Opening
Saturday, October 20
Artist Present
2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

 

Roberto Pellegrinuzzi writes:

I admire photography for its ability to capture reality and for its capacity to transform it — one need only consider how choice of lens, shutter speed, or depth of field influences the way a picture is created. In this new series of work, which follows upon Éléments pour un Paysage, an exhibition I had at Leo Kamen Gallery in April 2006, I continue to experiment, to observe, and to interrogate the medium, attempting to develop strategies and systems that mimic optical effects.

The pieces in this series should be read both as landscape and still life. Their large scale helps give depth to planar views that decompose the image into layers, while the transparency of the supports, also layered, creates a kind of lens effect. This exposes the viewer to the process and properties of the photographic medium whose “volumetric deployment” allows the viewer to more easily enter the virtual space of the optical.

Opening
In Gallery 2
Saturday, October 20
Artist Present
2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Sarah Stevenson Writes:

The idea of a life force or essence, shared by all living things, has been around since the time of Aristotle, who posited the psyche or soul as that which distinguishes living things from nonliving material. This theory, which came to be known as Vitalism, had an influence on the art of the past century.

“Just as the vital force of the natural world entered inert, inorganic matter to give it life, so the sculptor, reversing the process, approached his materials in such a way as to release or discover the vital force hidden within it, or at least to represent this élan vital”

The resulting forms, curved, seemingly soft, organic in appearance, can be seen in the works of Surrealists like Dali or Miro. In their dreamlike settings, melting and amoebic shapes create a counterpoint to order and rationalism. Karl Blossfeldt and Georgia O’Keefe made images of intricate organic shapes that found their origins in plants, seeds and pods. The blob-like motif was much in evidence in Fifties design, textiles and furniture. The smooth gently curving lines were considered soothing as well as functional since they conformed to the shape of the human body.

Biomorphic forms appeal, even when they don’t serve a direct purpose. They suggest little pieces of us that have detached themselves and become autonomous beings. As such they can be collected, grouped, and observed to see if they will form a kind of dialogue among themselves as they respond to or ignore, attract or repel one another.