TERRY RODGERS – APPROXIMATIONS OF THE SUBLIME

Posted on 2013-06-17

The artist continues to develop an iconography of muscled young men and slender young women, all more-or-less (un)dressed, adopting lascivious poses in a luxurious décor, ostentatious and baroque. Beyond one’s first impression, that of a contemplative voyeur snatching a glance of an orgiastic fest, what then suddenly hits you is the absence of rapport amongst the protagonists, the eerie sense of detachment. The characters seem isolated in their own bubbles, gazes never cross. “My paintings describe imaginary worlds born out of ‘offers’ peddled by the media – luxury, riches, as well as a ‘validated’ version of beauty and desire – but then always with a dose of reality running through it. Just how difficult is it for the participants to get out of themselves and to ‘connect’ with one another?” Each composition is realized starting from individual portraits, portraits of persons crossed in the street and asked by the artist to pose for him.These anonymous figures, who had never previously met, are then brought together at the heart of vast compositions. More rarely, they appear alone, but their attitude always suggests the presence of others outside our view.

In this process, photography plays a preponderant role – the models are photographed before being painted – but Rogers’ approach is decidedly painterly. His technique is perfectly mastered, but has nothing to do with photorealism. It goes right to the essential to better emphasize the play of artificial light on the skin, or to highlight the éclat of a piece of jewellery or a fabric.It is also particularly interesting to see him mutate into a veritable photographer, because these images are fundamental to understanding the thinking that underlies his work. Contrary to his paintings, the photographs have no special set or setting: the models emerge against a black background, plain, and appear as still more fragile and solitary. Beautiful as they may be (and indeed are), the bodies do not have the perfection that the brush provides them. And what is more, they do not benefit from the eternity that painting brings: they again become mortal.

Opposite – Marjin, 2013

Exhibition runs through till July 21st, 2013

Aeroplastics Contemporary
32 rue Blanche
1060 Brussels
Belgium

www.aeroplastics.net

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LIU BOLIN – MASK

Posted on 2013-06-17

In Liu Bolin’s new series, Hiding in California, the artist makes use of his famed process to blend into the background of the iconic Hollywood sign in addition to the pioneering TED stage. Hiding in California No. 1 – TED speaks to the innovative, creative, and groundbreaking minds that take to the TED platform to affect change in the world. It is a representation of the speakers – Liu Bolin himself included – who compile their ideas and their efforts under the TED banner in order to spread their message and craft a better tomorrow.

Hiding in California No. 2 – Hollywood is a representation of the countless individuals who dedicate themselves to the entertainment world that Hollywood has come to symbolize. It also serves as a representation of those who are lost and forgotten in the pursuit of the fame that Hollywood epitomizes. Both of these works speak to an America that is in many ways similar to the themes the artist portrayed in the Hiding in New York series.

In an expansion of his Hiding in New York series, Liu Bolin’s photograph, Hiding in New York No. 6 – Intrepid, is a multifaceted work speaking to both the prevalence of American strength as well as the consequence of military dominance.

Mask is a new body of sculptures that craft a contemporary twist on traditional Peking Opera masks. Peking Opera masks are traditional forms of art that are used to depict heroes, legends, and gods found in Chinese history and culture. They are symbolic reflections of Chinese society and its values. By recreating these masks using the advertising and labeling of popular food and drink products seen throughout China, Liu Bolin addresses the rapidly changing, highly commercialized values of Chinese society. By adding a necessary layer to these works-welding masks – Liu Bolin speaks to the dangers Chinese face in their contemporary society. With constant risk of food and drink contamination, living in China can feel as dangerous as working with molten hot metal. For this reason, the series Mask – an evolution of a traditional art form – is intensely provocative.

Opposite – Hiding in California No. 2 – Hollywood, 2013

Exhibition runs through till July 21st, 2013

Eli Klein Fine Art
462 West Broadway
New York
NY
10012

www.ekfineart.com

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CHLOE SELLS – SENESCENCE

Posted on 2013-06-10

Using the stylized and archetypal format of the still life, the objects within the body of work are symbolic surrogates, coordinates embedded with notations of exploration and movement. Relics of archaic civilizations, organic matter in varying states of decay, elements of the quotidian, the utilitarian, the exotic and the occult constitute the carefully-constructed totems. Without conferring a specific history, the objects summoned together within each image create rather than re-create narratives. Sells’s arrangements become less a document of an actual place, and more an allegory of her relationships to those places.

