lines takes on a more aerial perspective, exploring both the roots of global crisis and its implications.

There is a line that cuts through this latest body of work. Quickly, it becomes apparent that the line is a compositional aspect and curatorial instrument of the exhibition. Upon closer inspection, however, that equatorial line burns at the very partition between dream and reality, conscious and unconscious. In spite of the appearance of calmness and minimalism, there is a screaming silence to these images.

The show launches with an Orwellian feel – a cluster of photographs in barren deserts, all of which speak of consumerist, capitalist cultures and snapshots of global systems that have ostensibly failed. Those images of a gigantic, rusted billboard void of a message; row upon row of identical, seemingly socialist houses empty of emotion; and a chain of frozen buses, together question our contemporary reality.

Opposite – Madness 3, 2015

Exhibition runs through to July 2nd, 2016

Green Art Gallery
Al Quoz 1, Street 8, AlSerkal Avenue, Unit 28
P.O.Box 25711 Dubai
UAE

www.gagallery.com

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