Each of the works is a unique analogue C-type print, handmade by Sells, using conventional negatives overlaid with colour and patterns in the darkroom, subverting the tradition of the meticulously created tableaux. The darkroom process itself is physical, dynamic and time-consuming, constituting a further mapping of the journey. The artifice created through unusual colour and warped light is used to heighten tension between the familiar and the exotic. Image fragments and oddly cut prints have been sketched and painted upon so that each outcome is unique.

Exhibition runs from June 21st to August 31st, 2013

Michael Hoppen Gallery
3 Jubilee Place
London
SW3 3TD

www.michaelhoppengallery.com

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NORTHERN IRELAND: 30 YEARS OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Posted on 2013-06-10

Northern Ireland: 30 Years of Photography, an ambitious exhibition featuring almost 200 photographs. Since the 1980s Northern Ireland has produced a distinctive body of photographic work by photographers from within and outside Northern Ireland. Many of the photographers to be included in the exhibition have established global reputations, but have not previously been considered in any sustained way as group of photographers interacting with each other’s work. The exhibition focuses on the growth of new, fine-art documentary practices, more often produced for the gallery space and the photo-book rather than for a press or media context.

Taking a historical and thematic approach, Northern Ireland: 30 Years of Photography begins with the media imagery of the Troubles that compelled photographers and artists to intervene in the flow of press photography that dominated a global, visual portrayal of Northern Ireland in the 1970s. From this response, and influenced by wider, international trends in contemporary photography, an engaged and often polemic aesthetic emerged, individual to each photographer but also shared across diverse photographic practices. With the Peace Process in the 1990s a new dynamic entered the scene which required photographers to think about the social and political past and future of Northern Ireland, and which also offered new opportunities for exhibiting and publishing work.

Opposite – Victor Sloan, Belfast Zoo III, 1983

Exhibition runs through till July 7th, 2013

Belfast Exposed
The Exchange Place
23 Donegall Street
Belfast
BT1 2FF

www.belfastexposed.org

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UNDER MY SKIN – NUDES IN CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY

Posted on 2013-06-10

Mona Kuhn curates a group exhibition titled “Under My Skin” exploring the role of the nude in contemporary photography. Artists include Adou, Jeff Bark, David Dawson, Maciek Jasik, Nadav Kander, Malerie Marder, Geir Moseid, Mariah Robertson, Alec Soth, Bill Sullivan, Spencer Tunick and Shen Wei.

Opposite – Alec Soth, Las Vegas, 2011

Exhibition runs from June 20th to July 27th, 2013

Flowers
529 West 20th Street
New York
NY
10011

www.flowersgallery.com

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NYC, c. 1985

Posted on 2013-06-03

NYC, c. 1985, is a group exhibition including artworks by Armand Agresti, Amy Arbus, Janette Beckman, Larry Clark, Janet Delaney, Andrew Garn, Nan Goldin, Arlene Gottfried, Keizo Kitajima, Catherine McGann, Jeannette Montgomery Barron, Mark Morrisroe, Christine Osinski, Gunar Roze, Les Simpson, Gail Thacker, and Brian Young.

Through a wide range of photographic images by both established and less-familiar artists, the exhibition represents a major metropolis in transition. Compared to the 1970s, a restrained optimism prevailed to a certain extent in New York City over the next decade with the Wall Street boom and a general decline in unemployment. However, such appalling blights as homelessness, violent crime, and racial tensions – not to mention the explosion of the AIDS epidemic, all served to shred the very social fabric of the city.

The exhibition includes work that depicts both the high and the low in terms of culture, from Jeannette Montgomary Barron’s portraits of many now-canonized visual artists (including Andy Warhol and Cindy Sherman) and social luminaries (such as Bianca Jagger) to Les Simpson’s blithe snapshots of club kids and drag queens.

Many of the images in the show highlight the burgeoning punk and later new wave and Hip Hop music scenes with portraits of Madonna and The Clash by Amy Arbus, and Run DMC by Janette Beckman.

The range of fashions of the era are well documented by Gunar Roze’s portraits of people on the streets and Keizo Kitajima’s gritty shots of downtown nightlife.

Exhibition runs through till July 3rd, 2013

ClampArt
531 W 25th St
New York
NY
10001
USA

clampart.com

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